This West Texas town's proof is in the banana pudding

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SLATON — In the final weeks of the legislative session, Texas lawmakers had a flurry of important and intense debates over property taxes, school funding and access to THC products.

And then there was state Rep. Carl Tepper’s House Concurrent Resolution 135.

Was he serious? Did someone put him up to this, a fellow House member asked during debate. State Rep. Christian Manuel, D-Port Arthur, raised a parliamentary inquiry.

“Is the banana pudding really that good up there?” Manuel asked.

Tepper’s resolution was, in fact, about banana pudding. And House Speaker Dustin Burrows invited Manuel to try it and see for himself.

Tepper’s proposal designated Slaton as the official banana pudding capital of Texas for the next decade. While some lawmakers teased him, others didn’t take it as lightly. State Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, mocked the designation on social media.

However, the recognition from the Legislature and Gov. Greg Abbott, who signed the proclamation in June, is significant to the small town of less than 6,000 people, 17 miles from Lubbock.

“It provides economic growth for our community and all our neighbors around the square that are business owners,” said Chad Wilson with Slaton Bakery. “I tell them that their success is just as important as ours.”

Slaton Bakery has been a beloved staple for the community since its opening in 1923. The bakery was started by the Wilson family and has been passed down over the last century. The bakery has kept Slaton on the map. It grew and expanded its products from thumbprint cookies to pies, bread and other baked goods. Vanilla wafers quickly became one of their most popular products, which paved the way for banana pudding to become a daily feature in their store.

The bakery’s products — including the vanilla wafers, a key ingredient in any banana pudding — are now on the grocery shelves in more than 500 stores throughout the state, including H-E-B and United Supermarkets, which is owned by Albertsons. Wilson said this helped create more notoriety for the town, as they get visitors from all over the state, and jobs for the community.

“It’s nice to have that economic impact coming from other areas,” Wilson said. “It’s been a nice shot in the arm for a small town here in West Texas.”

To further boost the town’s economic well-being, the bakery established the Banana Pudding Festival after its centennial celebration in 2023. The town celebrated the iconic southern dessert for a third time over Labor Day weekend. Wilson said they wanted to inspire people to use the vanilla wafers in different ways, so they offer a variety of banana pudding flavors at the festival.

An estimated 10,000 people attended the festival Saturday, many wearing stickers that said “puddin’ head.” The visitors walked along the town square to try the pudding, purchase items from local vendors, and listen to artists from the area. United Supermarkets also had volunteers who passed out bananas and recipe cards with a coupon for groceries at their stores, along with a truck that had a bed full of bananas.

There were four different flavors of banana pudding passed out Saturday, all made by the bakery, from the classic Church Lady Puddin’ to a strawberry and banana flavor, a Knob Creek Bourbon pudding, and a key lime flavor for those who didn’t want bananas.

Volunteers from local charities and groups passed out the samples at four separate stations around the town square. On hand were members of the Slaton Harvey House, Slaton’s junior high cheerleaders, the Lubbock Bourbon Society and the Slaton Methodist Church. The Lubbock Bourbon Society raised money this year to donate to the Kerr County Relief Fund in response to the deadly July 4th floods, while the Slaton Methodist Church group used the money to fund their Weekend Snack Sack program for hungry children and families in the area.

Donna Englund, one of the volunteers with the Slaton Methodist Church, said there’s not enough food over the weekends for people. To have the opportunity to raise money for the cause, she said, is part of how the bakery and the Wilson family have become foundational for the community.

“They give to the community,” Englund said. “They are service people for us, and we really appreciate the Slaton Bakery for putting this on for the whole community.”

Slaton Mayor Cliff Shaw honored the bakery at the festival with a framed proclamation from the Legislature and signed by Abbott. Shaw said after last year’s festival, city leaders wondered what they could add to the event. They wanted to give the bakery recognition for their work but weren’t sure how to do it. That’s when he reached out to Matt Crow, the district affairs coordinator for House Speaker and Lubbock Republican Burrows.

“This proclamation states the bakery is a huge part of the city of Slaton,” Shaw said. “We appreciate everything they do for the city and we’re glad to have them here.”

Crow, who was in attendance at the festival, mentioned that when Abbott signed the proclamation, he said he had the cookies but never the pudding. That will change, Crow said.

Wilson said the festival couldn’t have gone on without the support of the community and other businesses in the area. As they, too, have been dealing with inflation and adjusting their business to keep prices down for customers, Wilson said they were grateful for United Supermarkets because they supplied the bakery with bananas for free to get ready for the festival.

In some ways, the festival is a dream come true for Wilson. He was nervous about starting it after their centennial celebration. However, city leaders and other businesses encouraged him to keep it going. And, as a lifelong fan of P.T. Barnum and Willy Wonka, Wilson was excited by the idea of making people happy on a big scale.

Wilson said 12 people worked in an assembly line in the days ahead to prepare, with each person working about 20 hours total to get each cup ready. And yet, they still ran out and made more on Saturday to accommodate all the guests. By the end of the festival, the bakery had made more than 6,400 cups of banana pudding.

“I feel like our world has a lot of contention in it right now and always has,” Wilson said. “So the reason I’m staying in the family business is we get to sell happiness.”

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