NEW ROADS - For nearly 90 years, The Lions Club Parade has rolled down New Roads on Fat Tuesday.While it may be the smaller of the two New Roads Parades of the day, the party is still big.In fact, many of the people stay for both parades. With around 100,000 people coming to a town with a populatio n under 5,000, questions arise about food.Thatrsquo;s why many use the opportunity to cook and sell food from a truck, their home or even their parade float."Most families on the parade route cook. So everybody cooks at their house. It's a community type thing, so everybody's welcome," New Roads Lions Club member Brandon Melancon said.Along the parade route was Andrew Jewell, a Pointe Coupee resident. He and his friends were offering bowls of pastalaya."Come get a bowl. We got plenty of food. We got plenty of beer. This is all about the community," Jewell said.In front of the parish courthouse downtown, Woody Gremillion was handing out smoked sausages, hot dogs and chili."Free of charge. We do it for the community. We come here to support the town and community," Gremillion said.The Lions Club not only assembles the parade floats in the correct order and gets everyone ready for the parade, but also has to entice local schools to come out and perform."They come out, we pay them to march so they can have money for their uniforms and their equipment, and then we feed them," Melancon said.This many people in one small place also allows for a little entrepreneurship. With the parades, New Roads Mardi Gras became a food truck gold mine."We've been getting a lot of love from different people, so everything is good. Trying to do everything that we can do for everybody," Kendall Davis with Kendall's Corner said.Even some of the parade floats sold food."We got chicken sandwiches for the load, they're actually five dollars. We come together every holiday, and we put together this parade. We sell sandwiches for the crowd," Parade Participant Elyjah Olden said.Also along the parade route was Rhea Sherman, a Girl Scout from West Feliciana. The young entrepreneur already sold dozens of boxes...With the large crowd, the venue hoped to sell out."A badge. You have to get it by reaching your goal. I'm already past my goal. Really? What was your goal? 250," Sherman saidClick here to watch the parade.Permalink| Comments ...read more read less