Food brings people together as they celebrate their love for sweets and all things delicious. With this in mind, Tiger Family Chiropractic and Wellness Center is sponsoring Columbia’s first chocolate festival, Dec. 4 from noon till 4 p.m. at Parkade Plaza, Business Loop 70 West.

Sarah Cox of Tiger Family Chiropractic and Wellness Center said they hope it becomes a yearly event. Their goal is to strengthen the support of local businesses and vendors helping by sponsoring the festival.
“Every vendor will have something chocolate related and we will even have a hot chocolate bar, chocolate fountain and chocolate glazed ribs,” Cox said. “We have vendors such as Perfectly Posh, Tupperware, [and] 31.”
Senior Clare Brown is delighted to attend Columbia’s first ever chocolate festival and believes the festival will be educational.
“Because you can get a taste of other country’s chocolate and kind of learn the history of it,” Brown said, “the sound of a chocolate festival is really crazy. When I first heard about it I was really excited to even have the chance to go.”
With the help of businesses such as Kaldi’s Coffee, 29 S 9th St #1, and Paparazzi, 212 N 5th St, Moberly, Missouri, the chocolate festival is  a  completely free and family friendly event to encourage holiday shopping.
The marketing and communications manager for Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), Megan McConachie hopes this festival will lead to a strong tradition that brings people together as a community and believes it will bring in people from other cities, as well.
“Any sort of event or festival adds to what we call our tourism product. Basically, that equates to the idea that the more a destination has going on throughout the year,” McConachie said, “the more likely it will be seen as a desirable place to visit. When we have visitors in town, there’s a tremendous benefit to our local economy. Visitors spend money at our hotels, restaurants, festivals, attractions and other local businesses, which in turn supports local jobs and our overall quality of life.”
Do you think having an annual chocolate festival will bring in tourism?