African Americans and Creoles of Color must return to their holistic healing, gardening, and dietary roots. That’s the message from Fightingville Fresh Market, which believes communities of diverse racial backgrounds deserve the opportunity to grow, eat, and supply nourishing food.
According to Feeding America, Lafayette Parish’s food insecurity population was 32,960 before the global pandemic (2019).
Subsequently, it rose to 35,900 after the pandemic (2022). Overall, over 700,000 people in Louisiana deal with food insecurity.
“[Due to HPAI] egg prices in January 2025 were 53.0 percent higher than in January 2024 and surpassed the previous peak prices in January 2023,” The U.S. Department of Agriculture says.
With the rise of groceries and health risks, Louisianians encourage Sankofa, to look back to one’s ancestral heritage and bring farming traditions to the forefront.
Fightingville Fresh Market is an intentional health food pillar in North Lafayette. It’s a hub for artisans, local gardeners, farmers, herbalists, education, and more, giving residents hope that they can grow and eat together.
“What keeps us going is the people of the neighborhood because we recognize the value we bring to the neighborhood, but also our community of farmers,” Nicole Johnson said.
The Black Wall Street Times interviewed Co-founder Nicole Johnson about the formation of Fightingville Fresh Market, using food as medicine, and the importance of community sufficiency.
How Fightingville Fresh Market started
Nicole Johnson, Kevin Ardoin, and Kimberly Culotta met during Louisiana State University’s 2019 Agricultural Center’s Beginning Growers Program, “Grow Louisiana.”
The year-long program focused on aspiring farmers (and current farmers) with zero to ten years of experience exposing the business aspects of farming.
A farmers’ market conference in Arkansas inspired the cohort with fresh ideas. “We started to talk about wanting to have our own market and having control of our own market space,” Johnson said.
Throughout the program, many farmers discussed the possibility of a local farmers’ market. Fortunately, Johnson, Ardoin, and Culotta came together to make it a reality.
Ardoin and Culotta were also passionate about building the market in Fightingville, a historical community now known as LaPlace.
Culotta connected the trio with a vacant property on Simcoe Street. In addition, Ardoin brainstormed the market’s name.
Johnson, a multifaceted entrepreneur living in the McComb-Veazey area once received a life-changing opportunity to grow a garden in her backyard. Blessings like this inspired her to give back to the community.
Aside from the farmers market, Simcoe Street has no other full-functioning grocery store or market. The Shopper’s Value located at 2017 W. University Avenue closed in 2020. This leaves Northside residents with even fewer grocery store options.
Fightingville Fresh Market opened on Juneteenth of 2020 during the height of the global pandemic. “Luckily for us, farmers markets were open-air, so it was something people encouraged during the pandemic because it was an open-airspace and less risk of exposure to the virus,” Johnson shared.
The market offers teas, seed exchanges, honey, fertilizer, vendors with hot food, and more.
Because of support from local farmers and herbalists, the market ensures that residents know where their food comes from.
Fightingville Fresh Market uses plants as medicine
Many Louisiana Creole families grew up in households or around neighbors with trees that bore leaves, creating healing teas. One being Manglier or Groundsel Bush.
“Manglier is a native to Louisiana, and Manglier helps with a myriad of things… Most people remember growing up and being sick and our Mamas made us this Hot Toddy with this herb… I’d wake up in the morning and my bed would be soaking wet and I’d feel 100% better,” Johnson said.
Manglier is an immune booster that helps with respiratory infections, inflammation, sore throats, and more. It is also a popular seller at the Fightingville Fresh Market.
In a collaborative study with LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center and Rutgers University, “Manglier, also known as groundsel bush, effectively combats insulin sensitivity and inflammation from obesity and Type 2 diabetes.”
For centuries, Manglier could be found in abundance throughout Southwest Louisiana. In addition to the city, many backroad towns like Leonville and Arnaudville still grow, share, and harvest the plant.
Other popular Louisiana healing plants include elderberry, aloe vera leaves, and saw palmettos.
But if we have access to critical healing plants, why is Louisiana among the top 13 states for painkiller prescriptions?
When discussing the co-dependency and need for divestment from big pharma and mainstream grocery industry chains, Johnson believes capitalism, farming industrialization, and corporations persuade Americans to depend on their systems versus having community sufficiency.
“My grandfather worked on the railroad, but he had a farm, and in the community that he lived in, everybody grew something. They raised chickens, they had pigs, and they had a vegetable garden. They had fruit trees, and I could only imagine that they bartered with each other,” Johnson explained.
“[My stepdad] said when he grew up, they went to the store, and they picked the live chicken and rung that chicken’s neck, and the butcher processed that chicken and then wrapped up the meat and gave it to him. Now, we don’t know where our chicken is coming from, we don’t know where our produce is coming from,” Johnson said.
Through programs like Grow Your Groceries, Fightingville Fresh Market encourages Louisiana communities to start a garden and teach others.
Community Sufficiency creates holistic healing
Johnson shared there is a limited number of growers in the Acadiana area. Especially those who organically grow their crops without spraying inorganic chemicals.
For sustainability, Johnson and Culotta combined their produce harvest to host a table together. This eventually spiked interest in other small farmers.
“What we decided to do was consignment where farmers can bring their produce, we’ll sell it on their behalf and then will split the cost. You know, we take a small percentage for the service that we offer to them, and we’ll give them the larger cut. Well, that’s really how we build our community of farmers at Fightingville,” Johnson said.
For Fightingville Fresh Market, it’s important for farmers to work together. This creates healthy systems for their business and the surrounding communities.
The market hosted workshops for growers to learn and exchange helpful information. A few years ago, the Lafayette Public Trust Financing Authority (LPTFA) presented an idea to distribute funds. As such, this would help revitalize the Northside and address food desert issues.
Eventually, Fightingville Fresh Market applied for the United Way of Acadiana’s Lafayette Initiative for Food Equity (LIFE) grant program. This helped birth the Grow Your Groceries project.
The program takes cohorts through a one-year learning process of how to garden at home, monthly workshops, and resources.
“We started the market with the community in mind. So, it only makes sense for us to make sure that we are serving them in all that we do,” Johnson said.
The owners strongly encourage residents and tourists to support the market and local farmers. Fightingville Fresh Market is open Tuesdays from 3 to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 1 to 5 p.m.
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