June 28, 2024
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Joliet’s Popus popcorn gets grant

Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago program supports small business

By Bob Okon
Small business Popus Gourmet Popcorn continue to thrive after surviving the pandemic in Joliet.

Popus Gourmet Popcorn is one of 30 small businesses in Illinois and Wisconsin to receive a grant from a Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago program. (Gary Middendorf – gmiddendorf@shawmedia/Gary Middendorf)

Popus Gourmet Popcorn in Joliet is one of 30 small businesses in Illinois and Wisconsin selected for a grant program.

The grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago’s Community First Accelerate Grants for Small Business will be presented at Popus. The check presentation at 2 p.m. Tuesday will be open to the public, the Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry said in a news release announcing the grant.

Popus is at 2004 W. Jefferson St. in the Marycrest Shopping Center.

Owners Walter and Leanne Dean opened the business in October 2017 in Joliet. They also have locations in Tinley Park and Rochester, Minnesota.

Popus Gourmet Popcorn owners Walter and Leanne Dean got their inspiration to open the store after seeing the movie “Up”.

Popus Gourmet Popcorn owners Walter and Leanne Dean (Gary Middendorf – gmiddendorf@shawmedia/Gary Middendorf)

They will use the grant to buy a new popcorn machine and ventless hood system at the Joliet location.

The Community First Accelerate Grants program was created to help grow eligible small businesses in Illinois and Wisconsin, the chamber release said. The grants are designed to create economic opportunity in communities served by members of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago.

Joliet-based M&M Bank partnered with the Entrepreneurial Business Center at Joliet Junior College to nominate Popus for the grant. M&M Bank holds “Popus Popcorn Thursdays” once a month, when the bank distributes Popus products at all five of its local branches.

“We are honored to be able to give of ourselves to this deserving business,” M&M Senior Vice President Erik Schelling said in the release. “I have been able to watch their growth from afar, and now that I have been privy to their passion and business plan, we are even more excited to support their growth.”