Believe Institute
Louisiana * 501(c)(3)
Talent is everywhere. Opportunity is not.
A Louisiana 501(c)(3) -- home of the Creole Kitchen Project and Hermie's Fund, building opportunity for student cooks, founders and people rebuilding.
2026 Angel Award -- Louisiana Blue Foundation
Recognized October 19, 2026, with a $30,000 grant directed to Believe Institute.
Louisiana Blue Foundation Angel Award ->
It started as mentorship, not an institution.
Believe Institute began as grassroots mentorship in Lafayette, Louisiana -- showing up for students and small business owners who had ability and no runway. It grew into the philanthropic arm of Louisiana Creole Pecan Candy, with a formal 501(c)(3) structure and a public launch on October 13, 2026.
The mission did not change when the paperwork did. Talent is everywhere. Opportunity is not. We build the second one.
The Creole Kitchen Project.
We work with area high school culinary arts programs, teach them entrepreneurship, and teach them how to protect and preserve Creole-style cooking. We have been doing this since 2022, and we formally launched our test pilot with a fundraiser structure at the W.D. & Mary Baker Smith Career Center in Lafayette, Louisiana.
During Super Bowl LIX, students helped produce pralines as an official supplier (Yahoo News). We paid for their uniforms, equipment, and field trips, and created once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for the students. It culminated in roughly $7,500 donated back to the school's program.
Lafayette ProStart students have gone on to national selection (KATC).
A career center, a production line, and one shared shirt.
Students work the line in the Creole-ish x Career Center shirt -- the same mark that goes on the tin. Chef whites, real deadlines, real product shipped.
Hermie's Fund.
Hermie's Fund is named in honor of Ms. Hermie Duffy-Jones, the recipe matriarch of Louisiana Creole Pecan Candy -- the kitchen this whole company was built on. Her recipes became a business; the fund exists so that other people's talent gets the opportunity hers gave this family. (Read the family story.)
A scholarship and education initiative that removes financial and access barriers -- particularly for Black male collegians and young people pursuing culinary arts, business, and workforce pathways.
Tuition gaps, tools, transportation, exam fees, a deposit that has to clear on a Friday. The costs that quietly end careers before they start.
The phoenix in our mark is the point of all of it: what rises next is built from what came before. Renewal is not starting over -- it is opportunity made out of an inheritance.
- $25
Chef whites for a school year
- $50
Ingredients for a class production run
- $100
A culinary field trip for one student
- $250
Equipment for a school kitchen program
What we actually do.
- 01
Small business and entrepreneurial support
Coaching, structure and access for founders building in Louisiana.
- 02
Workforce development and culinary arts education
Classroom-to-kitchen training in real production conditions.
- 03
Student apprenticeships
Paid, supervised work with professional standards and real deadlines.
- 04
Second-chance initiatives
Pathways back into work and ownership for people rebuilding.
- 05
Community partnerships
Schools, churches, chambers and civic groups, working the same block.
Four years, counted honestly.
Put your name on a student's first real kitchen.
Every dollar goes into uniforms, equipment, field trips, apprenticeships, and scholarships for Louisiana students.
Corporate sponsorships and major gifts: info@louisianacreolecandy.com
Talent is everywhere. Opportunity is not.
Rise. Renew. Return it forward.
CREOLE KITCHEN PROJECT * HERMIE'S FUND * COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS