Feed Your Soul Foods
Feed Your Soul Foods have become a Kootenay-staple. From Almond Butter Bliss Balls to Falafel’s Cousin wraps, locals have come to depend on these nourishing lunches and healthy treats. Dawna’s story is an inspirational one, but her example shows us that living a blissful life starts simply… by appreciating the food we eat.
*Warning* This blog post may induce hunger and a inspire a newfound appreciation for good food.
Who makes the foods that feed our souls?
Me! Dawna McLennan.
Where are you located?
Kaslo, BC
What do you make?
Nourishing, whole-food vegetarian savories, sweets, and wraps.
How do your products “feed the soul”?
“Feeding my soul” means appreciating every morsel that touches my lips. What place does guilt have in crossing our lips? I love when we can appreciate every effort our food makes to nourish us, and feed our souls with every bite.
How would you describe your company?
To ‘Feed Your Soul’ is to do more than just fill your belly or appease your taste buds. Eating is an ongoing relationship between us and our natural world. Feeding your soul is about appreciating what you eat, and we aim to fill our ingredient list with beautiful whole foods that you can appreciate eating!
Every tiny seed has a story and has undergone a transformative journey to make it to your plate. I love imagining every ingredient in its original form before I process them into the products you see on the shelf. I imagine the shape of the olive tree… the leafy greens in the fields… so much beauty! Beauty of food is one of the greatest pleasures of handcrafting the delicious whole foods menu we create. Every ingredient Feed Your Soul uses has vitality and beauty.
That’s a beautiful visual. Thank you for sharing. What has running this business made you grateful for?
I’m grateful for the way our community embraces Feed Your Soul Foods. I’m grateful for the opportunity to create clean, bright foods with lower ecological impacts in order to serve the Kootenays. And I’m so grateful for colours and textures and the brilliant abundance of the foods we get to make.
You’ve been selling your healthy and delicious foods since 2000… How did it all begin?
Feed Your Soul Foods began as a direct-sales food basket that I pedaled door-to-door along the businesses of Baker Street, with a toddler on my back. I was the “lunch lady”!
It was so fun to see how excited people got when I arrived once a week with a beautiful basket overflowing with Falafel’s Cousin Wraps, Indo Brown Rice Salad Wraps, Almond Butter Bliss Balls, and a rotating roster of sweet treats. Since the community loved my foods so much, I built a commercial kitchen into the basement of our house, in order to bring the foods to the Co-op and beyond. It’s pretty sweet to have a home-based local business.
Why do you still do what you do?
It’s an honour to nourish people. I love to sing while I cook, and love imagining the music contributing to people’s nourishment as they enjoy Feed Your Soul Foods. I love making food that good. It’s food made by hand, not by machine. And it’s food that’s appreciated as it’s created.
Well, we certainly appreciate it at the Co-op! What are some of your greatest joys?
It warms my heart to see people walking along Baker Street eating Feed Your Soul lunches! I especially love hearing stories of world-traveling Nelsonites who celebrate their return to the Kootenays with a Chocolate Oat Cookie or an Almond Butter Bliss Ball. We’re beyond honored to be considered the taste of home.
How lovely! Anything else you’d like to say to our members?
I love how Feed Your Soul Foods has become a Kootenay staple that people enjoy returning to again and again. Thank you for enjoying what we make, and for Feeding Your Soul!
