Welcome back to another episode of The Community Connection Podcast! This week Clayton, Nathan , and Rachel sit down with Mark & Ryan ( Father and Son Duo) of Rykse’s and Company! From the moment you step inside you get all of those home cooked meal aromas, especially their cinnamon rolls! Nathan loves their Chipotle bowl, Clayton was intrigued by their cinnamon bread, and Rachel just loves everything at Rykse’s!

A long-time family owned business and staple of Kalamazoo since 1986, Rykse’s & Co serves up breakfast and lunch using recipes that have been passed down for many generations. Moving from their original location on Stadium drive, they are now located in Texas Corners. Rykse’s is now a full fledge scratch bakery that makes everything from pies, cookies, bread, and their famous cinnamon rolls and award winning peanut butter pie.

Rykse & Co Market and Eatery is a spin off of Rykse’s Restaurant with a fast causal concept. Offering an upper and lower level for dining, outdoor dining, and drive thru window, there is something for everyone.  Rykses offers breakfast, lunch, and Rykse On-The-Run meals from their grab and go cooler that are perfect for weeknights when you don’t want to cook.

No matter the drive, Rykse’s never disappoints! We highly recommend you visit if you haven’t yet

In this episode Nathan and Clayton ask who, what, when, where, and why to the candidate:

-Who are you and what are you running for

-Current and past experience (TRACF, RCSC, Rotary)

-Why, where you live,

-Experience and Commission experience

-Current experience campaigning (encouraging, different, fun)

-Accomplishments and plans (new task force)

-How would you be labeled, what do you stand for

-Hobbies

Welcome back to another episode of Foodie Friday! This week Nathan and Rachel sit down with Janene, the owner and founder of Shades of Lavender Farm. Lavender isn’t just for lotions and bath bomb’s, it is also used for culinary purposes!

Janene and her husband started their lavender farm back in 2015 with 400 lavender plants. Fast forward to today, they have expanded and have several fields with over 1600 plants! Back in 2018 Janene opened up the fields to the public for U-Pick Lavender. Pick as much Lavender as you can fit into a twist tie for $5. The fields have over 11 different varieties and in this episode, Janene covers what types of Lavender is in each field and which is best to use for culinary purposes and what is best used for her amazing products!

Shades of Lavender also has a cute little shop where she makes lavender products. Once you set foot inside, you get a very calming lavender scent that hits you, in a good way. Not overpowering like Bath and Body Works overload. The shop has everything from Honey Lavender Cookies, Bath Bombs, Lotions, Bundles of Lavender, Essential Oils, Lavender Room spray, Soaps and so much more! Nathan was a good sport in a room full of lavender and was especially intrigued with their Kaleido-Soap (the super fun colorful block of soap in the photos!) Rachel is a big fan of the Lavender soap and the honey lavender cookies. Once things get back to normal, Janene plans to start up her soap making classes again.

You can stop by and visit the shop, or get curbside pickup if you know what you want. If you can’t make it into her shop, you can shop all of her products online and ship them anywhere in the US and Puerto Rico. Check it out below and stay tuned for a giveaway!

In this week’s episode, the 3 Musketeers are back together! Nathan, Clayton, and Rachel sit down with Greg Collins the VP of Operations at CoreLife Eatery at their Portage location to discuss how they have been handling everything during the stay at home order.

CoreLife Eatery offers healthy food, that’s made to order and actually has flavor and TASTES GOOD! This episode Greg tells us the process on how they make everything from scratch, to include their lemonades, sauces, and salad dressings. We find out that Rachel doesn’t like ranch – *GASP* unless it’s from CoreLife Eatery. We find out how many locations CoreLife has, how they got started and new idea implemented.

Rachel has worked with CoreLife Eatery many times over the years and loves all of their bowls. Clayton is a little skeptical at first, but their family loves CoreLife. And, shockingly, Nathan has been to CoreLife more times than Rachel (and Clayton combined)! Can you guess what each of their favorite bowls are? Listen to this week’s episode to find out! CoreLife Eatery is open daily from 11:00am – 8:00pm Daily. You can order through their drive-thru, go inside to order for carry-out, or download their app and order through there for faster pickup!

In these uncertain times of healthcare, Nathan & Clayton Zoomed with Ashley Miller (CFO- Covered Bridge Healthcare) & Carolyn McNary, to discuss what options are out there for Covid testing, how does it all effect the healthcare industry, and what are they doing different to meet the community needs.

Covered Bridge Healthcare of St. Joseph County is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). As such, their staff of medical experts is fully trained to offer a variety of exceptional services for patients of any age. They offer the same level of high-quality medical care to patients who are insured, under-insured, and uninsured, and even have the mobile nursing staff to make medically necessary house calls.

Primary and Preventative Services

Covered Bridge Healthcare provides St. Joseph County patients with many different medical services.

Primary and preventative services include:

Behavioral Health

OB/GYN Referral

Lab/Xray Access

Oral Health Referral

Diabetes Management

Nutritional Services

Pediatric Referral

Well Child Services

Immunizations

Substance Abuse Services

Pharmacy Assistance

Transportation Assistance

Insurance Enrollment Assistance

And more…

Welcome back to another episode of The Community Connection Podcast – This week Nathan and Rachel sit down with Drew Moffit from Kalamazoo Kettlecorn Company to talk all about the best locally made popcorn. While we missed Clayton and his witty humor in this episode, Rachel fills in just for the day as co-host and has worked with the company a few times before. (we miss you Clayton!!)

Kalamazoo Kettle Corn has been around Kalamazoo for quite some time now, recently purchased by Drew Moffit and his Father, Tim Moffit. Tim is a professor at Kalamazoo College and has been a long time fan of Kalamazoo Kettle Corn Company. SO much so, that he decided to purchase the company back in 2017. They have since expanded their locations and popcorn flavors.

Let’s be honest, we are all sitting at home watching Movies and Netflix all day, why not enjoy the best popcorn in Kalamazoo? What sets them apart from your regular old popcorn? Tune into our episode to find out! Hint Hint: Kalamazoo Kettlecorn pops their popcorn FRESH to Order. That’s right, you won’t see bags just sitting on the shelves. It is always fresh, and they have some amazing flavors on rotation right now, check it out. Also stay tuned for a Giveaway!

Buttery Caramel Corn

Chocolate Gold Rush

Chocolate Nut Avalanche

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bliss

Cinnamon Blast

Kalamazoo Jack

Heavenly Cheddar

Mint Chocolate

Praline Pecan

Toffee Cashew

White Cheddar

White cheddar dill

White chocolate blueberry

White chocolate cherry

Jersey Giant Subs

In this week’s episode of The Community Connection Podcast, we talk to one of the owners of Jersey Giant Subs, Ken Slocum.

In competition with some of the largest sandwich chains across the country, Jersey Giant Subs has continued to thrive. In business since 1979, the Slocum family opened the first Jersey Gant Sub shop in Michigan starting in East Lansing, now expanded to Battle Creek, Detroit, Lansing, and of course Portage & Kalamazoo. Jersey Giant sets themselves apart by making their own bread a few times daily, sourcing local and Michigan ingredients, all sliced to order in a full 16” or half 8” sub- along with their amazing customer service!

Rachel has worked with Jersey Giant Subs before and is a big fan, however it’s Nathans (and Clayton’s) first time trying their amazing subs! We can all come together and agree their subs are great, but we also couldn’t help but notice the reviews hanging on the wall. Whether you give a stellar 5 Star review, or a hilarious misspelled 1 Star- You may get the chance to have it printed and hung on the Jersey Giant Wall Fame & Shame! If you are new to Jersey Giant, you definitely need to check out their #8 and their family recipe for Tuna Subs that will- in the words of Ken- make you do a back flip!

In this episode Clayton turns from being Co-Host to Special guest, while Nathan pulls out the grill (kinda):

-What position is Clayton campaigning for?

-What is a City Commissioner (not like Commissioner Gordon)?

-Temporary appointment to City Commissioner

-Running a Campaign

-Running unopposed (confirmed)

-Clayton's background with the city

-How long has he been in the area?

-What will he do to help the city?

-What's his plans to bring/grow business: Paddlefest, Spartan Run

-Nathan attends events

-Know your leadership:why choose Clayton?

-Free Time...

Women’s Lifestyle Magazine

In this week’s episode of The Community Connection Podcast – Mother’s Day Lockdown Edition - We talk to the Owner and Editor of Women’s Lifestyle Magazine of Southwest Michigan, Heather Dombos. We discuss how Heather took over the magazine, where to find it, the content of the magazine, and Mother’s Day!

Heather moved from Florida to Ann Arbor after college with her husband, eventually moving to Kalamazoo where she began her new journey. She worked as a veterinary assistant for over 20 years before she met Darlene, the previous owner of the magazine, and her life was forever changed. Within 6 short months of their initial meeting, Heather knew she found her new found passion and mentor. Darlene mentored Heather for 2 years before completely taking over the magazine back in October/November of 2019.

Heather primarily focuses on local women writers for the magazine, but Nathan just might have his own ‘Dear Abby’ Column for single men soon (don’t think for a second Heather won’t make it happen😉). We also focus on Mother’s Day! The May edition of Women’s Lifestyle Magazine is all about mom, fostering children, and how to celebrate Mom at home. Rachel has another article in this month’s magazine and it’s all about how to celebrate mom ‘at home’ on any budget. Clayton also gives us a deep perspective on how to view Mother’s Day. Let’s celebrate ALL of the MOMS in our lives this Sunday! Listen through the end of the podcast for a teaser of what’s coming in June 2020 for Women’s Lifestyle Magazine!

Welcome back to another episode of The Community Connection Podcast, Lockdown Edition! In this week’s episode we talk to Lauren Lasater, the owner, founder, and artist at Colors & Cocktails: The Mobile Art Party.

After so many weeks of quarantine, it’s hard to find new and exciting things to do. In this episode we discover that Nathan has no artistic abilities, Clayton is not always the worst at Karaoke, and Rachel has painted with Lauren and highly recommends her painting parties! After this pandemic is over, we are going to have a painting party (stay tuned for our team building and some creative artwork!) Lauren discusses her life-long dream of teaching/painting, her journey to Michigan, Colors & Cocktails NEW studio downtown Kalamazoo, and hosting parties at home.

Colors & Cocktails offers many different options to keep adults and kids entertained at home during quarantine. Lauren is offering virtual painting classes, virtual embroidery classes, painting kits for glassware, t-shirts, and so much more! Her classes range from kids parties, bachelorette parties, girls night, parties at home. Lauren also hosts painting parties at local restaurants, breweries, wineries and more!