Sisters Emelia Whiteaker and Addi Foster have started a specialty food store from an office at the South Main strip mall, and are calling it Mmm Flavor Shop.

“After a major health diagnosis in the family, I started doing my continuing education credits as a Certified Athletic Trainer on nutrition,” Whiteaker said.  “Unfortunately, a lot of the herbs, spices and grains were not available in the quality needed to get the nutritional value.”

Whiteaker reached out to friends who are Registered Dieticians and Certified Nutritionists to see where they get their spices and dried herbs.

“This led me to a small family-owned wholesaler in Arizona,” she said.  “Our wholesaler freeze dries as much of their herbs that they can, and they order straight from the farms insuring a higher nutritional content.  Everything just kept going from there.”

“In April, we launched our products at the Home Show in Fort Scott,” Whiteaker said. “Throughout the rest of the spring and summer we have been doing vendor shows and markets.”

The business office is in the area on the backside of Tractor Supply Store, that Whiteaker has her athletic training business in.

“We have a converted office space inside Momentum Indoor Training that we use as our prep room, she said.  “Our ultimate goal is to have Mmm Flavor Shop support an exercise pool for those individuals who have chronic health diagnoses that benefit from aquatic exercise which is not covered by most insurance.”

They just finished work on their website.

“We launched our website this month www.mmmflavorfs.com or we will take text orders through direct message on Facebook or text messages at (620) 224-8442,” she said.  “If we don’t have it in stock we can usually order it and get it within a week.”

The products of the business include  spices, dried herbs, house made spice blends, non-wheat flours, ancient grains, rices, dried beans and lentils, instant oatmeal, ready-to-make-packets, dried fruits, and nuts.

“We mix most of our spice blends, insuring there are no additives or preservatives.” Whiteaker said.

” We also have superfood powders such as spirulina, spinach, acai berry, and more,” she said.  “In October we will be adding herbal teas, Turkish teas, and homemade candies.”