The responsibilities of members of the Franklin Parish NCH (Nutrition and Community Health) Advisory Leadership Council are to represent their peers, identify needs and issues, identify opportunities for collaboration, be active in sharing their skills and knowledge to help the parish and understand Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service as a community resource. Minutes from the meeting can be found below:

Franklin Parish Nutrition & Community Health

Advisory Leadership Council:

Meeting Minutes 2026

The Franklin Parish FCS Nutrition Advisory Leadership Council (ALC) met via Microsoft TEAMS (virtual format) on February 27, at 1:00 PM. Attendance included, Toshia Laing, Celeste Heisler, Nick Poulos, Tunjia Corbin, Denise Breard, Tanya Cobb, Joyce Landrum, Britaria Williams, Mollie Cruse, Brady Middleton, Adrian Talton, Lisa Kiper, Layton Curtis & Joetta Miller.Quincy Vidrine, NCH Agent for Franklin Parish and NCH Regional Coordinator for the Northeast Region Facilitated the meeting.

Committee Members introduced themselves and provided a brief overview as to the agency they represented, the services they provided and/or their role in Franklin Parish.The role and expectations of the ALC was explained by Quincy Vidrine.A summary of 2024-25 programming efforts and Policy, Systems, & Environmental (PSE) changes and overview of grant applications submitted was provided as well.

The following questions were posed to the ALC members:

1. What can the LSU AgCenter Nutrition Team do to help improve the lives of Franklin Parish residents?
2. What are the biggest barriers to healthy living in Franklin parish?
3. What is the most critical need regarding health and wellbeing in Franklin parish?
4. What is the biggest strength of Franklin parish?
5. What is the biggest weakness of Franklin parish?

From the data collected, the ALC identified the 3 most pressing issues to be addressed in the Plan of Work for the Area Nutrition Agent in the upcoming year.

Issues described below:

• Transportation for access to healthy food, healthcare appointments, and healthy living activities.
• Basic cooking skills for youth and adults for healthy meal preparation.
• Ultra-processed foods are over consumed, and residents are not educated about chronic disease connection to these types of foods.
• Community gardens are needed for people to learn how to raise their own vegetables and fruit.

Meeting minutes were emailed to ALC members on Monday, March 2, 2026.

The meeting adjourned at 2:17 PM.

Minutes compiled and provided by: Quincy L. Vidrine