By Stacey Tinsley, Special to BIZ. Magazine
Food, art and a great cause immersed together as one on Thursday, September 15 for the purpose of bringing awareness to a local nonprofit organization as the 41st Annual TASTE: A Festival of Food & Art was held at the Bossier Civic Center in Bossier City to benefit Holy Angels, a residential and training campus for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Guests were able to “taste their way” around the Bossier Civic Center while sampling delicious offerings from more than 30 food and drink vendors. Additionally, more than 200 pieces of artwork and auction items were up for bid in one of the area’s largest silent auctions. And, guests were entertained by the band Windstorm and performances by the Holy Angels Choir.
“We are so excited for tonight. This is our 41st year. We’ve had two years of virtual events and tonight, we are live here with this festival of art and music. We’ve had more sponsors than we have ever had. More restaurants applied to be here and we are so excited that they came,” said Laurie Boswell, CEO of Holy Angels.
Guests were treated to specialty dishes from new vendors like Buffalo Wild Wings and Dough & Arrows, alongside many returning vendors such as Nothing Bundt Cakes, Shaver’s Catering and The Chocolate Crocodile.
“I’ve done stuff for Holy Angels in the past and with this event tonight, I just felt that with being the owner of a store now, it was right to continue that and to support this organization in a different way,” said Michael Edwards, owner of Dough & Arrows.
The first TASTE event was held in September 1981 and has since flourished into an event that is highly anticipated by the community, staff, and especially the residents of Holy Angels!
Holy Angels provides job training and placement; day program activities; Applied Behavioral Analysis (outpatient therapy), education, and residential services – all focused on moving individuals to their maximum level of independence.