In the wake of Hurricane Ida, Feed the Second Line is, once again, stepping up to help those most in need in our community.

The latest initiative is Stay Lit, a collaboration between Feed the Second Line and Glass Half Full NOLA. The project’s goal is to crowd-fund an installation of solar panels and batteries to neighborhood restaurants in New Orleans. 

The idea is to create a decentralized network of solar-powered resilient restaurants called “Stay Lits.” When a power outage is caused by a hurricane or other event, a Stay Lit restaurant will be able to keep its freezers, ice machines, and refrigerators running. Stay Lit restaurants can become the first responders for the community. They will provide meals, cooling stations, ice, and charging stations while fighting food waste.

The goal of the project is to create Stay Lits in the hardest-hit areas of the city where people are least likely to be able to evacuate a potential storm due to financial hardships. As the initiative explains, because people in these areas aren’t able to evacuate and can’t afford generators, they will be the first in need of assistance during a disaster.

The plan is to provide a 40K solar panel and two Tesla solar batteries to power a restaurant. That way, the restaurant will be up and running and able to cook for those in need. The organization’s goal is to raise $60,000 for the installations, which will help restaurants save hundreds of dollars in lost food costs. 

As Feed the Secondline’s website describes, “Those savings can go towards helping create more and more resilient hurricane-ready restaurants around the Gulf South and East Coast—fighting food waste, human suffering, and climate change. Food waste = releases methane, and monthly energy savings can create built-in funding streams.”

To learn more about the Stay Lit project and donate, go here.