Meet The Team

Director of Development

Nathan Stern is a Denver native and Pueblo evangelist who leads the development efforts for the Fuel & Iron Project. The flagship for the Project is the redevelopment of the historic Holmes Hardware Building, which is being fully renovated to create the Fuel & Iron Food Hall on the first floor and 28 workforce housing units on the second and third floors. Other facets of the Fuel & Iron Project include Fuel Farm (an acre to the south of the historic building featuring an urban farm, event space and performing arts space), Fuel Kitchens (an incubator commissary kitchen on Pueblo’s East Side catering to packaged products entrepreneurs), 24 additional workforce housing units in partnership with indieDwell, and the Fuel & Iron Bar in Denver.

Prior to concentrating on real estate development, Nathan worked as a commercial real estate broker focusing on the food and beverage industry. He’s also owned his own coffee truck and coffee shop in Denver. Nathan’s love for the people and communities he works with allows him to build deep and lasting relationships, which translates into real estate projects that make Colorado a better place to live.

Director of Operations and Mentorship

Jolene “Jojo” Collins is the CEO and Founder of Love Hard, Inc. and the creator of Jojo’s Sriracha, an award winning, wild fermented sriracha. Jojo’s Sriracha was incorporated in Brooklyn in 2012 but has been produced for the last five seasons in Pueblo using Pueblo chilies. She has worked alongside the Pueblo Food Project since 2019 to create curriculum and build a network of resources for food and beverage entrepreneurs. She currently teaches the Pueblo Food Project Entrepreneur Development Program.

Jojo received her Master’s in Human Communication Studies from the University of Denver in 2008 and has spent over a decade teaching communication courses at community colleges in New York and Colorado. In 2018, Jojo received the Teacher of the Year award in Language Arts and Communication from the Community College of Colorado Online for her work on building an Open Educational Resource course in Intercultural Communication. Jojo is skilled in food manufacturing, food safety, branding, social media, email marketing and website development.

Warehouse Manager

John Flores is a Pueblo native born and raised on the Eastside. As a Colorado native he enjoys the outdoors and the natural beauty that Colorado has to offer. John also enjoys photography and was raised with a passion for anything automotive. Highly knowledgeable with most automotive trivia. he has a basic Auto Mechanic Certification. John takes pride in calling “The Steel City” his home. Along with that growing up with the local traditions make Pueblo a great place to be. He loves how Pueblo is welcoming and accepting to all diversities and how each one forms a niche in the Pueblo traditions. With the great traditions also comes the great mix in diversity in our food. He is excited for the next evolution of building Pueblo’s food traditions.