Organizational History - Economic Institute - Loyola University New Orleans

Organizational History

The ECOnomics Institute is a nonprofit organization based at Loyola University’s Twomey Center for Peace through Justice in New Orleans. It was created in 1995 by a community-wide group of farmers, business and governmental leaders, and consumers, and works to create opportunities in the food and agriculture sector for socially responsible economic development for individuals, families, and small businesses in New Orleans and the surrounding region.

The activities of the Institute have included creating and running a Saturday morning farmers’ market in downtown New Orleans, setting up a small cooperative fresh food production business in the St. Thomas public housing community of New Orleans, helping groups in other communities set up similar farmers’ markets, and providing training in small business accounting, customer relations, packaging, and marketing to vendors in the Market. Financially responsible, the Institute now operates an annual budget of $250,000 with a full-time staff of three assisted by part-time staff and a wonderful group of volunteers.

The Institute works particularly with the following people:

small-scale producers–family and independent farmers and fishers, small groups of collaborating food producers, and similarly structured enterprises adding value to fresh produce by packaging or processing it;
entrepreneurs–existing small businesses or currently unemployed individuals experimenting with products, work methods, or processing techniques in the food and agriculture sector that are new to them or to their community and are good for overall economic development in the region;
producers using ecologically sustainable methods–two-thirds of the vendors presently in the Market and a similar proportion of the successful candidates for assistance are, or will be, using such cultivation techniques.

The Institute will continue doing the kind of work it has been engaged in over the last couple of years: helping small business owners grow fresh produce, process it, market it, and enjoy a rising quality of life while protecting the environment for the future generations. At the same time, it will expand its entrepreneurial research activities and its efforts to disseminate information to concerned groups and citizens on sound agricultural, processing, and business practices–whether innovative or traditional. Perhaps most important of all, it will help interested farmers, fishers and producers find and utilize the methods, practices, structures, information or training that will make it possible for their businesses to grow and succeed in the way they see fit.

These are opportunities to build successful businesses, to grow both new and traditional foods and agricultural products in a healthy way and for an eager market, and to provide individuals with dignified livelihoods of their own choosing.

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