BALLSTON SPA — Inside Nourish Designs on Milton Avenue in Ballston Spa, mandalas are on just about everything from T-shirts to cards.
Each item in the store not only offers an original doodle by owner Betsy Seplowitz, but also an opportunity to help fight food insecurity.
Seplowitz began doodling around four years ago as a stay-at-home mom as a way to relieve stress. During that time, she was also volunteering as part of the Ballston Spa School District’s backpack program through the elementary school, which provides a backpack of food to students on the weekend who are facing food insecurity.
As her designs got more complex, her friends encouraged her to do more with them.
So, she started putting them on items.
“I started with a towel, a tote bag, a T-shirt and some note cards,” she said.
Her first pop-up did so well, she kept doing them while also growing an online presence and eventually decided it was time to open a brick-and-mortar store.
She said she opened her location in the heart of the village in November 2021.
As part of the foundation of her business, proceeds from every item sold in the store goes to pay for meals for children through the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York.
“When I started volunteering, I had no concept that one in six kids in this area are food insecure and I just couldn’t imagine trying to be a kid and be hungry,” she said. “I really felt that in order for kids to launch and be successful, they need to have their basic needs met, and that’s why I allocated specifically just for kids with the hope that if they have a stronger foundation in elementary school, they can keep progressing at a more successful rate.”
Since opening, she has been able to provide more than 200,000 meals. The number is displayed in her store and kept updated.
Over the last couple of years, Seplowitz said the business has grown a lot, much of it by word of mouth.
As part of that growth, she now does custom pieces for organization and businesses. She also carries other artists’ work, with a portion of the sales going to the food bank. When she works with schools, a portion of the proceeds from the item go back to the school for their pantry or food program.
“It’s a neat way for a company to give something back to their employees, but also be making an impact within the community as well,” she said.
She has also expanded to teach classes about mindful pattern drawing, and the benefit of it, at events or birthday parties and at her store.
“It’s called Nourish Designs because the drawing really nourishes me; it’s like my form of meditation. And, obviously the funding for meals hopefully nourishes some kids out there,” she said.
She said one of her biggest challenges is not getting overwhelmed with all the different ideas she has.
“I see so many different opportunities, but you can only go so fast,” she said.
With many of her designs, she said she doesn’t have a plan when she starts. She just begins in the middle and works her way around.
“It just kind of happens,” she said. “The process is not trying to plan too much, and trying to be in the moment and letting the design kind of emerge on its own.”