Tag: Red Stick Farmers Market

Baton Rogue’s Red Stick Farmers Market Celebrates 26 Years of Growth

Recently, Lauren Cheramie, a nola.com staff writer interviewed Darlene Adams Rowland, the executive director of Big River Economic and Agricultural Development Alliance (BREADA), which oversees numerous locations of Baton Rogue’s Red Stick Farmers Market. The interview gave insight into how this farmers market grew from its origins as an LSU thesis project into much more.

BREADA, the nonprofit organization of which Darlene Adams Rowland is the executive director, works to connect itslocal community to fresh, healthy food and to create more economic opportunities for small family farmers in Louisiana. The Red Stick Farmers Market, which now has four locations that are overseen by Rowlands, originally began as the thesis project of an LSU architecture student named Chris Pampany, under professor Suzanne Turner’sdirection. The first market was then held in November of 1996 in the Government building parking lot in downtown Baton Rouge, and it was officially recognized as a 501© 3 non-profit organization that same year.

Rowlands sees BREADA as “more than just a farmer’s market,” especially since the popularity of farmers markets has risen across the country in the 26 years since the Red Stick Farmers Market’s original conception. Farmers markets not only allow for food distribution and commerce, but for many areas of the country, they stand as a tenet of community gathering.

Rowlands stated the nonprofit’s mission by saying, “we look at our mission as sort of three-pronged. First, supporting and sustaining small family farmers. Second, connecting the community with fresh, healthy food. Third, creating community and a space for people to connect and be together. We saw that was so important right after Hurricane Ida, and of course after the pandemic.”

One of the largest events in BREADA’s growth was the establishment of the Louisiana Small Farm Survival Fund at the Baton Rouge Area Foundation in 2005. This fund, which has since given approximately $400,000 in direct grants to small farmers since its 2005 conception, was designed to assist small farmers after any type of natural disaster or weather-related event. This is obviously needed in south Louisiana when devastating hurricanes continually threaten farm infrastructure and crops, so when this happens BREADA’s fund is able to be distributed to get farmers back on their feet.

Another milestone in BREADA’s history is its ability to accept the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program at all of its farmers market locations. Additionally, they are able to double all transactions for low-income families that use SNAP thanks to, according to Rowland, “a successful campaign with the legislature to fund that on a statewide level so that every farmers market in Louisiana will have access to match and double those transactions.”

Rowland is a member of the LSU Agriculture Leadership Class’s Class XVII, and she regularly meets with state and national agricultural leaders in order to address issues facing Louisiana farmers. For over a decade, she has also been a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and has even served on their board of directors as secretary, vice president of communications, and governmental relations chair.

Additionally, Rowland is also an accomplished writer, as she is a contributor to Country Roads Magazine, where she curates compelling stories that highlight local foodways and travel. Furthermore, she is the recipient of the 2022 John W. Barton Sr. Excellence in Nonprofit Management Rising Star Award.

When asked about what plans BREADA has for Baton Rouge farmers markets in 2023, Rowlands said, “we’ll be starting the renovation of Main Street Market. A lot of people don’t realize that BREADA also manages the brick-and-mortar facility downtown, Monday through Saturday, six days a week. The state will be embarking on a renovation of that facility sometime in 2023, so that will be exciting. We’re also moving into advocacy so that we can look out for those smaller markets that are just starting like BREADA 26 years ago. We consider ourselves a mentor to other small markets throughout the state.”

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New Executive Director has Big Plans for Red Stick Farmers Market

Residents of Baton Rouge are well aware of the regularly-available, locally-grown produce made available on a weekly basis at the Red Stick Farmers Market in downtown Baton Rouge on Saturday mornings, but according to a profile by The Advocate, new leadership will soon bridge the gap between the farmers offering their produce and wares and the customers who purchase them.

Nearly each and every Saturday morning, the Red Stick Farmers Market conducts its regular business officially at 8 a.m, though the preparation of the over fifty farmers and staff members of the Big River Economic and Agricultural Development Alliance, the organization known for operating the market, have been hard at work.

Starting in 2021, a new chapter begins with the appointment of Darlene Adams Rowland taking over as the alliance’s new executive director, replacing Copper Alvarez, who is retiring after 19 years in the position. Pardon the pun, but Rowland is no spring chicken in that she has been serving the organization for the past 13 years as the alliance’s development director and marketing consultant.

Complacency isn’t at the forefront of her new posting, as the executive director of the farmers market plans to make the stories of the hardworking local farmers responsible for supplying their produce stands week-to-week more readily known by the public. She told The Advocate, “ I would really love to be able to connect the people more closely with the farmers,” said Rowland, who would like to start a campaign enlisting local bloggers and writers to show “who these farmers are, what they grow and how they got there.”

Rowland made the important distinction that she believes that the members of the public who regularly visit the Farmer’s Market, which conducts its business on Saturdays at the downtown location as well as on Tuesdays at the East Baton Rouge Parish Main Library, because without community support, there would fundamentally be no farmer’s market to visit.

The Big River Economic and Agricultural Development Alliance is a nonprofit organization, thus not gaining any support from the government or other private sector organizations. This classification makes community efforts, notoriety, and support that much more essential to its survival, for without a farmer’s market, not only would customers be without locally-grown produce, but the demise of local growers, depending on the trusted venue for commerce, would be imminent.

Before becoming an active member of the Alliance, when Darlene Adams Rowland was a community member shopping at the market, she hadn’t considered the stakes of community involvement in the survival of the market itself, remarking that while attending and enjoying the availability and access of the market, she didn’t realize how much preparation and work went into its success.

In addition to three weekly farmers markets, the alliance occasionally funds a mobile farmer’s market, serving neighborhoods with limited access to fresh food and operates the Main Street Market, an indoor collection of locally owned restaurants and specialty shops as well as teaches children about healthy lifestyles through Sprouts, it’s kids club. 2021 is set to be a banner year for the alliance not only in its new leadership, but in light of the COVID impact and the realization of just how vital the farmers market ecosystem is to the local food system at large.

Rowlands said of the future of the alliance, “I think the more diverse products we have at the market the better because it appeals to a larger group of people. And so I’d really like to find ways to connect with the AG centers at both LSU and Southern and find ways we can collaborate to really actually make an impact in helping people who want to farm, find the land and provide the mentoring. We’ve already talked to farmers about that kind of mentoring,” she said. “That’s something I hope we can put together.”

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