Texarkana turns out for a Taste
Texarkanians love their eateries. They also love a good cause, as do said eateries. So both filled in the floor space at the Four States Fairgrounds rodeo space to raise funds with Taste of Texarkana.
In what is described as a gigantic indoor street party, complete with a live band, tasters took in flavors of all sorts, beverages and music to accompany a good cause.
“I think this is a wonderful thing,” said Linda Mack, a Harvest Texarkana volunteer for 14 years. “This is bringing our community together for a good cause — in this case, the fight against hunger.”
Harvest Texarkana Food Bank’s mission is hunger relief in Texarkana and the surrounding area in Southwest Arkansas and Northeast Texas. Through a network of over 100 agencies in 10 counties, the food bank provides resources to the hungry in the region. A Taste of Texarkana is one of the big fundraiser events for Harvest Texarkana. During the holiday feasting, when lack of food can feel most acute, Harvest Texarkana Food Bank helps alleviate the need.
“We do send out a lot of food in the holiday period,” said Mack. “But despite us moving so much food, we have a good staff and a team of volunteers. We’ve been doing this awhile and we know how to get it done. Harvest Texarkana is a wonderful place and staff and we have helped a lot of people. We receive food from many sources, including food outlets like stores. We then issue it out to various communities in the pantry. The pantries see what we have, put in their orders, and they either come and pick up or we deliver to them. It is wonderful to
help when the feasting season begins. Every little bit helps. I pray God’s blessings for years to come.”
One of the vendors attending was Jam Confection Company, operated by De’Jeune Kinchen. Previously out of Little Rock, she is moving her company back to Texarkana.
“This is home, where I’m from,” she said. “I’m a graduate of Arkansas High, Class of 2010.”
Kinchen is the unofficial record holder of speed cupcake decorating. She went for the record at the Front Street Food Fest. Though she did succeed, the process of establishing the record for Guinness Book of World Records requires her to do it again, but she is not worried about that.
“I’ve done it before, I can do it again,” she said.
So she was there to help out with a good cause as well as advertise her business. Her particular flavors were a wedding cake, a strawberry cake and something she called “mystery flavor cake.”
“So far, no one has been able to guess what the flavor is,” she said. “If anyone can guess, there could be a prize.”