CULINARY ROOTS

New Austin festival serves up $5,000 soul food cooking contest

Guests share a meal at a past Soul Food Truck Festival. Legacy on a Plate will continue the celebration of Black culinary traditions on October 10.

Carver ATX Foundation

A cooking competition will be at the heart of Legacy on a Plate, a new festival building on Austin’s Soul Food Truck Festival. The October 9-11 celebration will bring African, Caribbean, and Texas soul food to Rosewood Park.

Austin's Soul Food Truck Festival celebrated Black food businesses for nearly a decade, and a Facebook post explains that the tradition will "evolve." The post says, "This isn’t a new story. It’s the next chapter."

The food and music festival will anchor the wider festival on October 10, with additional events to come that focus on food entrepreneurs and Black culinary history.

Competitors will create dishes featuring rice, sweet potato, or okra as they vie for a $5,000 grand prize and the title of Legacy on a Plate Food Champion. The challenge puts those ingredients at the center of a festival celebrating recipes, traditions, and the people carrying them forward.

Taste, presentation, and cultural authenticity will guide the judging, according to the festival website. Festival founder Dawn Burnside, whose work includes Austin’s Juneteenth celebrations and Black cultural programming, wants visitors to learn about the people behind their meals. The event will bring together chefs, food truck operators, artists, and entrepreneurs, with opportunities to discover local businesses and hear the stories behind their food.

“We want people to understand that food carries our stories, our history, and our legacy,” Burnside said in a release. “This festival is an opportunity to bring people together around the table, celebrate the incredible talent within our community, and create an experience that people will remember long after the last bite.”

Festivalgoers gather at a past Soul Food Truck Festival. Its successor, Legacy on a Plate, will feature a $5,000 cooking competition, food vendors, and live music.Carver ATX Foundation

Beyond the competition, Saturday’s plans include food trucks, retail vendors, family-friendly activities, and music spanning Afrobeats, R&B, hip-hop, Caribbean, and zydeco. Storytelling installations will explore soul food history and Austin’s Black culinary legacy, adding context to the dishes visitors encounter.

Friday’s Black Culinary Excellence Symposium & Mixer opens the weekend with a vendors-only gathering, according to the website. Plans include panels, workshops, tastings, and networking for Black chefs, restaurant owners, food truck operators, and Black-owned wine and liquor brands.

Sunday’s Spiritual & Cultural Celebration will feature a community ceremony honoring Black food history, storytelling, and live music. A tree planting will symbolize legacy and roots, extending the weekend’s focus on the connections between food, history, and community.

Burnside also leads the Carver ATX Foundation, established in 2022 by community stakeholders to support the growth and preservation of Austin’s George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center. Its early work focused on advocacy, outreach, education, and fundraising to support Black history, culture, and creative expression.

Legacy on a Plate receives partial support through Elevate, the city cultural funding program that also supports events including HAAM Day and the Austin Women in Jazz Festival. The program helps fund public arts and cultural programming across Austin.

Rosewood Park is at 2300 Rosewood Ave. Tickets are available now via Eventbrite. The festival also is looking for volunteers.

festivals african cuisine competition live music black history

Friends of the Farm

Austin healthy food and farming org seeks help after losing city funds

Photo courtesy of KVUE

Farmshare Austin helps get nutritious food into the communities that need it most.

September is Hunger Action Month, and one Austin nonprofit is asking the community for help after losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in city funding.

Farmshare Austin, which works to make fresh food more accessible to people who face barriers to healthy food, said it is facing a significant budget shortfall that could affect several of its programs.

It operates a 13-acre farm where it grows produce and trains farmers. Through its Fresh for Less program, the nonprofit helps make fresh produce more affordable for Travis County residents, including those who use SNAP benefits, through mobile markets and home delivery services.

“We're economically supporting our farmer network while also getting locally grown, fresh grown, organically grown food to our community members who have the least opportunity to access local food,” said Michelle Akindiya, Farmshare Austin's education director.

But Farmshare said some of those services could be at risk following cuts approved during the city's budget process.

The organization said it faced proposed cuts to funding for two contracts. One social services contract remains under consideration, while another was eliminated.

“There's a lot of people that really care and came out to speak up. It just didn't cover everything, unfortunately,” Akindiya said. “And so we're still seeing quite a significant cut in our budget.”

Farmshare estimates it will lose about $510,000 in funding for Fresh for Less over two years, with the cuts taking effect in November.

Akindiya said that loss comes from cuts to its chronic disease contract with Austin Public Health, which was included in a $400,000 Healthy Food Access line item.

Farmshare said the city previously covered about 64 percent of Fresh for Less. With the cuts, the lost funding represents roughly 30 percent of the program's operating costs.

The nonprofit said its programs help provide fresh food to about 33,000 Austinites. Without additional support, Farmshare said it could have to scale back its mobile markets, reduce home deliveries for people with limited mobility, purchase less produce from local farmers and reduce its staff.

Read the full story at our news partner KVUE.com.

farming health food insecurity