Pots of Beans & Other Soulful Things in New Orleans, LA

There are red beans you buy at a hot bar and then there’s the red beans recipe that’s been passed down a generation or two. One is just food; the other, nostalgia, soul and deep connections. That’s the difference between some folks you might meet in New Orleans and natives, Joseph and Terre Moran. The couple finishes one another’s thoughts when talking about life after Hurricane Katrina, as would most couples that have a long history together. But theirs is done with such animation and the unique American conflagration of all things jubilant, French, African, voodoo and Catholic, it’s easy to forget sometimes they’re discussing some of the darkest moments in their lives.

“We stayed at the Radisson, until evacuation,” Terre says, where she worked as a housekeeping supervisor. They didn’t have much with them at the hotel but the pot of red beans that had been cooked for Joseph’s birthday so they could still have the party. After only a few days, they had to move. “We went to the airport, then in a van to New Iberia.” That wasn’t it. They went to Cameron next but a second hurricane, Rita, met them there. They evacuated again to Minden, La. There were visits back home in between that made Joseph’s homesickness grow. The first was for Mardi Gras in February of 2006. They’d longed for the ostentation, irreverence and beads, and found, instead, no celebration. But they did see the apartment building where they once lived, and were reunited with the landlord who’d been looking for them but had no way of contacting them.

“Everything was gone. Everything. I don’t like to think about that, Terre says reflectively. It wasn’t until November 2, 2012, more than seven years after evacuating their home, but just in time for Thanksgiving and another big pot of beans, that the Morans moved into their own home in New Orleans. To pass the time at the rec center in Minden, Terre did research online. She’d applied for a Section 8 voucher and been approved, and ended up talking with Audrey Williams who works as

It wasn’t until November 2, 2012, more than seven years after evacuating their home, but just in time for Thanksgiving and another big pot of beans, that the Morans moved into their own home in New Orleans. To pass the time at the rec center in Minden, Terre did research online. She’d applied for a Section 8 voucher and been approved, and ended up talking with Audrey Williams who worked as a  lead case manager with The Housing Authority of New Orleans, a partner of HOPE’s. “Ms. Audrey was nice. She asked us [if we were] tired of paying rent.” Terre says they were. Rent in the apartment they’d found when they moved back to the city went from $550 per month before the storm, to about $900 after. Audrey referred the couple to HOPE. HOPE helped the Moran’s through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, a partnership with the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency and HOPE to build 12 homes in the area. The Morans got one of the houses.

Through it all, tears and HOPE, the Morans have a new home, neighbors they speak warmly about and a front porch they can sit on and watch new developments grow.