Jefferson Parish Pulse: Dat Desk

This week on the Jefferson Parish Pulse, we feature an interview with Holis Hannan, owner of Floor 13 and founder of Dat Desk. Floor 13, a local furniture store, had only just opened in Jefferson Parish when – a few weeks later – COVID-19 struck the Greater New Orleans area. It was this new challenge, one of many that Holis and her team had faced over the years – that eventually sparked the idea for Dat Desk, a local initiative to donate beautiful, hand-painted desks to children in the Greater New Orleans area as they worked from home, a way to help students carve out their own spaces during this difficult time and beyond. The first round of recipients for this program were all students out of the Jefferson Parish Public School System, but Holis plans to work with school systems in other parishes as well.

The Dat Desk NOLA Project was designed to help students in need (students who qualify for the National School Lunch Program). Their teachers nominate them. If chosen, students get to pick out a customized desk that matches their interests and personalities. Holis talks at great length about how the program works and how she’d like to see it grow beyond the pandemic.

On this episode, we talked with Holis about overcoming hardship and the resilience of the Greater New Orleans community, the joy and healing of giving back, and how one small idea can snowball into something much bigger

If you want to to get engaged with the Dat Desk NOLA Project, visit this website or this Facebook Group. You can also reach out to floor13@yahoo.com.

Feel free to listen to the full interview below (or you can click here). You can also hear us anywhere you listen to your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. We would LOVE your feedback. Please send your thoughts, questions and show requests to Kelsey Scram at kscram@jedco.org.