Meghan and Tim Fehr last month acquired Body and Soul in downtown Morris, following the retirement of Rick Eddy, who founded the health food store in 1996.

The expansion of products, groceries and services is underway, said Meghan (Pfaff) Fehr, who operates the business with the help of family members. The shop will remain open during construction to add a salt therapy room.

“I was born and raised in Morris; my family has been here forever,” she said. “My husband was born and raised in Coal City.”

Calling health and wellness their passion, she said education will be a key mission of Body and Soul.

“We really want to have a store that came from giving people access to information, where they didn’t feel pushed to buy anything, but we could educate as much as possible so people can make informed decisions,” Meghan Fehr said. “We are by no means an alternative to formal medical care, but we want people to know there are options out there. I found a lot of help through nutrition, … supplements, calming activities like a salt room. We’ve seen the benefits in our own life.”

A wellness store can be daunting because of an overwhelming number of items even within the same category, so guidance will be provided on what products do and how they may assist, she said. A fresh educational piece appears each Monday on the Facebook page, the first detailing the differences between multiple magnesium supplements, the second about omegas.

For the coming halotherapy experience, they are working with SALT Chamber Inc., which equips salt rooms in such settings as The Ritz-Carlton, she said.

“We love them and they are helping us come up with an actual formal design plan for it,” said Meghan Fehr, noting the new salt room will have seats for six people for 45-minute sessions in which a high-quality generator pushes salt particles into the air.

Beyond relaxation, wellness benefits are believed to include support of the respiratory system. Body and Soul plans to offer options for children to come in for playtime with buckets, pails, toy tractors and excavators to dig in the salt that will be on the floor.

In the future, the couple hope to add PEMF therapy, or Pulsed Electromagnetic Fields.

“It’s great for your central nervous system,” Meghan Fehr said.

Since she was a child, her family have been customers of Rick’s Body and Soul.

The now slightly renamed store will continue to carry eggs from Little Farm on the Prairie in Morris, but will expand the selection to include more of the farm’s many varieties of chicken eggs, she said. Another regional vendor is the BuzzWorthy honey farm.

“We are looking to bring in more meat and produce as well,” she said of the planned growth of grocery and refrigerator section offerings. “We are expanding into makeup for women. We will have a lower- and a higher-end option so that price point wise there’s something for everybody.”

Added will be items from Just Ingredients Inc., which also offers men’s personal care products, such as body lotion, deodorant and aftershave. The brand promises clean, real ingredients with nothing artificial.

“Everything you put on your body is absorbed into your body,” Meghan Fehr said. “We don’t want to be fear-mongering. You want to be conscious of the ingredients – what you are topically applying as well as what you are ingesting.”

For warmer weather, the store will offer insect repellent, hair care products for pool season and expanded sunscreen options.

Newly added to the shop will be specialty items from Ethereal Craft Chocolate in Woodstock, highlighting organic chocolate and coconut sugar.

Praising the ownership transition process, Meghan Fehr said, “Rick has been absolutely amazing. He has been very helpful with us. … Rick built such a fabulous foundation. We want to expand on what he built and honor his legacy.”

Rick Eddy and his wife, Lanett, relocated to Ottawa last year.

“God has blessed me,” Eddy said. “It’s something we prayed for some time to make sure we had the right people to take over. … Tim and Meghan turned out to be more than we expected. Meghan’s family have been customers of mine for years, so they knew our business. I couldn’t be happier with them taking the store over. It’s truly a blessing.”

Thanks to the shop, he said he developed relationships with people he’d otherwise never have known.

“It’s been a great privilege and honor to have the store for 30 years,” he said. “I couldn’t have picked a better business for myself: helping people, making so many friends over the years and so many good customers.”

Meghan Fehr said she feels an affinity for the retail setting after her father’s long sales career in the car industry.

“I did grow up with that work ethic,” said Meghan Fehr, whose daughter Everly and son Archer are turning 6 and 3, respectively.

“We’re very excited for them to grow up experiencing this and seeing what it is to be able to help people and provide something to the community,” she said.

A grand opening celebration party is planned once construction is done, tentatively by May, with a website going live in late April.

“My husband and his father are doing most of the construction,” Meghan Fehr said. “They’ve grown up in the trades.”

Hours currently are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays at 320 W. Illinois Ave. in Morris. Store hours will be extended into the evening as the salt room launches. Body and Soul will continue its delivery service. To learn more, visit Facebook at tinyurl.com/4xkkvmmd.