McAlister’s receives chamber’s monthly honor

February 13, 2026

BY HOPE KING

ENTERPRISE-JOURNAL

From left, front row, are Crystal Hollins, KeKey Jackson, Nyla Lenoir, Joseph Cooper, Philip Scheel, Latasha Haley, Michelle Lombas, Lacy Clark, Brandi Kelley, Angela Simmons and Mary Ann Ashley.

Despite being a chain restaurant, General Manag er Philip Scheel is adamant that McAlister’s is as invest ed in the local community as any other small business. “We are all about giving back to our community, and even though we are a corpo rate-owned store and not lo cally owned, we are locally operated,” he said. “... They say shop local and support lo cal, well we’re just as local as anyone else. Because of all the support that we get from our community … we are able to support our community back.” That local support has earned McAlister’s the Pike County Chamber of Com merce’s Business of the Month award. Scheel said the restaurant donates meals to several pro grams, including Camp Sun shine and the Open Doors Theater Project. The restaurant, which has been in operation in McComb for six years, is a national training center for McAlis ter’s, which brings in people from all over the country to McComb for training. While receiving the Busi ness of the Month award, Scheel thanked the chamber and the community. “I just want to say thank y’all for supporting our store, supporting and recog nizing what we do with this opportunity that this com pany has given us to support our town. I feel like we al ways try to show our best and I feel like all of y’all do the same,” he said. “This is just a shining example of the good and the positive that McComb can do here and we try to emphasize that here with our store, with our community outreach, and our youth that we employ.”