Bellegarde to Temporarily Close July 25 - A letter from Graison Gill

Dear Friends,

July 25, 2020 will be Bellegarde’s last day of business for the time being. The financial and emotional toll of COVID-19 has made it impossible to bake bread and mill flour. We have been losing money since March 15, and there is simply no more left to lose. This combined with the hostile business environment of New Orleans, articulated perfectly in by Chef Eric Cook has only made things worse.

The integrity and persistence of Black Lives Matter has made America aware that what we need now is not just a makeover - our country and our city need an organ transplant. We must structurally and systemically transform how we live. I am unsure how long New Orleans can continue to pump blood if it willfully ignores its own heart: the people who can’t work from home. The people who make our music, serve our drinks, build our homes, paint our murals, teach our children, bake our bread, the New Orleanians who make New Orleans are at risk of extinction because brutal social and economic policies have made it unbearable to live here. And now, to make the brutal more ruthless, the people who build the wealth of this city are being evicted from their homes.

Recently, the city gave an $18 million contract to a corporate foods company based in Oakland, CA to feed our residents. This is yet another example of New Orleans exploiting its resources for people from away. Tax credits and tax breaks for landlords, real estate developers, the film industry, international oil companies, private prison firms, and now corporate food companies—but no tax incentives for the people who make New Orleans the most incredible city in the country. The locals are drowning, but the corporations are buoyant. Panera Bread is still open, but Bellegarde Bakery has to close. Starbucks is still open, but Who Dat Coffee is closed. Marjie’s is closed, but McDonald’s is open.

We need a vaccine for COVID-19. But more importantly, we need a vaccine for how we are living. My hope is that this vaccine will not only protect us from viruses, but that it will repair the diseases which cause them: climate change, mass incarceration, systemic racism, saltwater intrusion, unhealthy foods, state violence, corporate welfare, and exploitative economic systems. As a food producer, I’m acutely aware that the food we eat in New Orleans is making our vulnerable populations even more vulnerable to COVID-19. One of the City’s priorities should be establishing a food policy council to ensure that no one is being disenfranchised from accessing healthy, organic food. This is not just healthy economic sense, but healthy ecological sense as well; value should be kept where it’s produced. It’s a shame that there are huge profits in keeping people sick, and for this reason we have to admit the damage poor public health has caused New Orleans. COVID-19, in many ways, is an indictment of our American diet.

There comes a time when you have to admit to yourself that the game is not fair. Now is that moment. Not even my privilege as a middle-aged white male has kept me immune from thtis new reality. If we don’t recognize that we’re in this together, we’ll certainly succumb alone. Although I hope this is a temporary closure for Bellegarde (and many other New Orleans restaurants), I hope to take this opportunity to create permanent change in myself and the world around me. If we want to preserve the culture and cuisine of New Orleans, we will have to nurture its roots. We can’t just applaud its flowers, leave them a tip, and melt back into the emotional suburbs. We can do that by supporting the unbelievable work of the Independent Restaurant Coalition (please sign all their petitions nows), BLM, the National Restaurant Association, Grow Dat Youth Farm, Liberty's Kitchen New Orleans, and so many other incredible organizations. We need to register to vote, encourage others to do so, and shop locally from places that source locally. Spending money locally is one thing; keeping that money local is another.

Until we have the courage to address—from a systemic vantage point—the diseases and not the symptoms, we continue to swallow vitamins, not vaccines. This is what the PPP was, the LPGP, and the EIDL: vitamins, bitter ones. I’m not a politician, or an expert. I’m just a baker whose purpose in life was an experiment—my quiet passion has always been witnessing and acknowledging how connected we are to each other and to the earth. I love this symbiosis and how, if we’re willing, vulnerability can reveal the subtle bridges between our hearts and nature. Nowhere is this more apparent than in New Orleans, one of the most gorgeous places in the world. These words are, just like Bellegarde, my clumsy desire to connect the dots and point out our local constellations. Everything is connected no matter how hard we try to deny it.

Lastly, I am aware I wouldn’t be anything if it weren’t for the people who supported my crazy dream of a bakery eleven years ago. Thank you to our customers, families, farmers and especially our staff—who gave the dream of Bellegarde a place to live. For now, I hope, I just gotta give it a nap.

- Graison Gill