The Loop Community Improvement District is proud to announce the latest recipients of their CoMo Cooks Scholarships, Anitial’A Ware of His Alkaline Angel and Jayco Jones of Big Nose BBQ. We had a wonderful group of cooks apply so it was not an easy decision.
Anitial’A Ware has long cooked for both her friends and family as well as sports teams she has coached. She discovered the power of sea moss while researching healthful foods and now makes sea moss gels—a mixture of this power food and fresh fruit. Anitial’A will start with gels and move into sea moss smoothies. Anitial’A is in the process of building her new website so find her at https://thealkalineangel.com.
Jayco Jones learned to cook by watching his mother, aunts, and grandmother in the kitchen— and earned his nickname Big Nose for always getting his nose into things. Jayco is upgrading his new food trailer and is putting together his BBQ menu now. And it won’t just be St. Louis style BBQ, he’s got a passion for Korean BBQ as well.
The CoMo Cooks Shared Kitchen is a commercial kitchen and food business incubator located on The Loop. Our mission is to encourage the growth of local food entrepreneurs by creating opportunities for those without easy access to a commercial kitchen, including those who have been historically impacted by racial, social, and economic inequality.
One way we’re making it easy for food-based businesses is through our scholarship program. Thanks to the support of the City of Columbia, we are able to offer two scholarships of $2500 each plus a 6-month, Tier 1 membership in the kitchen. We are also partnering with the Missouri Women’s Business Center for free business coaching for our recipients.
Both Anitial’A and Jayco will be staring in the CoMo Cooks Shared Kitchen immediately so keep an eye on our website—comocooks.com--and our socials to follow their progress and learn new ways to find their delicious offerings.
Scholarship Press Release 2024
The Business Loop Community Improvement District is an organization dedicated to creating an attractive and authentic multimodal corridor; attracting and retaining dynamic and innovative businesses, employees, makers, and investors; designing a street that is safe, vibrant, healthy, and welcoming; and communicating the importance of the area to Columbia. They recently partnered with the City of Columbia on a $2.13 million USDOT grant to continue the planning process for the street and their CoMo Cooks Shared Kitchen is a big success, serving as home to 37 small businesses.
https://theloopcomo.com/
Missouri Women’s Business Center is a program of CMCA dedicated to providing small business development assistance throughout Mid-Missouri. This is accomplished through coaching, relevant programming, training, events, and continued support and resources to help entrepreneurs set and reach their business goals. The deeper purpose of the MoWBC is to assist CMCA on their mission to eradicate the causes and conditions of poverty through individual empowerment, access to resources, and entrepreneurial success. https://mowbc.org/
