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A little over twelve years ago, KK&P worked with Louisiana Central—an economic development agency representing 10 parishes in the middle of the state, and known at the time as the Central Louisiana Economic Development Alliance—to develop strategies for growing the region’s food economy. KK&P’s recommendations were adopted by Louisiana Central, leading to the development of a full food systems approach called the Farm & Food Initiative that was founded on networking, partnership building, shared strategies, and leveraged infrastructure. As its work became increasingly state-wide in reach, Louisiana Central became known for successful programs like the Louisiana Food Fellows, Foodapalooza convenings, beginning farmer business training, and various farmers’ market support and nutrition access services.
Photo by Shreveport Green
As with many non-profits and food organizations, the COVID pandemic was a crucible and a transformative period for Louisiana Central. Through 2020 and 2021, its Farm & Food Initiative staff—led by Executive Director for Farm & Food, Bahia Nightengale—became early drivers of an informal coalition of Louisiana-based, food-related non-profit organizations responding to the pandemic in collaborative ways. These partner organizations coalesced officially in 2022 as the Louisiana Small Scale Agriculture Coalition (LSSAC), a “statewide coalition that exists to strengthen capacity, resiliency, and economic opportunities for Louisiana’s underserved, small scale agricultural producers.”
LSSAC is comprised of seven core organizations with eight distinct regional identities, which together cover an extraordinary breadth of food systems expertise, services, partnerships, and regional goodwill with the agricultural community. Rather than competing against one another for the very small pool of funding that typically flows to non-profit food organizations, the members of LSSAC recognized that their collective work, funding, and effectiveness stood to benefit from collaboration.
In 2024, that realization was validated in the most concrete way possible for non-profits, in the form of a three-year, $4.1M grant from Novo Nordisk. Combined with funding from other sources, this grant has been critical in LSSAC’s ability to deliver on a range of programs. Their year-long Farmer Training Program continues the legacy of Louisiana Central’s original training program, and is focused on early-stage farmers already in production and commerce. LSSAC’s On Farm Grants program directs funds to on-farm infrastructure and production projects, while its Small Farm Micro-Loan Program supports non-bankable farm businesses in concert with technical assistance services. In addition, LSSAC developed a free-to-attend, annual Climate Convening for Louisiana’s small scale farmers and has leveraged its agriculture networks to purchase fresh food for distribution to hungry communities in the state.
As for the legacy of the Farm & Food Initiative, the long-term intention had always been for these programs to fledge from Louisiana Central one day and operate independently. That plan met various headwinds over time—the pandemic and federal funding changes chief among them—but the partnerships and collaboration created by LSSAC revealed a solution when it mattered most. There was a natural overlap between the Farm & Food Initiative and LSSAC member Shreveport Green’s own slate of programs, so a mutually beneficial decision was made to transition the Farm & Food Initiative from Louisiana Central to Shreveport Green as of August 2025.
Their ambition and resourcefulness unabated, the LSSAC coalition is now working on a statewide value chain project that will leverage physical roadway capacity (I-49, I-20, and US Route 165, aka the North Louisiana Triangle), USDA investments in regional cold-chain infrastructure (small refrigerated trucks and cold storage), and LSSAC’s Value Chain Coordinator position. This multi-pronged initiative will map out resources along these transit routes and then develop capacity for aggregation and distribution of food, as well access to educational programs and technical assistance services in the region.
Throughout this period of food systems evolution in Louisiana—and particularly over the past five years with pandemics, organizational change, fiscal crises—the strength of collaboration has put LSSAC’s member organizations in a better position to weather change and create something greater than the sum of its parts. Bahia Nightengale, now Shreveport Green’s COO as well as a member of LSSAC’s steering committee, put it this way: “We’re way more than just a food systems organization. It’s about wraparound care and supportive services and the fact that we touch on all of these things. This is about community empowerment and about writing a better future for the state of Louisiana.”
Want to learn more about KK&P’s work? See some examples of past projects here.