BALLSTON SPA – Draw one line at a time. Finish, then draw another line. Then another. That’s what Betsy Seplowitz teaches her art classes on how to draw a mandala. Build on simple elements and repeat. It’s the same model she uses to fight food insecurity. Provide funds for one meal. Then another meal. And another meal.
Through Nourish Designs, her mission-based shop on Milton Avenue in Ballston Spa that she opened in late 2019, Seplowitz has combined her love and talent of creating mandala designs, symmetrical patterns, usually repeating circular shapes, with her need to have a purpose and do “something” beyond just selling her art. Each of her creations, everything from shirts and hats, tote bags and stationery, ceramics and home goods, has her mandala design with a price tag that lists how many meals that purchase will provide.
She first realized the severe meal gap volunteering to help with the BackPack Program at Milton Terrace Elementary School where her children attended. Seplowitz was hit by the reality that as many as one-in-seven students did not know where their next meal was coming from. The backpacks, discreetly distributed to students on Friday with food provided by the Regional Food Bank, might be their only weekend source of nutritious meals.
“It was hard for me to process,” said Seplowitz. “How are they supposed to succeed in elementary school and then succeed in middle school and high school when at age 7 they’re hungry on the weekends? That kind of ate at me.”
“The word Nourish just popped into my head because the art was really nourishing me – making me a better person and I thought I had an opportunity to nourish kids,” said Seplowitz. “I decided any item I sold would provide funding for meals for kids. So a T-shirt for $29 provided 12 meals for children.”
With the Regional Food Bank’s Betsy Dickson, the Director of Children’s Programs and Bethany Stiles, now the Vice President of Marketing and Communications, Seplowitz made sure the funding from products sold would be donated back to the Food Bank. She said she would be thrilled to provide a thousand meals. She hit that mark in just the first month.
“Now I’m at 332,946 meals. I have a board in my window that shows the meals. You have to be specific because every meal matters.”
She said the tags pass on the message of food insecurity. “It’s a question. What are the meals about? Then they flip the tag over – oh, there are kids that need food. So, it raises awareness. We try to educate people that kids need help here.”