A small business will soon have its own storefront in one northeast Missouri community.

Twenty-nine-year-old Jared Niemeyer is a Knox County native, a 2011 Kirksville High School graduate, a Hy-Vee Grocery employee, a Special Olympics athlete and a small business owner.

Jared Niemeyer has two words to describe the progress to date on the new home for Jared’s Jams. “Really great,” he said.

The business launched in 2014 to raise money to support Special Olympics is growing into a storefront site on the square in Edina.

One of the local vendors is Jared Niemeyer who makes his own jams, and he talked to us about that in Edina, Missouri. He has his own family recipes. Now Jared began making jams and jellies in 2014 to raise money for Special Olympics Missouri as his way of giving back to the organization that has done so much for him.

Immediately after Jared’s Jams was founded in 2014, Jared Niemeyer and his parents would harvest fruit from their backyard garden to prepare flavored jams and jellies.

The fruit would be heated on a stove in their Edina home before being bottled and sold at the weekly farmers market or at Special Olympics events.

He’s met the U.S. president and vice president, addressed the United Nations twice, hung out with Missouri’s governor and lieutenant governor and has crusaded to end hurtful words at Kirksville High School.

He serves on the Special Olympics Missouri Board of Directors and has been known to rappel off tall buildings for its benefit.

The Niemeyer family began renovating an 86-year-old building last year. That building in Edina would become the new home of Jared’s Jams.

As they began work on the stud walls, they invited community members to write notes of encouragement and scripture on them. When the family arrived back at the building the next Monday, they found that even the electricians on the job had joined in, writing scripture around the breaker box.

Jared was delightfully surprised to be the recipient of the KHQA Hometown Hero Award!

As a young 4-H member years ago, Jared learned the value of community and striving to be your best every day. It was an honor to be the recipient of 2023 “Friend of 4-H” Award!

Jared Niemeyer of Jared’s Jams is a small business owner featured in the 2023 Missouri Vocational Rehabilitation Annual Report. In 2011, as a graduating high school senior, Jared was a client of Vocational Rehabilitation as he worked temporarily with a job coach while learning the responsibilities of a new employee.

In the summer of 2023, Jared and his small business, Jared’s Jams of Edina, served as an employer in a summer work experience partnership with the Center for Human Services and Vocational Rehabilitation.

Featured in the Annual Report as one example of personal growth and success. Jared has come full circle and can now assist others just like him in learning to adapt to the work environment.