RLCF supports Food Prize Roundtable

Our four panelist (left to right) Kate Estrade, Meagan Dortlon, Tristen Epps, Desi Bourgeois.

On April 27th, the Ross Lynn Charitable Foundation teamed up with the Louisiana Food Prize to help host the second installment of their Food Prize University Series. The one-hour roundtable event, titled The Chef-Farmer Connection: Sourcing Locally and Making It Work, saw a group of farmers and chefs discussing what it looks like to source food locally.

The panelists included:
-Kate Estrade with Local Cooling Farms (Bogalusa, LA) and Laughing Buddha Nursery (Metairie, LA)
-Meagan Dortlon with Mahaffey Farms (Haughton, LA)
-Tristen Epps with Samuelsson’s Red Rooster Overtown (Miami, FL)
-Desi Bourgeois with Grown & Grazed and Staple Sandwich Co. (Ruston, LA)

During the discussion, Kate and Meagan shared the value they provide in offering more sustainable food options that are healthy and grown with dignity near the communities that consume them. They also gave us insight into what the past year looked like with COVID-19 and how they saw an increase in audience as people sought out food sources that were more reliable and gave greater peace of mind over the grocery store model.

Tristen and Desi shared the restaurant side of sourcing food locally and navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. Both are champions of using the power of food and restaurants to uplift communities socially and culturally. Compound that with ingredients that have been grown locally and are as fresh as you can get and an economic force that can sustainably bring people together.

To add to this opportunity for the community, RLCF has created a document with North Louisiana regional farms and farmers markets that has been made available to the public. This is a great resource for those looking to find local food providers and super easy ways to purchase produce through markets. You can find the document here.

If you missed the roundtable, you can watch it on the Food Prize Facebook page!