MISSISAUGA, ON – Stacy’s Pita Chips, a woman-founded brand with a longstanding legacy of supporting women entrepreneurs, is celebrating the five Canadian grant recipients of its 2024 Stacy’s Rise Project.
This year’s grant recipients will receive a $25,000 grant, mentorship from Frito-Lay and PepsiCo leaders, and access to a cohort of women entrepreneurs.
The five Canadian women entrepreneurs, announced to be the grant recipients of the Stacy’s Rise Project Class of 2024, are:
Ajoa Mintah (Waterloo, ON), founder of Four All Ice Cream, is an engineer-turned-entrepreneur who blends her education, diverse experiences, and unwavering creativity to spread the joy of ice cream to everyone, no matter their dietary preferences or restrictions.
K. Dee Howard (Cobourg, ON) founded Sootsoap Supply Co. to detoxify, deodorize, and sanitize with the power of white charcoal, inspired by a lack of solutions for the devastating health effects of firefighter exposure.
Evelyne Nyairo (Calgary, AB) founded Ellie Bianca, which is inspired by her daughter Eliana. Evelyne wanted to develop a range of skincare products that were not only highly effective due to the natural, high-quality ingredients used, but also supported the women who harvested the products main ingredient – raw shea.
Kate Tremills (Chemainus, BC) founded Flourish Kitchen to bring yummy and easy-to-digest meals to women who desire big, joyful lives. Flourish Kitchen’s meals are designed to ease the stress of busy lives, while delivering all the flavour and nutrition of a home-made meal.
Nadia Ladak (Toronto, ON) founded Marlow, a modern menstrual wellness brand that has created the first lubricated tampon for smoother and more comfortable insertion. Nadia is on a mission to revolutionize women’s health and positively transform the way women experience their cycles, ensuring they no longer have to ‘put up with it’ when it’s their time of the month.
“The Stacy’s Rise Project offers women founders access to grants, mentorship opportunities, and a dynamic cohort of like-minded visionaries. Empowering women on their business journey isn’t just about fostering economic growth; it’s about championing creativity, innovation, and resilience,” commented Jess Spaulding, CMO of PepsiCo Foods Canada.
She continued: “This year’s grant recipients – Ajoa, Nadia, Evelyne, Kate and Dee – are women founders whose progressive businesses are an inspiration. With the Stacy’s Rise Project grant and mentorship opportunities, we can help them on their entrepreneurial journey and help them flourish as women business owners in Canada.”
To ensure the Stacy’s Rise Project is supporting women entrepreneurs across Canada, the Stacy’s brand has partnered with the Women’s Enterprise Organizations of Canada (WEOC) and is providing a $10,000 corporate sponsorship to the organization, as well as gifting products from this year’s winners’ businesses to be distributed at WEOC events.
Since 2017, Stacy’s Pita Chips has connected thousands of women founders and provided more than $1 million in funding. The annual Stacy’s Rise Project has provided mentoring, resources, and grants to a total of 75 women across the US and Canada.
To learn more about the Stacy’s Rise Project visit stacysriseproject.ca.
About Women’s Enterprise Organizations of Canada
Women’s Enterprise Organizations of Canada (WEOC) supports a diverse membership of organizations that directly impact the growth and success of women entrepreneurs. WEOC’s goal is to ensure that its members have the tools needed to support their clients, providing networking opportunities, access to an innovative resource library, and impactful courses, conversations and events. WEOC also delivers the WEOC National Loan Program, supporting women entrepreneurs as they start, scale, grow and operate their businesses.
About Stacy’s® Snacks
Over the last two decades the woman-founded brand, that grew from a sandwich cart to a household snack brand, has evolved and is building upon its legacy of helping women entrepreneurs to achieve their goal through its Stacy’s Rise Project™
Stacy’s Snacks is one of the many brands that make up Frito-Lay North America, the $23 billion convenient foods division of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEP), which is headquartered in Purchase, NY. Learn more about Frito-Lay at the corporate website, www.fritolay.com.
About PepsiCo Foods Canada
PepsiCo Foods Canada is comprised of the Frito Lay Canada and Quaker Canada businesses. The company employs over 6,000 Canadians with seven manufacturing plants and sales and distribution facilities from coast to coast. Frito Lay Canada is the country’s largest snack food manufacturer and the company’s brands include Lay’s, Doritos, Tostitos, Ruffles, Smartfood and Cheetos. The Quaker brand portfolio includes a wide range of wholesome cereals, oatmeal, rice and corn snacks and snack bars, and features other prominent brands such as Quaker Life, Quaker Chewy, Quaker Harvest Crunch and Crispy Minis. For more information, please visit www.pepsico.ca.
