All photos by Michael Thomas
When Beverly and Ken Jenkins first envisioned R&R Marketplace, they weren’t simply creating a place for businesses and community programs to operate — they were building an ecosystem designed to help people discover what’s possible, and then become it.
Today, R&R Marketplace in Dellwood brings together entrepreneurship, workforce development, early childhood education, and community programming on one campus. What began as a bold vision has grown into a working model, shaped by the people who walk through its doors and the businesses, partnerships, and opportunities taking root there.
The journey hasn’t been without its challenges. The Jenkins’s describe 2025 as their “challenge year,” a period of learning how to stabilize and operate a growing organization while simultaneously expanding its capacity. But it was also, they say, their most impactful year.
The couple watched entrepreneurs turn side hustles into full-time businesses. They saw mentors provide not only technical guidance, but the confidence and connections entrepreneurs needed to move forward. And through Brilliant Angels, they continued expanding access to early childhood education while developing a pipeline to train educators.
Now, the Jenkins’s are looking toward the next chapter. Phase two of R&R Marketplace will expand the campus with a Black Box Theater, youth spaces, shared offices, retail and flex space, a commercial kitchen, a food-entrepreneur container village, a vegetable garden, and more.
The physical expansion is significant, but for the Jenkins’s, the deeper goal remains the same: create something that belongs to the community, responds to its needs, and leaves a lasting legacy. As phase two moves through pre-construction and fundraising, they’re thinking not only about what they’re building today, but what it can mean for generations to come.
When you look back at where R&R Marketplace was at the end of 2023, how much has changed?
Beverly Jenkins: So much has happened in the last two and a half to three years. At the end of 2023, we were really focused on getting everybody onboarded — hiring directors, building our support teams, putting policies and procedures in place, and figuring out what it means to operate something that we had never done before.
We spent much of 2024 getting those pieces in place, and 2025 became our stabilization year. It was our challenge year. We were onboarding people, running programs, serving the community, and managing all the things that come with a startup at the same time.
But the crazy thing is that our hardest year was also probably our most impactful year.
What made 2025 so challenging and so impactful?
Beverly: Being a startup was a huge part of it. You can have policies and procedures on paper, but once you’re actually operating, you realize all the things you didn’t anticipate. Suddenly you’re saying, “We need a policy for that. We need a process for this. Who’s going to handle that?”
At the same time, our programming was growing. Employ St. Louis served about 300 people between October and December 2023. That number doubled in 2024 and nearly tripled in 2025.
So, it was a lot of long nights, a lot of work, and a lot of people wearing multiple hats. But we saw businesses take off and people move from working multiple jobs or treating their business as a side hustle to making that business their full-time livelihood.
What are some of the stories that have stayed with you?
Ken Jenkins: Lizzie’s Cakes is a great example. She’s a young woman with an incredible gift for baking, but she was very shy and wasn’t sure how to turn that gift into a business. She was working part time at Amazon and taking on other work while baking cakes on the side.
She applied for one of our entrepreneurship labs, connected with mentors, and learned how to structure the business. Now she’s doing it full time and is booked months in advance. We’re helping her figure out how to scale because she can’t keep up with the demand.
Beverly: What I love most about stories like hers is the confidence. People start to believe, “I can really do this.”
They get mentors who can help them with their financials, business plans, and connections. There’s a lot of what people call social capital walking through these doors, and we’re watching what happens when people have access to that.
You’ve also seen entrepreneurship become a vehicle for community impact.
Beverly: Absolutely. One couple came through our program with a catering business, but they also feed unhoused people. They wanted a food truck so they could continue feeding people while creating a sustainable livelihood for themselves.
One of their mentors gave every founder a $5,000 gift and then bought this couple a food truck. The only requirement was that they develop a strong business plan. They did, and we held a ribbon cutting for the truck last month. It’s called JT’s Snacks and More.
And they’re not just handing out snacks. They’re serving full meals — spaghetti, fried chicken, cornbread, collard greens. They’re using their business to create more capacity to serve people.
Is that the larger idea behind R & R Marketplace?
Ken: That’s really the heart of it. We’ve talked from the beginning about cross-pollination — what happens when someone connects with two or more parts of the ecosystem.
We’re seeing nonprofit and corporate partners being drawn here because they see alignment with what we’re trying to accomplish. We have a program called Redemptive Lab that teaches entrepreneurs to think beyond simply being ethical in business and consider how their businesses can improve the lives of their employees and the people they serve.
What’s being built here isn’t just the physical structure. It’s the ecosystem, and it’s the transformation happening inside people.
Beverly: If we’re not an example of the people we serve, then we’ve missed it. We don’t want to be the superheroes. We’re among the people. This is all together, or it doesn’t work.
That’s why our tagline is: “Come to the R&R Marketplace and be what’s possible, not see it.”
Brilliant Angels is approaching its second anniversary. How has that part of the Marketplace evolved?
Beverly: Brilliant Angels has been phenomenal to watch. We currently have three classrooms open, and we’re working to open three more, including a transition classroom for 2- to 3-year-olds. We have a very long wait list, and the biggest thing holding us back from serving more children is hiring enough educators.
We’ve also become an Employ St. Louis partner and a Department of Labor apprenticeship site, so we’re able to train and certify our own teachers as CDAs. Eventually, we can train educators who will go on to work at other centers, too.
Our director, Peaches, has about 40 years of experience. We’re excited about being able to share what she’s learned with other educators throughout St. Louis.
What does phase two of R&R Marketplace look like now?
Beverly: The vision hasn’t changed much. We’ve enhanced it.
The Black Box Theater is still part of the plan, and we’re working with the Black Rep and other arts and theater organizations. But it’s also going to be a workforce-development space. If someone learns how to build a theater set, those skills can translate into building sets for trade shows and other industries.
There will also be children’s and teen spaces, shared offices for nonprofit and community partners, flex space, retail, counseling space, a garden, event space, and a commercial kitchen. We’ve also added a container village that will give food entrepreneurs a place to incubate their businesses, connected to the garden and commercial kitchen.
Ken: The Black Box will seat about 250 in its own configuration, but it can connect to the sanctuary and community space to accommodate as many as 1,100 people. We’ve already had interest from schools that want to use it for graduations, as well as conferences and other events.
So, it becomes both a community asset and a revenue-generating space.
Where are you in the process of getting phase two built out?
Ken: We’re in pre-construction. We’ve completed the remediation testing, so we know what needs to be removed, and we’re talking with contractors about abatement and demolition. We’re also pursuing Missouri Department of Economic Development tax credits that can help with that work.
At the same time, we’re finishing our feasibility study, identifying donors and foundations, and building out the capital stack. We haven’t officially bid the project yet. We want to make sure the funding makes sense before we fully engage in construction.
One thing we learned from phase one is not to get ahead of where we are financially. We don’t want to take on unnecessary debt. Once the numbers line up, we’ll move quickly.
When phase two is completed, what do you most want that moment to mean for the community?
Beverly: More than anything, I want the community to see that we kept our word. One of the biggest complaints I heard from the community was that people would start things and then leave. They didn’t have staying power.
So, I want us to finish what we started. I want the community to have that celebration and be able to say, “They did it. They stayed.”
Ken: For me, it’s also the privilege of being able to advocate for the community in rooms with elected officials, corporate leaders, and other decision-makers. It’s not an outside voice saying, “We’re going to come in and do this.” We get to show up with real stories about the people who live here and talk about where investment is needed.
It was never about Beverly and me. It’s always been about transforming the community and using what we’ve been given to bless other people.
Eventually, we won’t be able to do this work ourselves. But if we’ve built something that is still serving people generations from now — from the youngest to the eldest — then that’s the legacy we’re excited about.