Bettering the lives of disadvantaged women

By Mike Switzer

Published July 4, 2022 at 5:30 AM EDT

John Warner introduced us to our next guest during one of our regular Monday morning discussions back in January. He told us about a social enterprise lunch cafe designed to provide employment to abused women in the Upstate. It’s part of a two-year residential program for adult women survivors of human trafficking, prostitution, and addiction. Mike Switzer interviews Beth Messick, executive director of Jasmine Road in Greenville, SC.

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Mike Switzer

After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.

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