Our Operation

Since the fall of 2018, the NOLA Grannies have met buses daily at the Union Station Terminal in New Orleans, Louisiana. Each morning and evening, between two and four volunteers provide ‘care kits’ and assistance to immigrants who spend up to an hour in the station while they wait to reboard their buses and head to their sponsors across the eastern region of the United States.

For each shift there is a greeter who picks up supplies from our storage unit, brings them into the station, and organizes the shift. Union Station in New Orleans is a lovely city-owned facility that is quite large and houses two bus lines and Amtrak. As immigrant travelers come into the station they are directed by the greeters, who hold signs in various languages, to the corner of the station where there are other Grannies who provide help and free supplies. While most immigrant travelers do accept our help, our NOLA Grannies respect asylum seekers when they decline our assistance. We know that for many of the people we serve, this may be the first time in many months that they have been able to have a say in what they want and don’t want to happen. Commonly, because the tickets are in English which may not be a travelers' language, the NOLA Grannies will decipher and explain the information on the ticket. We distribute maps so that travelers know what cities to change buses in, and how far away they will travel to their final destinations. After saying goodbye to the travelers we have served at Union Station, we alert volunteer groups at other bus stations across the country in this “Overground Railway” to let them know that they will be meeting the asylum seekers we have served in New Orleans. We pass along any special needs the folks we have assisted in New Orleans might have as they travel onward.

Our care kits don’t just magically appear at the storage unit. There is a cadre of NOLA Granny volunteers (SHOPPERS) who purchase supplies in bulk and cart them to out storage unit. Once a week Grannies (PACKERS) meet for about an hour and a half and put together the hundreds of care kits we distribute at the bus station . When the lead greeters pick up supplies for their shifts, everything is well-organized. In addition to the packaged care kits, there are shelves in the storage unit with diapers, blankets, boxes of toys, pallets of water, feminine hygiene products, and other necessities that are collected and taken to the station to offer to the immigrant travelers.