This article was adapted from a speech given at the 2025 Women Transforming Food & Finance event in Atlanta on April 30 by Meghan Rowe, founder and CEO of White Leaf Provisions as we broke for lunch.
White Leaf Provisions is a family-founded brand on a mission to bring truly nourishing, organic, and regeneratively farmed foods to families across the country. My husband and I launched White Leaf with a simple but powerful belief that the way we grow our food matters just as much as what we put on the label.
Every product we create is rooted in regenerative practices, not just because it’s the right thing for the soil, but because it’s the right thing for our kids, our health, and our planet. One of our driving goals is to make convenient snacks that never compromise on quality. Families shouldn’t have to choose between ease and integrity. Our mission is to make clean, nutrient-dense, regeneratively grown food accessible especially during the busy, in-between moments of daily life. As a mom, a founder, and someone who’s lived through the emotional and physical highs and lows of both motherhood and entrepreneurship I’m honored to be able to share some thoughts on nourishment with you. These insights come not just from my work, but from my heart. The room at last month’s Women Transforming Food & Finance event was full of women who deeply understand what it means to nourish in every sense of the word.
Meghan Rowe, CEO of White Leaf Provisions, speaking at Women Transforming Food & Finance.
A simple word, but one that carries extraordinary weight especially in the work we all do. When we think of nourishment, most of us instinctively go to food. And yes, food is the entry point. But it expands far beyond it. It’s the daily ritual. The gesture of care. The inheritance we pass from one generation to the next.
But nourishment is also the soil that grows that food. It’s the economy that supports that soil. It’s the communities that gather around the table.
It’s the capital we invest. It’s the culture we carry.
And it’s the courage to keep showing up — especially as women — in spaces that haven’t always made room for us. As the founder of a women-led brand rooted in regenerative values, I’ve spent years obsessing over nutrient density. Over testing for glyphosate. Over how we can use our supply chains not just to feed people — but to heal land.
And I know many working in the space share that same obsession. You’re not just building companies or funds. You’re creating systems that are restorative by design. But as I’ve navigated this journey — from the scrappy early days to navigating investor rooms — I’ve learned something else:
We can’t nourish the world if we ourselves are depleted. And nourishment doesn’t just mean food or finances. It means taking care of our mental health, too. Whether that’s through yoga, meditation, breathwork, journaling, or simply stepping back into a hobby that reconnects you with who you are, beyond your business card.
For me, those practices have been lifelines.
Because this work — while purpose-driven — can be exhausting, especially when you care this deeply. So, consider this your reminder: You are part of this regenerative system, too.
And your restoration is not optional. It’s essential. What makes regenerative systems work is that nothing is extractive. Everything is cyclical. Nothing is wasted. Every element gives and receives. So why should it be any different for us?
Attendees at the Women Transforming Food & Finance event.
Here’s something I believe deeply: Your well-being is a form of activism. Your nourishment is a business strategy.
Because when we’re nourished — when we’re in rooms full of women or others who support each other, connecting with those who ‘get it’ — we become bolder. We lead with more clarity. We invest with sharper vision. We listen to the land — and to each other — with more attunement.
And that’s where the real nutrient density happens. Not just in the soil — but in the spaces we share.
We come from different places. We hold different identities.
Some of us are farmers. Some are funders. Some are building brands from scratch. Others, are guiding portfolios and policy.
But what united us is this shared belief:
That nourishment — true nourishment — requires care, commitment, and a refusal to settle for systems that strip life instead of support it.
When we gather in spaces like that, we create our own kind of ecosystem.
A web of stories, expertise, lived experience, and truth-telling.
And that, too, is regenerative.
Because in a world that often isolates us — especially as women founders or women funders — connection is nourishment.
So when you pause to eat your next meal with others, I want to offer a small invitation.
Don’t just eat. Be nourished.
Let the conversation at your table feed something in you that maybe hasn’t been fed in a while.
Ask someone a deeper question.
Share a win or a worry.
Talk about what’s blooming in your work — or what’s quietly regenerating beneath the surface.
Because both are part of the cycle.
And remember, sitting down to eat with others is not just about your meal.
It’s a gathering of nutrients.
You are a vital part of an ecosystem.
And like any healthy ecosystem, what you give will come back to you — maybe not in the same form, but always in the right season.
So thank you.
Thank you for what you’re building.
Thank you for what you’re investing in.
And thank you for continuing to believe that we can do this differently — and better.
Let’s go nourish each other — and the world — together.
If you’d like to reach out to Meghan, you can reach her here.