‘Oh Taste and See!’ to be Thursday at Civic Center
A food tasting event is planned for Thursday at the Forrest City Civic Center.
The event, called "Oh Taste and See!” is organized by the REFRESH group and will bring in food vendors in to promote their foods and offer tastings to the public.
According to event facilitator Carla Nimocks, whether it is restaurants, independent caterers or the people who do their foods for the Forrest City Farmers Market, this event is geared toward bringing people in to taste new foods.
"This is a new event that has been in the works for this area,” said Nimocks. "I think it will be a good time."
"The Holy Grounds Community Coffee House will be doing tastings of their coffees, and the First United Methodist Church will be doing tastings from their cookbook," Nimocks continued. "We will have everything from barbecue tastings to dessert tastings. There is going to be somebody showing off their charcuterie board skills that they cater for parties and things like that. We have somebody who does canned goods who will be doing tastings of the foods they can, which will be available for purchase to be given as gifts or to be taken home. Lots of different foods will be there."
Nimocks said that the group hopes to see vendors from throughout St. Francis, Lee, Cross and other nearby counties participate in the event.
"We are open to surrounding counties to hopefully include food vendors from the Marianna and Wynne areas, among others,” said Nimocks. "We hope to provide a very open event to other areas. We will be giving out reusable bags for people to use if they purchase any goods and then be able to use after the event.”
According to Nimocks, the event will feature author Sherry Hoppen as a guest speaker, as the REFRESH group hopes to shine a light on the disease of addiction.
"In conjunction with this, we will have a featured speaker," said Nimocks. "Author Sherry Hoppen will be sharing her message of hope and recovery from addiction. She will be there to talk about her experiences.” Hoppen is founder of She Surrenders, a ministry encouraging women into faithbased recovery.
Nimocks said the group also plans to raffle off a bicycle.
“We will also have a bicycle from Victory Bike Shop in Memphis that we will raffle off. This raffle is in conjunction with Sherry's book, Sober Cycle. In her book, she shares how she started her recovery journey by doing a bike ride from Michigan to Texas for a charity event,” said Nimocks. “We thought we could connect that with what the St.
(Continued from Page 1) Francis County Elves do each year and give away a bicycle. All of the proceeds from the raffle will go to the SFC Elves. The bike we have for the raffle is a 21speed bike that will be customized to the person who wins it. Whoever wins the bicycle can take it to Victory Bike Shop and have the frame changed to fit them."
According to Nimocks, REFRESH stands for Rendering Encouragement for Finding Pathways to Reconciliation Enabling Support and Healing.
"REFRESH is a group that meets on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m., at the Holy Grounds Community Coffee House," said Nimocks. "They are particularly there to support family or friends of family members who have addicted loved ones. They are there to provide support and help people who are having difficulties due to circumstances that surround an addicted loved one.
“I would be remiss if I did not say something about another entity besides REFRESH that is helping with this event,” continued Nimocks. “SEVENCPR, another support group for recovery in the area, is very instrumental in working on the 'Oh Taste and See!' event. They meet on Thursdays at 6:30 p.m., at ConnectPoint Church."
Nimocks said the group hopes to break the stigma of addiction through their work within the community.
"Part of what we are interested in doing is letting people know about the foods in our area," said Nimocks. "We are also interested in helping break the stigma of addiction. A lot of times, it seems to be an issue with people. They don't want to talk about it, but we want people to know there are places out here that are available to help and support people who need support and hope. Hope for the future. If someone has a family member or a friend who is struggling with addiction, just know there is hope."