If you’ll be near Mishawaka’s Grape Road-Main Street corridor tomorrow (Tuesday) around lunch, you can eat and judge tacos for a cause.
From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at United Federal Credit Union on North Main Street you can buy tacos and enjoy samples to vote for the best ones.
Nonprofit child care provider El Campito started its Taco Battle food truck fundraiser in 2020 as an open-air alternative during the pandemic to celebrate their 50th anniversary. It’s since become a way to help poor families afford child care despite state funding cuts.
El Campito’s Aleyna Mitchell says the early childhood field is still reeling from when the state of Indiana in 2024 froze all new child care vouchers, and last year they cut reimbursement rates for providers, forcing many to close down.
Mitchell says the money raised funds scholarships for children in need.
“The money that we raise from the Taco Battle has always, always gone into these scholarship funds for the children," Mitchell says. "It does not go to overhead, it does not go to bills. It goes directly to helping children grow and learn and be ready for school. These are folks that could not afford child care otherwise or could pay for child care but pretty much nothing else. ”
