Mid-Missouri Restaurant Association Awards Annual Heartland Scholarship to New Haven’s Tristen Hagar

​Columbia, Mo., April 20, 2017— Each year, the Mid-Missouri Chapter of the Missouri Restaurant Association (MMRA) awards scholarships to University of Missouri students who are preparing to enter or are majoring in hospitality management in the University’s College of Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources (CAFNR.) All must have shown exceptional promise in this important industry, and those chosen are among the best.  
 
Among the most prestigious of these awards is the Heartland/MMRA Scholarship, which this was presented to Tristen Hagar, a junior from New Haven.  The award was presented at the recent annual MMRA awards dinner, held earlier this month.
 
“I would first like to thank the Mid-Missouri Restaurant Association for giving me this award,” Hagar said. “It proves that with hard work and dedication, good things can happen.  Because of this award my senior year upcoming is completely paid for. I’m excited to see where this path in my life will take me.  Thank you again.”
 
Other scholarship winners include:  Heidi Hilbert, Liberty; Devin Tarantino, Denver, Colorado, and Jennifer Mammele, Joplin.  
 
Heartland’s full name is Heartland Payment Systems, a processing firm that specializes in handling credit transactions and payroll processing for restaurants.  Heartland has been supportive of MMRA events both locally and statewide on an ongoing basis.  
 
Helped in part by matching funds provided by the National Restaurant Association, the Mid-Missouri Restaurant Association and its parent, the Missouri Restaurant Association, have awarded close to $250,000 in college-level scholarships in recent years. 
 
The Missouri Restaurant Association, to which most Columbia, Jefferson City and Lake of the Ozarks restaurants belong, administers to the needs of more than 1,600 members statewide. Its objectives are to enhance and improve member growth and development by assisting them in becoming more effective operators, and improving the political and social environment in which the industry conducts its business — for the benefit of patrons, employees, and communities served.