Augusta entrepreneur, caterer to speak at Women in Workforce Luncheon

Published 5:00 pm Thursday, March 23, 2023

By Kevin C. Hall | kevin.hall@gaflnews.com

Vera Stewart, an Augusta caterer and entrepreneur, will speak April 28 at the Women in the Workforce Luncheon sponsored by First National Bank of Moultrie.

MOULTRIE, Ga. — First National Bank will present its annual Women in the Workforce Luncheon April 28 with featured speaker Vera Stewart.

The luncheon will be held on the Courthouse Square in Downtown Moultrie. Reservations can be made by calling the Moultrie-Colquitt County Chamber of Commerce at (229) 985-2131.

“First National Bank’s Annual Women in the Workforce Event objective has always been to empower, motivate, and inspire working women,” the bank said in an email to The Observer. “We continue to do this by inviting powerful women speakers to share personal stories at our events. The subjects, led by the women, touch on many challenges women face, from mental health and abusive relationships to discrimination in the workplace.”

A 1974 graduate of the University of Georgia, Stewart taught home economics in high school for four years until motherhood brought her out of the classroom and into the home, where her catering business was born, according to a bio on her website, veryvera.com.

“The event that put her business on the map was the inaugural luncheon for Governor Joe Frank Harris in 1983,” the biography says, “and in 1984, the VeryVera brand was crafted. To continue the company’s growth, she diversified into a multifaceted catering and mail-order business with national sales.”

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Over time, Stewart’s enterprise, based in Augusta, Ga., has added a summer cooking school, the VeryVera Cooking Camp; The VeryVera Show, a cooking and lifestyle show with national sponsors; and “The VeryVera Cookbook: Recipes from My Table,” which published in April 2018.

“Each week, tens of thousands of fans tune in to watch her put a twist on classic Southern recipes and introduce new ways to entertain,” her bio says of her TV show. “The VeryVera Show is dearly loved for Vera’s take on Southern cuisine, prized giveaways, and well-known culinary figures from the South and beyond, including Tyler Florence, Nathalie Dupree, Virginia Willis, The Lee Brothers, and Rebecca Lang.”

The VeryVera Show is syndicated on 40 stations from Tampa, Fla., to Minneapolis, Minn. It can be seen locally at 1 p.m. Saturdays on WSWG, the Albany Fox affiliate, and WSST from Cordele, according to veryvera.com.

Many episodes are also available on YouTube.