Blooms

Story By Emery Lay Photos Contributed By Nourish Blooms

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The Nourish Foundation was founded in 2016 by Beth Hornsby and Katie Wolter with the mission to help those in need in the Auburn-Opelika area by bringing meals to food-insecure families. Wolter, who was a nutrition major in college, saw a need to be met in her work as a pediatrician.

“I've always been interested in nutrition and … just how much of an effect nutrition can have on your overall health,” Wolter said. “Reading about (how) one in four kids in Alabama are food insecure … and seeing that in my own patient population, kind of led me to reach out to Beth and ask if she'd be willing to kind of do the food component of it. And she was eager to do it … So, it was kind of birthed out of that.”

The Nourish Foundation started as “Nourish Alabama”. Its mission was simple: get fresh produce boxed or bagged once a week and bring them to Wolter’s office at Pediatric Associates of Auburn. From there, volunteers would deliver the supplies to food-insecure families once a week.

In 2018, Wolter also decided to start Nourish Blooms, an offshoot from the Nourish Foundation. Wolter said she has loved gardening since childhood, learning from the best and brightest — her grandmother. As she began to grow her own garden, Wolter realized that she could use this skill to help fund the Nourish Alabama component of the project.

“I'm probably the hindrance of it growing because … I do still practice,” Wolter said. “So, I just don't have the capacity to grow it to the extent that I think could be supported by our community.”

The Nourish Foundation currently only has one other employee outside of Hornsby and Wolter: Abigail Hunt. Hunt completes the administrative work for the foundation, including what comes from Nourish Blooms. Wolter said this has helped her “tremendously.”

Despite the small staff, Nourish Blooms is still thriving. In 2020 alone, Nourish Blooms covered over 80% of the expenses for Nourish Alabama. Funds from the flowers that are bought flow directly into Nourish’s account and back out into the community to provide for the food insecure.

“We're trying to transition this a little bit,” Wolter said. “For the most part, my husband and I bought all the supplies; Like, we pay for the land … All of the money goes into Nourish Alabama

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Abigail Hunt

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right now, however, it's not a super sustainable model. And so, we're trying to have it where, you know, at least some of that money goes back into the program … purchases, fees, compost and things like that.” For every standard $20-30 bouquet that is purchased, Nourish estimates that money will feed a family for an entire week. “Our boxes cost somewhere between $15 to $20 a week, just depending on what components are in there,” Wolter said. “To cover that, usually one bouquet goes to that. And then there's a little bit of margin there, or where we can, you know, put money back into the program.”

To buy these bouquets, and simultaneously support the food-insecure, visit www.nourishblooms. com/shop. Flower arrangements are also available for pre-sale at Coffee Cat and other pop-up shops. Recently, Nourish Blooms held a pop-up at Sidetrack Coffee shop in Opelika and hopes to continue to work with them in the future.

“We would love to have a more consistent place,” Wolter said, looking to the future of Nourish Blooms.

In 2021, Nourish Blooms has been reaching out even further into the community, hoping to spread its limbs and deepen its roots.

“We try to let [people] know that with each purchase, they're feeding a family in need,” Wolter said.

Additionally, Nourish Blooms participates in the annual Downtown Family Supper, sponsored by the Downtown Merchants Association, a nonprofit organization that works to support the downtown scene. Participating restaurants have included Acre, The Hound, The Depot, Amsterdam, Hamilton’s and Ariccia.

Nourish Blooms has participated for two years now, and each year provides the flowers for the event. Blooms, the named charity for the night, receives a portion of the proceeds. Wolter said she hopes the event will be held again in May 2022, and possibly begin a separate supper in Opelika at some point.

Nourish Blooms once did a “Blooms and Bake Sale”, which it hoped would be a recurring theme. However, COVID hit, throwing the plans askew. Wolter said she is hoping the event will be reinstated this fall in late September or early October.

“We had volunteers in the community bake goods for us,” she said. “Then, I had the blooms, of course, and we did it outside of Mama Mocha’s in Opelika. And it was really successful, and my kids helped us sell.”

Moving forward, the Nourish Foundation will be creating another offshoot. It was just recently awarded a grant for Nourish Wellness. The Wellness branch of the foundation will be a multidisciplinary pediatric wellness center at the Boykin Community Center in Auburn. The foundation hopes to open the new branch in the fall or winter of this year.

The center will offer pediatric, nursing, pharmacy, nutrition and child life care. There will be a mindfulness curriculum, a physical activity curriculum and a nutrition curriculum. In addition, there will be monthly family classes for each of the components.

“It’s for patients that have that are resourcechallenged,” Wolter said. “It’s for kids that are either at risk of or have a risk of developing or have obesity, Type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome (or) hypertension. So basically, all of those things can be called ‘lifestyle illnesses’ … We’re hoping that from a multidisciplinary approach, that we can either reverse or prevent those illnesses in kids that are at higher risk for developing them.”

For more information about Nourish Wellness, visit its website at www.nourishblooms.com, sponsor the business at www.nourishal.square. site, or follow on Instagram @nourishblooms.

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