MS KICK

09/01/2026

🍂 SERVSAFE IS BACK THIS FALL! 🍂

MS KICK’s ServSafe Manager Classes & Exams resume this month, with our first class of the Fall Season coming up:

📅 Tuesday, September 22, 2026
⏰ 9:30am - 5:30pm

Whether you’re a food entrepreneur, restaurant professional, caterer, food truck operator, or simply looking to strengthen your food safety knowledge, ServSafe training helps you understand the practices needed to keep food safe for you, your customers, and everyone you serve! 🍽️✅

Learn about proper food handling, sanitation, preventing foodborne illness, and the food safety practices that help protect your business and your community.

📲 Contact us today for registration guidance and get ready to learn about FOOD SAFETY!

08/24/2026

🌱🥕 Rooted & Rising is doing exactly that…ROOTING & RISING! 🌱💚

We’re excited to highlight our Second Quarter Garden Stewards, The Mar-Dai Foundation, who recently brought the community together at the MS KICK Community Garden for their Planting & Proseccos event! 🥂🌿

Participants rolled up their sleeves to clean and refresh the garden while planting a new crop of carrots, radishes, greens, and other fresh vegetables. 🥕🥬🌱

What started as a vision for the Rooted & Rising MS KICK Community Garden is truly beginning to take root and grow into something even bigger. Through our Garden Stewardship Program, we’re creating opportunities for community organizations and volunteers to work together, learn, grow food, and invest in a shared community space.

A huge THANK YOU to The Mar-Dai Foundation and everyone who participated in Planting & Proseccos for helping us continue cultivating this space! 💚

At MS KICK, our impact goes beyond the kitchen. We’re excited to watch Rooted & Rising continue to grow into a larger community project that connects food, entrepreneurship, education, wellness, and community engagement.

🌱 We planted the seeds. Our community is helping them grow.

08/13/2026

08/13/2026

Register online or in person ‼️

07/30/2026

That’s a wrap! 🎉👩🏾‍🍳👨🏾‍🍳

Kids Kooking in the Kitchen 2026 is officially in the books, and what a summer it has been!

Our final class was a little smaller as many of our young chefs were getting ready to head back to school, but as they say… the smaller the room, the bigger the party! 🎉 💃🏽

We switched things up by kicking off the day in the MS KICK Community Garden, a collaboration with Shreveport Green, where the campers helped water the garden and harvest fresh tomatoes, basil, and dill that we later used in class. There’s something special about watching kids pick ingredients straight from the garden and then transform them into a meal. 🌿🍅

Today’s menu featured pasta three ways:
🍝 Marinara with meatballs
🧀 Mac & Cheese made completely from scratch
🥗 Fresh pasta salad

One of the highlights of the day was hearing several campers share that they want to become chefs one day. Because of our smaller class size, they enjoyed one-on-one time with Chef Jasmine and Chef Nate, asking questions, learning techniques, and getting a glimpse into what it’s like to work in the culinary world. Those are the moments that make this program so meaningful. ❤️

Thank you to our incredible chef instructors who generously shared their time, talent, and passion all summer long. Thank you to the Office of Grants and Sponsored Programs at Southern University at Shreveport for your continued support, and to the Caddo Parish Commission for providing the funding that made this experience possible.

Most importantly, thank you to every camper and family who trusted us this summer. Watching these young people grow in confidence, make new friends, develop kitchen skills, and discover a love for cooking has been the greatest recipe for success.

Until next summer… keep cooking, keep creating, and keep believing in yourselves. 💙💛

07/24/2026

🌱 Growth doesn’t happen overnight…it happens through consistency.

Our Rooted & Rising Community Garden continues to flourish because of the incredible dedication of our garden stewards who faithfully show up, pull weeds, water, plant, and care for this shared space. Your commitment is transforming more than a garden. You’re cultivating community, education, and opportunity. 💚

A heartfelt THANK YOU to each of our stewards for your hard work, teamwork, and passion. We appreciate every hour you’ve invested and every seed you’ve helped grow.

Take a look at our latest garden update and see what we’ve been growing together! 🎥👇

We can’t wait to see what’s next as we prepare for another season of planting, learning, and growing together.

07/24/2026

Chef Gabriel Balderas partnered with the Louisiana Small Business Development Center (LSBDC) at Southern University at Shreveport to turn his vision for The Brine into a market-ready concept. Scheduled to open in late summer 2026 on the Louisiana Boardwalk in Bossier City, The Brine is a contemporary Southern restaurant and bar inside an indoor pickleball and health club, offering cocktails, smoothies, fresh crudo, oysters, prime meats, and panoramic Red River views.

Although Balderas brought years of restaurant experience, launching a new brand required rigorous business planning and investor-ready materials. The LSBDC, led by Director Amanda Flynn, worked directly with Balderas to refine the business proposal, produce detailed financial projections, conduct industry research, and assemble a professional investor package. That guidance validated the concept, strengthened financial assumptions, and bolstered investor confidence.

The Brine represents a 1 million dollar investment in the local economy and is expected to create 21 jobs, underscoring the LSBDC’s role in supporting small business growth and regional economic development. By providing practical research, financing strategies, and planning support, the LSBDC at SUSLA helps entrepreneurs move from concept to reality and strengthens the broader Shreveport-Bossier business ecosystem.