How Jacquel Curry’s roots inspired his work with The Walls Project

Growing up, Jacquel Curry was out in his family garden before sunrise each day. He didn’t exactly love it, but the work planted the seeds for his future.

“[There were] trees, different herbs, vegetables, tomatoes, you name it. … I hated it as a kid,” Curry says today.

So he took a different path. Curry graduated from Southern University with a degree in electrical engineering and took a few contracting jobs before the pandemic. Afterward, he started volunteering with The Walls Project, a nonprofit that works to disrupt poverty in Louisiana, Texas and Colorado. He’s been part of almost every program overseen by the organization since, and he even met his wife, Ashli Curry, through its initiatives.

Curry surprisingly found himself gravitating toward The Walls Project’s Baton Roots program, a network of community farms and gardens that provide access to fresh food. Soon, he was hired as its mobile farm manager.

“I had a huge passion for it,” Curry says. “I never thought I’d be doing it again.”

Today, Curry manages 11 community gardens around the parish. Most days, he starts at 6 a.m. to beat the thick Louisiana heat. He harvests, fertilizes, and performs pest control and maintenance work.

In the summers, he and his team grow cucumbers, tomatoes, okra and squash. This time of year, they focus on mustard greens, kale and turnips. Each site’s produce goes into a community fridge or straight into the hands of residents.

Still, the work isn’t exactly what he remembers from childhood. For one, Curry’s dad grew by the moon phases. Baton Roots leans more on the calendar system, which Curry says is more efficient when managing multiple sites.

Curry also had to relearn that a “black thumb” is not the end of your career as a grower. In fact, he says, “green thumbs” are just retired black ones.

“The only way you can learn is by getting your hands dirty, doing trial and error,” Curry says. “Don’t despise small beginnings.”

That’s Curry’s hope for Baton Roots as well. Right now, he’s rolling out programs that encourage more people to get out in the garden and give farming a shot.

Because it isn’t just about how much Baton Roots can do, he says. It’s also about giving others the tools to do it themselves.

This article was originally published in the October 2025 issue of 225 Magazine.