DONALDSONVILLE — The River Road African American Museum hosted a Community Fall Fest on Saturday afternoon to feed its residents, but also to bring light to their community garden.

The Freedom Garden at the Museum has been in the works for more than 15 years, helping to address food insecurity.

To help continue feeding the Donaldsonville community during the government shutdown, the museum handed out free boxes of produce to reduce and provided health screenings and resources to families during the fall fest.

Building on these efforts, AETNA Better Health of Louisiana presented a $15,000 check at the event to help revitalize the museum's garden and outdoor kitchen area.

Nikesha Rodrigue, Lead Director of Marketing and Community Development for AETNA Better Health of Louisiana, explained that this check symbolizes the ongoing partnership with the museum to help create a long-term solution to food insecurity.

“Our main goal is making sure we’re addressing barriers and we’re meeting the needs of the people exactly where they are,” said Rodrigue.

Museum Co-Founder and Executive Director, Darryl Hambrick, said the garden serves not only to nourish the community but also to feed the mind.

“You don’t know what that does to a kid’s mind to plant something and see it grow,” Hambrick said. “We use our garden process to educate our kids about biology, the science of growing plants.”

Founder of Rap and Roux Culinary Collection, Mark Alsay Jr., is teaming up with the museum, helping to teach others how to cook what they grow.

“I think focusing on fundamental aspects like food and nutrition is the way to return us to the ancestral knowledge that we have as a way to sustain ourselves before we get sick," Alsay Jr. said. "In order to move health upstream instead of being a reactionary partner and reactionary participant."

The museum says they're looking forward to growing their garden and outdoor kitchen with the help of their new partner AETNA.