Nourish Spot owner offers mentorship, support to
local business owners during Black History Month
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | FEB. 18 - FEB. 24, 2022 21
BY THE AMERICAN HEART
ASSOCIATION
This February, during
Black History Month, the
American Heart Association
is encouraging Black women
to Reclaim Your Rhythm and
take control of their mental
and physical well-being. For
years we’ve been striving to ensure
everyone has an optimal,
just opportunity to be healthy.
But this is not the reality for
many people of color and others
whose health suffers because
of social factors beyond their
control.
In fact, in New York City,
people in some under-resourced
ZIP codes have shorter
life expectancies than their
neighbors just a few miles
away. And around the country,
people in often-remote rural
areas face significantly higher
death rates from heart disease
and stroke.
COVID-19 has illuminated
these unacceptable health
disparities and worsened the
problems. The pandemic and
economic hardships have disproportionately
harmed the
health of Black, Latino and Native
American people.
Structural racism is a driver
of health disparities, report
declares
The nation’s history of
structural racism must be
acknowledged as a driver of
health problems and shortened
lives for Black people and other
racial and ethnic groups says
an American Heart Association
report that seeks to spark
action to fix the problem.
The idea that racism adversely
affects an individual’s
health is not new, said Dr. Keith
Churchwell, president of Yale
New Haven Hospital, who led
the writing group for the advisory.
For example, racism has
been shown to lead to stress,
depression and long-lasting,
cumulative damage to the body
and brain.
“Structural racism has been
and remains a fundamental
cause of persistent health disparities
in the United States,”
declares the presidential advisory.
It offers a summary of the
historical context of structural
discrimination, connects it to
current health disparities and
looks for ways to dismantle or
mitigate its continuing effects.
Structural racism refers
to “the ways in which society
is set up in such a way that
advantages and opportunities
are preferentially given to
those of one race rather than
to another,” said co-author Dr.
Mitchell Elkind, immediate
past president of the American
Heart Association for 2021-22, a
neurologist at New York-Presbyterian/
Columbia University
Irving Medical Center in New
York City. “We have to change
the underlying structure that
allows that to happen.”
We know things like high
blood pressure, diabetes and
smoking lead to cardiovascular
disease, Elkind said. And
higher rates of those problems
in some groups lead to health
disparities. For example, Black
people in the United States are
much more likely to die from
heart disease or stroke than
their white counterparts.
Structural racism is “an important,
fundamental driver”
of such differences, he said.
Which means doctors, scientists,
policymakers and others
have a role in addressing it.
“The consequences of racism
in the past persist in such
a way that certain racial and
ethnic groups still live in poor
neighborhoods that have less
green space, that have poor air
quality, have a more dangerous
environment that may preclude
exercise and healthy behaviors,
may have less nutritious food
options, and certainly suboptimal
educational experiences,”
Elkind said. “These things
have not gone away.”
The American Heart Association
is committed to advancing
health equity — which
can exist only when all people
can have the opportunity to
enjoy healthier lives. We’re
removing barriers to health
through work in communities,
scientific research, advocating
for healthy policies and more.
Please join us on this critical
journey.
For information about
the American Heart Association’s
commitment to health
equity please visit heart.org/
healthequity.
BY BILL PARRY
United Way New York
City is partnering with a Jamaica
small business owner
to expand on her mentorship
during Black History Month
to Black-owned businesses
across Queens and the city
that has struggled during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
When UWNYC launched
its Together We Thrive: Black
Business Network in February
2021, Dawn Kelly, the owner
of the Nourish Spot, located
at 107-05 Guy Brewer Blvd.,
was among the first to join the
initiative to help mentor entrepreneurs
struggling through
the economic shutdown.
“I’m very grateful Thrive
selected me to help expand the
program,” Kelly said. “It allows
me to mentor more young
people, women and minority
small business owners to
achieve their entrepreneurial
dreams during such difficult
times when so many were
forced to close down during
the pandemic.”
The Howard University
alum beat out more than a
million entrepreneurs when
she was recognized by the
U.S. Small Business Administration
as its Microbusiness
Person of the Year for 2019.
Growing up in South Jamaica,
she always dreamed of having
her own business and began
to work towards that goal after
she was laid off from her
successful career in public
relations for a financial service
firm in 2015. She decided
to use her savings to fund the
Nourish Spot with a menu that
reflected her passion for the
healing power of nutrition,
with smoothies, salads and
juices made with a selection
of locally sourced fruits and
vegetables.
Kelly’s friends had tried
to discourage her, fearing the
neighborhood would not support
a health food business.
She opened the Nourish Spot
and found many of her permanent
employees from local
nonprofits and participated in
the NYC Summer Youth Empowerment
Program. Her employees
and interns have a special
experience working for a
Black woman-owned business
as well as learning about ways
to prepare healthier foods.
“Throughout the pandemic
we were able to stay open due
to my young staff,” Kelly said.
“The staff, all former interns,
are paid a fair wage. Everyone
in my store makes at least $15
an hour.”
Guidance from the Together
We Thrive Program
not only helped her keep her
staff employed, but her neighborhood
also nourished, and
it now promotes her to the
marketplace to other Blackowned
businesses in Queens,
embodying their community’s
resilience and creativity.
Together We Thrive is a
coalition that provides access
to capital, networks and technical
assistance to support
the survival, success and sustainability
of Black-owned
businesses.
“As we celebrate the work
of historic figures during
Black History Month, we also
have to uplift the contributions
of current visionaries
who are the product of their
ancestors’ hard-won efforts,”
said Stefanie Alleyne, senior
manager of small business
and workforce development
at Together We Thrive. “As
the saying goes ‘we are our
ancestors’ wildest dream,’
and Dawn truly exemplifies
that in how she developed her
business and uses it as an opportunity
to provide healthy
options to her community.
Caption: Nourish Spot owner Dawn Kelly is working with the United
Way New York City in a mentoring program during Black History
Month. Credit: Photo courtesy of The Nourish Spot
Photo via Getty Images
Black History Month: Structural racism
is a driver of health disparities
/QNS.COM
/heart.org
