Koch family foundations and philanthropy are grounded in the belief that free societies are the greatest generators of social progress, sustainable prosperity and well-being.

The Gulf Coast Recovery Project has uncovered the vital role that entrepreneurs play on many levels in disaster recovery. Entrepreneurs like Rhonda DeForest, the owner of Flour Power Bakery in Chalmette, Louisiana, were quick to adapt and change their businesses to provide some of their communities’ basic needs. The return of small, local businesses—like Flour Power—sent valuable signals to residents that rebuilding was happening and a return to ‘normal’ was possible even in the face of total devastation.

Flooding devastated Chalmette and nearly every structure was damaged or destroyed. Prior to the storm Flour Power sold bakery items such as pastries and wedding cakes. When they reopened in February of 2006 they noticed that their clientele had different needs, "obviously there wasn’t a big need for three-dimensional groom’s cakes. There was a need for food, so we were basically throwing down on the hearty meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Also, there was no other place to eat and sit down. Everything was in Styrofoam containers to go, or it was the Red Cross coming around delivering in the trucks."

DeForest talks about how their business model changed to meet the needs of her community, "So we kind of offered out whatever people wanted at the time. If they would come in and say, ‘You know, I haven’t had a good stewed chicken,’ well, we’ll cook it tomorrow. So we kind of just threw it out there and took whatever people wanted at the time or needed at the time. It wasn’t until November of ’06 that we took our first wedding cake (order) after the storm, and that was very exciting."

Her home and business devastated by Katrina, Rhonda, her husband and two children had been living in North Louisiana with her husband’s family. They returned to Chalmette in October (of ’05) for their daughter’s best friend’s birthday and decided to stay to attend the opening of their post-storm school, the St. Bernard Parish Unified School.

"When we walked in there," Rhonda explained, "We knew we had to come back…Just the vibe coming from what was going on… That was definitely the catalyst." We said, "We need to be here…it was important to bring our kids back to see that we could be part of the process…"

Living in a trailer while working on their home, Rhonda, her husband and her father-in-law gutted their ruined business. "I don’t even like to think about it because it was vile," she recalls. "There was no place to get food or gas or anything…Emergency Communities fed us…They were so caring and wanted so desperately to help in any way they could." (When we opened the business) "…we were fortunate that we did not have a lot of water in front, so everything was the same: same tables, same draperies, everything looked exactly the same. We had a lot of people come in and say, if you’d just close the curtains, I can pretend like the whole thing never happened…"

In terms of the role of small business in rebuilding a community, Rhonda says, "people need haircuts, people need groceries…gas stations, convenience stores, all the little things…It brings you back to some sense of normalcy. It gets really emotionally draining to live in a place where there is nothing." "…So if you can just go across the street or two blocks over and pick up a bouquet of flowers to brighten up your day…It’s not absolutely essential to living, but if you want people to come back to what it was before –you have to replicate what was here before…Without those small business you don’t have what was here before."

Back to top