Welcome to the Dream

We have a lot to say, and a lot to do – but the basic mission is this: build relationships; feed people.

Welcome to the Dream
We have a lot to say, and a lot to do – but the basic mission is this: build relationships; feed people.

Rise Nutrition is the joint project of co-founders Kristan Papirio, Jesse Papirio, Bridget Korpanty, and Greg Blackburn.

For those of you who have had a conversation with one of the four of us at any time over the last four years, you’re probably privy to “The Dream” as we’ve called it. And for anyone who hasn’t shared a cup of coffee, late night drink, or come within 500 feet of one of us, you are among the few who haven’t heard us gush about our grand plans and schemes. For a long time we just called it The Dream because that’s what it felt like. Something bigger than us, and almost too good to be true. That’s mostly because it is bigger than us – in reality, it’s not our thing, it’s the Lord’s thing. That’s why we have all fallen in love with it. That’s why so many people have joined us in rooting for, cheering on, and helping with the dream, and that’s why it’s now becoming a reality – because the Lord invited us into this awesome adventure to use who the four us are to show how great he is. We really do serve a wild and gracious God. His love for us IS too good and too big for me to fathom. Let me let you in on it a little bit.

We still call it “The Dream” but officially, the company is named Rise Nutrition. The company and our product, the Ideal Nutrition Construct (INC), are the product of my work with athletic teams and communities in developing countries as a nutritionist as well as Kristan’s master’s dissertation in data science. Bridget and Greg have traveled, translated, and chosen their undergraduate majors all for the dream.

We have a lot to say, and a lot to do – but the basic mission is this: build relationships; feed people.

The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.
- Ann Wigmore

All of our products, programs, and interventions are born from a people first mentality. No program or product, no matter how good, serves people well if it does not first consider the person. We are storytellers at heart and our favorite stories are all the ones that show us God’s great love for the world. We want to live and look like Jesus, who fed and healed people before he ever preached to them.

Being a poet and a writer, I’m fond of Ann Wigmore’s words about nutrition “the food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison” or as Kristan the data scientist might put it input = output. Every person from the elite athlete to the malnourished child can be made better or worse by what they put into their bodies. Whether it be the physical tax of malnourishment or the physical demand of athletics the quality of nutrition can be the difference between rising or falling. Around here, we are dreamers – so we’re intent on getting people exactly what they need to rise.

Through this blog you can join us on the adventure and hear more stories about the team we are building and just what it is we’ve got cooking.

🌋, Jesse