Join us for the 2nd Annual Foodapalooza, a special event celebrating Central Louisiana’s local food and farms! The event features a variety of learning and resource sharing opportunities, including a special keynote presentation by representatives from the Indian Springs Farmers Association, a nationally renowned farmers cooperative with three-dozen members in Southern Mississippi. The co-op owns a $500,000 packing facility that enables them to box, market, and truck their produce to wholesale and retail buyers throughout North America.

The daylong event is free of charge. Foodapalooza begins with a morning Local Foods Summit, featuring presentations and skill-building workshops. Workshop topics are:

• How to Increase Your Profits at the Farmers Market
• How to Grow Your Farmers Market
• Building Bridges Between Divergent Groups of Citizens and Organizations: Strategies for Building Stronger Community-Based Foods Economies
• How to Identify and Best Fund Your Local Foods Project Into the Future
• Building a Container Garden
• Fresh is Best!: A Nutritional Look at the Health Benefits of Fresh Foods
• How Farmers Can Join Forces And Become More Profitable

Following the Local Foods Summit, Foodapalooza will feature locally-sourced menus at many of our region’s restaurants and afternoon local foods and farm activities. Click on the individual Foodapalooza activities above, including the Local Foods Summit, to register for free for whichever part of the event you’d like to be a part of. We hope that you can join us all day on the 21st!

For more information on the venues participating in the tour and the Local Foods Summit schedule, visit the Central Louisiana Local Foods Initiative facebook page: www.facebook.com/cenlalocalfoods. If you have more questions, please call 318-441-3424 or email jdean@cenla.org.

Foodapalooza is part of the Central Louisiana Local Foods Initiative, which is funded by a Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation Challenge Grant and The Rapides Foundation. The initiative aims to strengthen Central Louisiana’s local foods economy, while also increasing access to fresh foods for all the region’s residents