Fleur de Lis Brings Local Ingredients to New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
US Army veteran and New Orleans native Hector Laines is passionate about savory food and sustainability and just one of many community members working behind the scenes to make New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival a success.
US Army veteran and New Orleans native Hector Laines is passionate about savory food and sustainability and just one of many community members working behind the scenes to make New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival a success.
Laines owns and runs Fleur de Lis Catering, a Green Restaurant Association 3-star certified business that Shell has partnered with at Jazz Fest for 19 years. Fleur de Lis brought in 60 employees over the two-weekend span of Jazz Fest to serve 20,000 meals.
Fleur de Lis efforts in sustainability are part of a broader Shell and Jazz Fest program to keep waste out of landfills while simultaneously cutting carbon dioxide emissions.
Benefits of the program extend beyond the festival into the broader community. For example, Shell contributes the fair market value of materials recycled at Jazz Fest to local non-profits efforts that help improve water quality in southeast Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico. While more than 21,000 pounds of reclaimed cooking oil was converted to fuel for shrimping boats.
Jazz Fest Earns Evergreen Certification for Sustainability and Community Impact
Jazz Fest is the largest cultural festival to ever achieve Evergreen certification from the Council for Responsible Sport.
Since 2022, Shell and the Jazz Fest team have worked together to enhance a broad range of sustainability and community impact goals, incorporating these principles into daily operations that monitor and seek to minimize the Festival’s environmental footprint.
The achievement of Evergreen certification recognizes these activities were assessed in adherence to the independent Council’s rigorous certification standards and verified by several environmental and social indicators.
Read more here.
Jazz Fest runs deep in Laines’ DNA. He remembers riding his bike to the festival as a kid when it was a much smaller. “It used to be really all locals,” Laines said. “I remember when I was coming here in 1986 riding my bicycle…it wasn’t the draw that it is now.”
He especially appreciates how the festival has grown and its impact on New Orleans. “It’s a huge economic boost for the city, there is a lot of people coming from far and away to see the talent.”
Fleur de Lis puts family, their employees, and the environment first.
“I’ve got families that work with me, where their kids that our 16 or 17 years old just learning how to work,” Laines said. “We love them because they come as a family, they work together, and show their kids what an honest day’s work is.”
“The staff really looks forward to it because they work 11-to-12-hour days for eight days that gives them a pretty good paycheck ahead of the summer,” Laines added.
Laines is also proud that Fleur de Lis sources almost all ingredients within 100 miles of New Orleans and that it’s a Green Certified caterer.
The company only use compostable paper and utensils and ensures almost all the leftover food is composted or donated in New Orleans.
“For us, it’s a great way to do our part in sustainability when it’s one of the hardest things you can do as a caterer,” Laines said.
Fleur de Lis is just one of multiple local and or diverse suppliers that power Shell’s hospitality program at Jazz Fest. Others include:
- Limousine Livery
- NOCCI
- Hotard Coaches Inc.
- Urban Earth Studios
- Tapestry Linens
- Greenfingers
- True Value Rental
- Evolving Productions
- Uptown Graphics
- New Orleans Police Department
