Celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse says he’s more concerned than ever about Gulf Coast children and hopes the more than $500,000 in grants he’s committing for culinary education and summer camp programs will help to enrich lives tattered since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.”These kids are the future. They’re the future of New Orleans,” said Lagasse, after announcing the grants at one of his two New Orleans restaurants.Among other things, the grants will help create a four-year culinary arts program at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, build edible gardens at two other New Orleans area schools and provide summer programs and field trips for children living in federally-issued trailers.”There’s a lot of children who have nothing to do, no resources,” said Mark Weiner, executive director of Emergency Communities, one of the grant recipients. “Children are so creative, and they need an outlet.”Lagasse said it’s important that children who have experienced so much loss have access to culturally rich programs focused on food, music and the arts - to benefit their educational and emotional well-being, he said.”We have to get them active,” Lagasse said. “We have to get them playing sports. We have to get them cooking.”In Gulfport, Miss., where Lagasse will be opening a restaurant later this year, a community park is getting a grant to replace kitchen appliances and cabinetry damaged during Hurricane Katrina.Organizations and programs Lagasse has supported in the past will also be receiving grants. Among them the Contemporary Arts Center, St. Michael Special School and 6th Baptist Church.Since Katrina, the Emeril Lagasse Foundation has granted more than $1 million to organizations in storm-ravaged areas.Among the first was a $250,000 grant for a learning center at Cafe Reconcile, a nonprofit youth organization that helps get kids off the streets and into the hospitality industry by giving them jobs and training.”The most important thing is the lives he’s touching,” said New Orleans Saints running back Deuce McAllister, a Mississippi native who was present for Lagasse’s distribution of the grants Wednesday.Lagasse, though famous for his New Orleans cuisine, is actually from Massachusetts. He studied classic French cuisine in Paris and Lyon and worked at restaurants in New York, Boston and Philadelphia before coming to New Orleans, where he was executive chef at Commander’s Palace.His television personality on the Food Channel made him a household name.Today, he has nine restaurants: three in New Orleans, two in Las Vegas, two in Orlando, Fla., one in Atlanta and one in Miami. His 10th restaurant, Emeril’s New Orleans Fish House on the Gulf Coast, is slated to open this summer.By STACEY PLAISANCEAssociated Press Writer

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