Green is a former defensive lineman for the New England Patriots, where he played from 2002 -2009 and has two Super Bowl rings to show for it! But more recently, he's become an advocate for sustainability and traceability in the seafood supply through his work as VP of sales and marketing for the New Orleans Shrimp House. The company's shrimp is wild-caught in the Gulf of Mexico by members of a fishermen's co-op with boats in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
The New Orleans Shrimp House sources its shrimp from members of the Vietnamese American Commercial Fisherman’s Union Co-op. Vietnamese shrimpers make up a good part of the Gulf shrimping industry, says Green. To support these fishermen, Green's company established an incentive program that pays the fishermen back 5% of their net sales of shrimp that go into the company's specialty shrimp products. The co-op fishermen must also adhere to in-house sustainability guidelines, Green says.
"I never thought I'd be doing food," after ending his career with the Patriots, says Green, who studied construction engineering at LSU before playing football professionally. Green grew up in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, in a house where "you wake up, you're in the kitchen." His mother, grandmother, sisters and aunts all cooked - food and cooking are in his roots, he says.
Besides his work building business for the New Orleans Shrimp House, Green participates in a number of service projects related to food, including Reaching Out and Cooking with Kids (ROCKs), a new initiative aimed at working with schools to teach kids the confidence, motivation, and self-esteem that comes with knowing how to choose and cook healthy food.
Green will bring his love of food and hospitality to our Rock the Boat event at the Armory in Somerville on November 7th. He'll be there with shrimp from the New Orleans Shrimp House - we hope you'll come out, meet Jarvis, and rock the boat with us! (tickets here)
