Tacos 4 Life, which serves “craft tacos for a cause,” has officially opened its first Kansas franchise in south Overland Park.

Driving the news: Located at 12180 Blue Valley Parkway, the Arkansas-based taco chain held a grand opening last week for the new restaurant that neighbors Target and Costco Wholesale.

• The space previously housed Kneaders Bakery and Cafe, which closed all three of its Kansas City-area locations in 2020.

Menu details: The restaurant’s menu features a range of tacos, in addition to what Tacos 4 Life calls “not tacos”: items like quesadillas, salads and nachos.

• One unique taco option is the mango habanero, which comes with grilled chicken, mango habanero salsa, cabbage, avocado, pico de gallo, mango and cotija cheese.
• Several side options are also available, including Mexican cream corn, refried black beans, cilantro pesto rice, queso rice and chicken tortilla soup.

Donations: For every meal purchased from Tacos 4 Life, 24 cents is donated to Feed My Starving Children, a religious-based organization that packages and distributes meals to people in more than 70 countries.

• Twenty four cents equals one meal that is packaged and sent to a child in need, according to the nonprofit.
• The proceeds from Taco 4 Life’s restaurants have paid for more than 26 million meals to be shipped to countries overseas, according to the company’s website. 
• Since opening, its new Overland Park location has donated the proceeds to cover nearly 59,000.

Background: In 2014, Husband-wife duo Austin and Ashton Samuelson opened the first Tacos 4 Life in Conway, Ark.

• It has been the founders’ mission since opening the first restaurant to end world hunger, according to franchise owner Drew Vaden.
• The franchise now has more than 20 taco restaurants across six states with several new locations opening soon.

Tacos 4 Life expansion in the metro

Vaden previously told the Post that the company has been in the process of expanding for the last year, with plans for a second Kansas City metro location in Blue Springs, Mo.

• “The franchising is just starting to expand, so that’s why you’ll start seeing more and more of them around the country,” he said.