Jackson Free Press

Common Ground Covenant Church (531 W. Capitol St.) will host Taste of West Jackson for a second year on Saturday, Sept. 16, at Claiborne Park (785 Claiborne Ave.) from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Local restaurants will provide free food portions for the event's West Jackson Food Competition, which both a panel of judges and event attendees will vote on separately.

At least 15 restaurants will compete in the event, including E&L Barbeque, Taqueria La Reata, Famo's Sandwiches, Stamps Superburger and more. Each restaurant will have a table at the event and will prepare one dish to submit for the contest. Crowd tasting and voting will take place first, followed by the judges. Common Ground will award prizes for both categories.

The event will also feature live music from local artists such as Alicia Roberts, space jumps, local craft vendors, cotton candy and popcorn stands, and more.

"Taste of West Jackson was born out of a grassroots collaboration of West Jackson restaurants," Alan Grove, operations and production director for Common Ground Covenant Church, says. "Our side of the city has awesome food, but not a lot of people know about it, so we hope this can be the launch of a broader food movement for west Jackson. We're working with the Center for University Based Development at Jackson State University and the Center for Social Entrepreneurship to create more collaborative events like this in the future such as a monthly street market."

For more information, find the event on Facebook.