#BWHM: From Layoff To Legacy — How Dawn Kelly Built The Nourish Spot Into A Queens Wellness Empire [Exclusive]
Dawn Kelly, founder of The Nourish Spot, is celebrating nearly a decade in business with her beloved health food eatery in Jamaica, Queens. The busy entrepreneur opened up about the ups and downs that led her into business. The post #BWHM: From Layoff To Legacy — How Dawn Kelly Built The Nourish Spot Into A Queens Wellness Empire [Exclusive] appeared first on MadameNoire.
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Dawn Kelly, founder of The Nourish Spot in Jamaica, Queens, is a living, breathing testament of what it looks like to take a leap of faith and bet on yourself. The divine entrepreneur is celebrating almost a decade in business at her beloved health food eatery which was born in 2016, one year after she was abruptly laid off from the corporate workforce. Notably, the big milestone comes right at the start of Black Women’s History Month.
“Sometimes, when I sit home alone, I stand in awe, not of myself, but of what God has done with me, because It’s hard for me to sit here and talk to you and tell you that I have a business that’s about to be 10 years old,” Kelly told MadamenNoire on the verge of happy tears via Zoom.
A tasty and nourishing menu.
The Queens-bred entrepreneur’s thriving business has become a cornerstone along Guy R. Brewer Boulevard in Southeast Jamaica, Queens, an area often underserved when it comes to nutritious food options. Committed to uplifting the community, the shop offers a variety of wholesome selections, including customizable smoothies, fresh salads, natural juice blends, wraps, and more.
A standout menu item — one of Kelly’s favorite’s — is the Berry Crazy smoothie filled with blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and mixed with a touch of agave, honey and coco water.
“It’s heaven for me!” Kelly gushed. “I get a little anxious when it starts to get to the bottom, like, ‘Oh no, I want more!’”
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Grounded in a mission of wellness, the shop aims to inspire healthier, happier lifestyles by encouraging better eating habits and helping reduce the risk of diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, health complications that have been on the rise over the last decade. Kelly said it’s an honor to be nourishing the community that raised her while making an impact.
“I live in Southeast Jamaica, Queens, we are considered a food desert, and we have been considered a food desert since the 50s and the 60s. So, I feel delighted, I feel proud,” she shared. “I feel grateful that I’m able to deliver the change that my community needed because it’s a community that not just raised me, but it raised my children, it raised my mother.”
A proud mother of two, Kelly runs The Nourish Spot alongside her children, most closely with her daughter, Jade Duncan, who has worked by her side to help grow the brand and shape the shop’s flavorful menu. A trained chef, Jade brings culinary expertise honed at Johnson & Wales to the business.
As she reflected on the path that led her to her life’s calling in the health food industry, she paused, visibly moved. After losing her corporate role at Fortune 500 firm Prudential Financial at age 52, Kelly entered a deep period of grief. She had devoted nearly 16 years to the company as Vice President of Global Communications, traveling the world while leading internal communications and external media relations for its centers of excellence, a role she truly loved.
“I was devastated,” she said of that period.
The post #BWHM: From Layoff To Legacy — How Dawn Kelly Built The Nourish Spot Into A Queens Wellness Empire [Exclusive] appeared first on MadameNoire.
