Despite how polished the place looks online and in-person, the new Juice Café on Brannen Street isn't a franchise, but a unique Statesboro-born business owned by a couple whose principal source of income, right now, is the U.S. Army.
        Wife Williatte and husband Keyron Cooper met while in the service and married in 2011.
        She's originally from a tiny town in South Carolina. He's from Trinidad by way of New York. She served in the Army six years and was discharged as a corporal in September 2015. He is a sergeant, still serving. He was stationed at Fort Drum in New York and she at Fort Gordon in Augusta when they chose Statesboro as their new home town two to three years ago.
        He got a transfer to Fort Stewart, and she got out.
        Back in civilian life and now with two children, Williatte Cooper wanted to start a restaurant-type business but also wanted it to be a place that would help people live healthier lives.
        "I want it to be something more health-conscious because I think that's something we don't think about until it's too late, until we have diabetes or cholesterol problems or our liver fails or our kidneys fail," she said. "That's when we start to think about it."
        People now are taking so many medications, but she believes "prevention is better than cure," she said.

Mom's inspiration
        One direct inspiration was her first daughter Keyona, now 5. She was born premature, and experienced a delay in talking, her mother said. Convinced by internet research that nutrition could play a role, Cooper insisted that Keyona eat fresh, real foods instead of processed and sugary things.
        "So she doesn't eat Pop-Tarts and all of those other things, and now my daughter is able to talk, where she didn't talk to me really for years. She's able to write. ... She does all of these different things," Cooper said. "That's what Juice Café really is about. It's about changing people's lives."
        At Juice Café, Cooper and employees make smoothies fresh to order, such as the Green Garden, from kale, spinach, pineapple, kiwi and carrots; and the Bumble Bee, from mango, pineapple, orange, and green grapes, among many others. Agave is the only added sweetener. There are also cold-pressed juices that can be purchased to go.
        Lunch items include salads, wraps and flatbreads.

Retail experience
        After the Army, Cooper worked at a couple of retail establishments, including at a Walmart, and so learned about customer service and keeping the books, she said.
        With her juice bar currently open 11 hours daily Monday through Friday and six hours on Saturday, she is employing 10 to 13 people, most of them college students working part-time. Multiple helpers are needed to prep all the fresh fruit and make sure everything is appropriately stored, and she doesn't like for customers to have to wait, she added.
        The café is not open on Sundays, she told a visitor, explaining that her church is important to her. The Coopers attend the Redeeming Love Worship Center. Besides Keyona, they now have a baby daughter, Wynter Grace, age 8 months.
        To a question about how the business was funded or financed, Cooper gave an answer about faith.

Faith and friends
        "I figure everything that we ever wanted, we always got it," she said. "We believe in prayer. We have funds, but our money has been stretched a lot, which gave us this opportunity to get this place and to be able to sustain it, and not have worries of certain things."
        So, the business has come together by God's grace, with no financing needed, she said.
        A do-it-yourself approach and friends have helped. Three café-style metal chairs and a small table, all costing about $200, were the only furniture items purchased new, she said. Her friend Nicey Porter reupholstered a loveseat bought used from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. Some other items came from Goodwill.
        Another friend, Brittanee Collins, handles her marketing and advertising. She also made framed wall art, pictures with sayings such as "Be a pineapple: Stand tall, wear a crown and be sweet on the inside."
        Cooper and friends furnished and decorated the shop in about three months with some late nights.
        "This didn't really take a lot of money, it just took a lot of dedicated people," Cooper said.
        Using online tools, she designed the Juice Café logo, an orange with a straw in it, herself.
        Juice Café already has an active presence on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, as well as its website, www.juicecafestatesboro.com.
        In business since Jan. 21, Juice Café, which is beside the Shogun restaurant, will celebrate its grand opening Wednesday, with a ribbon to be cut at 10:15 a.m. The café also will begin offering a new, expanded menu, becoming "a full-blown health spot," Cooper said.
        Herald reporter Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.