What I love about the word “Nourish” is that it invites us to go deeper into all the connotations of its meaning. Like an onion that we continue to pull back layers of revealing something more and something deeper, the word “Nourish” has to do with providing what is needed to promote growth and flourishing. Therein is an implied invitation to all who participate in it to imagine all of what might be made to grow and flourish beyond the physicality of human bodies who come here seeking food.
Thriving involves the nourishment of our bodies, yes. Without food we lose capacity to develop any other parts of our human “being”. But nourishment also transcends our physical being. It involves our mind and our soul, however we understand those things. And it involves the growth and flourishing of those things outside
ourselves that sustain us that we are connected to and rooted in.
While we at Nourish MKE provide good foods that nourish our bodies and promote our bodies’ growth and flourishing, we are also in the project of creating opportunities for deeper connection and community in which we can deeply root and richly flourish as whole people. We are in the project of imagining spaces where dignity, respect, love, beauty, and meaningful place in society can be nourished and grow, as well as feeding the body in which we experience those things. In a world that promotes a narrative of scarcity of resources, we are striving to live out a story of abundance where there is enough for all people to thrive and grow.
Max Ramsey, NourishMKE Site Manager