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Happy Birthday to our Founder, Jim!

Today is a milestone birthday, so cheers to another beautiful trip around the sun ☀️

 

 

Jim is also the author of  “Crumb Grabbings”.  The title is derived from a term of endearment for the kids in Jim’s life, he calls them crumb grabbers.  Barely tall enough to reach the supper table, his grandkids (and once upon a time his own children) always did a terrific job of grabbing fallen food crumbs off the floor and making sure they didn’t go to waste.

 

Here’s the latest edition of Crumb Grabbings, from the Birthday boy!

 

The Beginning. 

About thirty years ago, Twin City Catering, Inc., opened at 42nd and Fremont in North Minneapolis with hope, aspirations and a shortage of funds. We catered picnics and delivered corporate drop-off meals using our personal vehicles and the one minivan we owned.  In 2009, we acquired Mintahoe Catering & Events and merged Twin City Catering into Mintahoe, becoming one company with tremendous skills in all areas of catering. 

The Transition. 

My daughter, Suzi Shands, joined us in 1995, working as an office support person as she learned how to sell. “Learning to sell’ was a natural for Suzi and still is. She knows how to take care of our clients. Suzi became our Sales Manager then our Vice President-Sales. 

About ten years later, my son, Shawn, joined our company. Shawn has been our Go-To person in many areas that go beyond his training in Business and Finance. Just as Suzi has always done what was needed, Shawn has done the same. On January 1, 2021, Suzi and Shawn became Co-Presidents of Mintahoe Catering & Events.  

Our Family.

Our Family is not Suzi, Shawn and me. Our Family is Mintahoe, everyone who works here, our customers, our suppliers, our loving families, our friends. There have been tough times and there have been glorious successes. There have been times when I almost despaired of going on but we did because of Our Family, everyone who has always been there when we needed them. I can walk into any area of Mintahoe and be greeted with a “Hi Jim” and a smile. There have been many rewarding moments in my life and each of these is among them. 

Our Progress.

Our progress was modest but consistent for seventeen years. Mintahoe Catering & Events was a friendly competitor of Twin City Catering. Kelvin and Annette Lee, the owners of Mintahoe until 2009, had become good friends, a friendship that continues today.  We combined the two companies with “Mintahoe” our name as we continued our trek from a store front on Fremont into being the largest privately-owned, pure catering company in Minnesota. The merger brought exclusive venue catering contracts to us so our offerings now included catering the most superb corporate, wedding and social  events in the Twin Cities. Our existence changed from one of survival into what we truly believe, that We Have Only Just Begun.

In 1992, it would have been hard to imagine that one day we would cater an event for 25,000 guests, more than one thousand miles from the Twin Cities. In the early years, we catered a dozen weddings a year. Now we cater four hundred. 

The road has not always been smooth – this is the Hospitality Industry with so much that can impact us that is beyond our control. We have dealt with whatever had been put in front of us, working as a team to move forward with our plan. We are what we are, proud of what we are doing and We Have Only Just Begun.

– Jim McMerty 

Jennifer Anderson

Jennifer Anderson is the Director of Marketing for Mintahoe Catering & Events, Atikis Minnesota Aviation Catering, Professional Food Service and Authentic Gourmet Bakeshop.

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