BUILDING COMMUNITY
OMAHA staple DIONNE WHITFIELD AND OWNER ORLANDA WHITFIELD
Bringing the Flavor
STILL POPPIN’ GOURMET POPCORN BECOMES NORTH OMAHA FAVORITE Still Poppin’ Gourmet Popcorn has built its community reach and aims to further it beyond Nebraska.
The Vision Orlanda Whitfield, owner of Still Poppin’ Gourmet Popcorn, fondly remembers making popcorn as a young girl with her grandmother. Her mother and grandmother taught her everything she knows about cooking, and she knew that someday, she was going to use her creativity and passion for food to do something big. In December 2016, Whitfield set out to start her own popcorn business. “There wasn’t a popcorn shop in North Omaha, so I thought it would be the perfect spot,” she explained. And she was right. Today she runs the shop with her sister Dionne and son Fonta Jones, Jr., along with a small staff. Customers can’t get enough — and they keep coming back for more. Her vision is for Still Poppin’ to become a nationally self-funded, Black, woman-owned gourmet popcorn business. Locally, she aims to continue to bring jobs and economic empowerment into the community.
Bringing the Flavor Housed in a refurbished shipping container, Still Poppin’ is located on North 24th Street in the Fair Deal Village MarketPlace. Because the space doesn’t have a kitchen, popcorn is made at No More Empty Pots, a nonprofit that offers commercial kitchens for rental for food entrepreneurs. The company creates a variety of popcorn flavors, and the base for its caramel popcorn comes from Whitfield’s grandmother’s recipe that she learned when she was only 11 years old. Popcorn kernels come from local farms, and the aim is to use the highest quality ingredients possible to create each batch. Some of the most popular products include Cookie’s N Cream, White Cheddar Caramel, Cheesy Cajun, Strawberry Banana, Honey Butter Kettle, and Candy Cane Lane. There is also a caramel popcorn infused with Hennessy cognac. The Omaha Mix is one of the company’s most well-loved items, which is handcrafted caramel smothered in cheddar cheese.
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