Meet Your Neighbor: Dawn Kelly

I always understood the power of coaching and mentoring, first as a beneficiary of guidance, and now as a small business coach and mentor to the youth and women of all ages. As a student in public and private secondary schools, I learned the value of working for what you want in life.

After working for over 35 years, I opened The Nourish Spot in Jamaica, Queens in September 2017 exactly two years from the day that my nearly 16-year-long role as a senior communications executive at Prudential Financial was eliminated.

I opened The Nourish Spot in conjunction with my children, Owen and Jade, to build generational wealth. We established The Nourish Spot for the opportunity to positively impact the community where our family enjoys nearly a century of residence while offering fresh, organic produce and other healthy options that customers can customize to meet dietary requirements and taste buds, and to stave off chronic health diseases and viruses. The Nourish Spot has also given me the opportunity to provide internships and part-time jobs to the youth in my community and to partner with city agencies, area legislators and non-governmental community partners to provide entrepreneurship coaching and help eliminate food insecurity in our neighboring community.

I learned about Queens Community House in 2017 when my daughter, Jade, a trained chef and the COO of The Nourish Spot, reached out to the organization to cultivate a mutually beneficial relationship between our business and their nonprofit. Working together, we established The Nourish Spot as a culinary and hospitality internship training ground. As a result of our now 4-year-long strategic partnership, we have mentored and coached as many as 10 young people, including one who still works with us today.

- Dawn Kelly, Founder & CEO of The Nourish Spot