Staff

Donna Cavato, Program Director

Donna has 15 years experience in successful program development and project management. This includes the development and implementation of Sow & Grow: A Schoolyard Gardening Program in the New Orleans Public Schools, and the Kids’ Café Teaching Garden. In addition, she has worked on multiple entrepreneurial projects, including developing garden-based business ventures such as the St. Thomas 7-Pepper Hot Sauce project. Prior to her non-profit experience, she worked as a professional cook and caterer. She holds a master’s degree in urban planning and public policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Donna is thrilled to be leading the development of The Edible Schoolyard at Green Charter School as it provides a way to share her lifelong passions of gardening, cooking and eating with the next generation of New Orleanians.

April Neujean, Chef Teacher / Food & Nutrition Coordinator

 Chef April is a lover of all things food and entertainment related.  She is a graduate of the Natural Gourmet Institute of Food and Culinary Arts’ Chef Training Program.  There she learned an appreciation for finding the finest ingredients in season from local, sustainable sources.  April first visited New Orleans as an inaugural member of CulinaryCorps, a service organization for culinary professionals devoted to addressing communities’ critical food challenges.  It was on that trip that April first visited Edible Schoolyard NOLA at Green Charter School.  A day with ESY proved life-changing and a one-time visit quickly became a permanent move.  Since joining Edible Schoolyard NOLA April has had the pleasure of building the kitchen programming from the ground up, writing all of the kitchen lesson plans and recipes, creating special events and off-site experiences, leading classes, and even helping to design the teaching kitchen and renovated cafeteria spaces.  As the Food and Nutrition Services Coordinator for FirstLine Schools Inc., she is also working to change the way that kids are fed in schools by eliminating canned and processed foods, adding more whole grains, salad bars, and fresh, local ingredients as well as creating a dining culture with fresh flowers, real dishes and silverware, and a place where learning table manners goes hand in hand with learning the A, B, C’s.  Chef April’s work has been featured in The Gambit, the Times-Picayune, Louisiana Cookin’ Magazine and Good Housekeeping Magazine as well as on Emeril Green.  She is proud to say that she has the best job on the planet where kids make her feel like a celebrity chef and throwing a dinner party for 30 four times a day is all in a day’s work!

Denise Richter, Garden Teacher

Denise comes to us by way of Fairbanks, Alaska where she had been leading a group of native Alaskan youths in two school gardens through Calypso Farm's Employing Alaskan Teens in Gardening program. She is a graduate of the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University with a concentration in environmental studies, urban studies and community learning. Denise strongly believes that local and accessible food systems and agricultural literacy and self-provision contribute to a healthier, more empowered community.

Aaron Ciuffo, Garden Teacher

Dana Blanton, Garden Assistant

Ashley Millet, Assistant Chef

Katie Bingham, Extended Day Teacher

Kelly Regan, Community and Volunteer Coordinator