Rapides Parish, LA Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Sidewalk & Mobile Vending (2026)

Sec. 19-12 of the parish code, adopted by an ordinance of December 8, 1970, makes it unlawful for any person to use the roads, streets or sidewalks of Rapides Parish, Louisiana outside the city limits of Alexandria, Louisiana, as places of trade or business or as stands from which to conduct any trade or business. That sentence is the parish's governing rule on sidewalk and street vending in the unincorporated parish, and it applies to any vendor, including a mobile food seller, who tries to set up a stand on parish right-of-way.

The same 1970 ordinance also created Sec. 19-13, which separately declares it a public nuisance to accost or canvass people on parish streets, roads or sidewalks to sell books, wares, merchandise, or articles, on the theory that the practice impedes orderly traffic and intrudes on the public's personal rights and convenience. Sec. 19-14 carves out a narrow exception for churches and for people soliciting funds in drives run by charitable, civic or service organizations, but that exception does not reach commercial food sales. Violating Sec.

19-12 or Sec. 19-13 is a misdemeanor under Sec. 19-17, punishable by up to thirty days in the parish jail or a fine of up to one hundred dollars, or both, at the court's discretion. Because the ban is written by reference to the roads, streets and sidewalks themselves rather than to any particular product, it covers a food truck or cart parked at the curb every bit as much as a fixed sidewalk table.