ORMOND BEACH — Mitchell Booth, founder of the Love Whole Foods Cafe & Market stores in Ormond Beach and Port Orange, died unexpectedly of a sudden illness Sept. 23, his family confirmed.

"Mitch lived the life he preached," said his widow, Paula Schandel. "We lost a tremendous heart and a tremendous light in our community."

Booth, 73, opened his first Love Whole Foods store in The Trails Shopping Center in Ormond Beach in 1991 with his then-wife, the late Anita Booth who died in 2006.

The couple were former photojournalists who worked for the Hartford Courant newspaper in Hartford, Connecticut, prior to moving to the Daytona Beach area.

Booth who went by the nickname "Mitch" also worked as a photojournalist for the Detroit Free Press. He grew up in Detroit and graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in fine arts.

He left the journalism field when he got hired by Traveler's Insurance to become the company's corporate photographer. That job had him flying all over the country to take photos of catastrophes, including fires, floods and areas damaged by hurricanes, as well as various corporate events.

Booth and his first wife became fans of a natural food store chain in the New England area called Bread & Circus. That inspired them to open Love Whole Foods when they moved to Florida.

The growing business for the health food store prompted the couple to relocate their Ormond Beach store to its present location on the corner of Williamson Boulevard and Hand Avenue on Sept. 1, 2001.

A second location for Love Whole Foods opened in Port Orange, near the intersection of Williamson and Taylor Road in 2011.

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'Invest in your health one bite at a time'

Booth was proud of the fact that his stores lived up to their name of offering truly whole foods and wellness products. "We're the largest organic, contaminate-free, local family-owned full-service grocery store in Volusia-Flagler if you combine our two stores," he said in a 2019 interview.

Booth's passion for health foods and healthy living was also evident in another interview he gave to The News-Journal four years earlier. "The best health insurance is making sure your food is the healthiest you can get. You invest in your health one bite at a time,” he said.

One way Love Whole Foods differentiated itself from the big grocery chains, Booth said, was by standing by the principles he and his first wife established when they began their business.

Those standards, he said, included a commitment to only sell natural and organic food that is free of “artificial additives and mystery ingredients” and a willingness to verify to customers “the integrity of our suppliers and (that) the food we sell will not be irradiated or bio-engineered.

“They (the big grocery chains) are primarily about marketing and driven by corporate standards, whereas we are a local family-run business, which has been investing not only money into our communities’ schools and local farms but also time and energy in educational seminars free to the public.”

'Lived his life wanting to help people'

Paula Schandel said of her husband, "He had the biggest heart of anybody I'd ever met. He lived his life wanting to help people."

Paula Schandel said the family-run business will carry on, led by Booth's son, Mark Van Cleef, and daughter-in-law, Peggy Van Cleef.

"Last week, we lost a great man and a great friend," said longtime friend and customer Jenni Craig, who was a childhood friend of Booth's daughter Capt. Laura Warner of Volusia County Beach Safety Ocean Rescue.

Craig is one of the owners of Copper Bottom Craft Distillery in Holly Hill along with her husband and in-laws.

"Mitch was generous and kind, and his knowledge healed so many lives in our community. I treasure the memories and everything he taught me."

In addition to Schandel, the Van Cleefs, and Warner, Mitchell Booth is also survived by his two sisters, Joannie and Julie Booth, as well as his and his wife's son Paul Schandel, who works for Foundation Risk Partners. He is also survived by six grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, Paula Schandel said she and her family requests donations in Booth's memory to the Vietnam Veterans of Volusia County and the Tunnels to Towers Foundation. The latter is a nonprofit that provides mortgage-free homes to Gold Star and fallen first-responder families with young children.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Mitchell Booth, founder of Love Whole Foods in Ormond Beach, dies