 I am so excited to be here at the grand opening of Peace of Soul Vegan Kitchen. My name is Sabrina Odom-Edris. I am the executive director for the North Columbia Business Association. We are the heartbeat of North Columbia. We serve as our resident visitors and business owners in many ways as they are the ones who help sustain and grow our community in many ways. I am truly thrilled that the Peace of Soul Vegan Kitchen has decided to open their restaurant doors right here in the Noma District. To my knowledge, I know that this has been a dream so far for a very long time. And the process leading up to this big day has been filled with hard work, but everything was worth it. I have had the opportunity to see firsthand the Peace of Soul make a name for themselves, not only in here, Columbia, but throughout the state and many more areas through their food truck travels, promotion of vegan education and mutual partnerships. Again, I am very excited for this restaurant and the many successes to come. The North Columbia Business Association is here to support any business needs you may have to ensure success. We are truly grateful you choose to make Noma your home. Thank you. If I'm at the point that Melissa still has to introduce me, we've got a problem. So, I don't need an introduction, I hope and pray. I'm excited to be here today with Falami. The Peace of Soul Vegan, of course, this is a new look, a new face on an institution that has actually been a part of this community for quite a long time. As you think about the pioneers, when no one else was coming across Elmwood Avenue to invest in North Columbia, you actually had trendsetters, pioneers who want to come up here and not only invest, but invest in family-friendly, healthy living that actually tastes good. As a pescetarian who farts with veganism every once in a while, it's been a wonderful respite for so many of us for so long. So, to know all the things that this institution, its predecessors, its family has meant to North Columbia to providing new life on this historic commercial corridor for years, it's exciting time to be here. You can bring a new life into all institutions and prepare us all as a community for the future, and it's a great day. So, excited to be here with Ms. Jeter, and Melissa, if you want to introduce her, I will get out of the way, and I'm sorry. Oh, Mr. Day, oh, Councilman, I'm sorry. He moves around like a phantom. It's my pleasure to introduce my friend and the Councilman from District One, my mentor, my brother, who does so much to fight for North Columbia every single day, Sam Davis. I'm only late because I had one of the most gratifying difficulties, the streetscape. I just had to bob my way through that. I think the occasion is appropriate, all has been said, and we're just happy that we were able to partner with our good friends and also to help promote their addition to this location. They've been here for a while and decided to do some housekeeping, house keeping, rearranging, and so forth. But that's an example of what the trend is, and that is to stay committed to this area and commit to quality services. We've had the occasion over a period of time to not only send folks here by way of referral, but I think we've brought some folks here on tour to sample the goodies, and a number of them have become return visitors, return customers, and that's what it's all about. We appreciate it, and we're going to remain committed, as we are, with everybody that's coming in to make sure that we're responsive, we promote them, and that we continue to show our appreciation for them. So thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Melissa Lenlar. I'm the director for the Office of Business Opportunities with the City of Columbia, and it's such a great opportunity here for the City of Columbia to partner with Ms. Jeter today as she reopens a piece of soul vegan kitchen formerly lamb spread. Ms. Jeter actually bought this restaurant seven years ago from her father, and since then she's established a devoted, expanded customer base that stretches across neighboring states, and although the name has changed, let me reassure you the food is still there that we fell in love with before she closed for the renovations. So Ms. Jeter, I want to bring you up, and I want to make sure before you come up we're happy to be a part of this journey with you. We've been a part of your past, and we have been a part of your transition, and we will certainly be a part of your future. Thank you. The overwhelms, but 100% grateful and humbled that you all would show up for me. I have a couple of thank yous that I'm going to try and manage to get out. It's initially certainly my parents who have instilled in me an entrepreneurial spirit, so I can wake up every day and do this even on the days when it feels like I'm much rather asleep. So I want to thank the City of Columbia, of course. I want to thank the South Carolina community, I want to thank Roger Shriver who kind of jumped in, not even knowing me very well, and threw himself into being project manager to make all of this happen. I want to thank LCB Contracting. I want to thank whoever I forgot just now, because I'm really thinking about the mac and cheese that I have in the oven, and I really don't want to burn, but I'm grateful to be here. We've been here, some representation of my family has been here since 2005. I'm actually from the Columbia area, so it's only right that we continue our legacy here. So thank you all for showing up, and thank you for all of your support. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is James Chatfield. I serve as the chief lending officer for the South Carolina Community Loan Fund. I will not be before you very long at all, I promise. When I think of a piece of Soviet kitchen and us being here today, truly the word that comes to my mind is thankful. I'm thankful for the opportunity of having met Ms. Jeter a little over a year ago. The first time I was in her restaurant was the very first time that I tried vegan food, and to my surprise, it was quite tasty. So I told her, hey, I'm thinking about becoming vegan. She said, wait a minute, James, not everyone's food is as good as mine. So my journey to veganism continues, but thankful for Ms. Jeter's persistent entrepreneurship. I often call her when I speak of her, a case study in persistent entrepreneurship. That first time when I met her and we discussed what she wanted to do with the property, I shared with her it looked like the numbers didn't work at that time. However, she did not give up. She remained persistent. She displayed her passion. She pressed forward. She brought additional partners to the table in the form of the opposite business opportunities and Brett and Melissa, who have been great partners to us as well. So thankful that she invested in herself, didn't give up on herself, didn't give up on her dream. Thankful for what this business means to the community, what it means to our city, and most importantly, I'm thankful for what it means to minority entrepreneurs across the city. Because Ms. Jeter did it, they now know that they can too. So with that, I'm going to go ahead and get out your way. But before I do, I do want to say Ms. Jeter, I am looking forward to the day that you take the piece of soul concept nationwide. You've heard it here first. So thank you all. Good afternoon. My name is Brett Whiting. I'm the loan officer with the Office of Business Opportunities, City of Columbia. The similar story to James, the first time I've ever had vegan food was right here. And needless to say, I was very reluctant. I'm not what you would consider prototype for veganism. I was told that you've got to have something to eat when you get there. So I said, okay, well, I'll do it. But to make a long story short, when I left here, I could never say I'm not a vegan either, because the food was fantastic. I also want to say how proud I am of Ms. Jeter. I started this project early on with James. And we were back and forth. And Ms. Jeter was like, you know, this is my vision. This is what I want to get done. James and I were like, we're going to get this done. We're going to make this work. We just have to have everything that we need to make it work. And Ms. Jeter came to the table again and again and again. And here we are today. This location is a beacon for the vision that we have in our office. We want to duplicate this kind of progress in all the different corridors throughout the city. And I look forward to seeing that growth and the opportunity to eat again here often. So with that, I will turn this over to my director, Melissa Lindler, and better speaker speech. Thank you. Again, I want to thank Ms. Jeter for a number of things. One is for bringing back the renewed visibility of the development that's taking place here in the North Columbia area, but also the renewed visibility of minority-owned businesses in the area. The city of Columbia, through our leadership, Mayor Benjamin, Councilman Davis and our other leaders, they have a vested interest in all of our communities to succeed. And they have a priority also to make sure our minority-owned businesses have the resources and tools that they need to be successful. And we're here to get today as a partner, our Office of Economic Development, Ryan Coleman's here, and he understands, like all of us, that our small business community, you're the essence of our economy. You're the essence of the community. You make the community what it is. And we're so happy to be a part of that. And we look forward to not, again, being a part of your future. I know for one, I have been here and I am so happy to be back open so I can have lunch again and get back on my plant-based diet. Wink, wink. But thank you also for educating not only this community, but also the city of Columbia about vegan, the vegan restaurant and vegan eating and healthy food options as a way to improve the health of our community. So thank you and I will now have our ribbon cutting.