The Feelings Feast - GPL Community Read

In partnership with the Galesburg Public Library's Community Read, we are hosting 3 free activities that correspond with this year's book: Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees by Aimee Nezhukumatathil.

For the 1st activity, participants will create their Feelings Feast!

In this activity, we’ll explore the connection between food and feeling — how nourishment isn’t only physical, but emotional. Just as food sustains our bodies, certain people, places, memories, items, and activities sustain our inner lives. Through reflection and creative expression, we’ll imagine what it might mean to “feed” our feelings.

Create a visual feast that represents what nurtures you emotionally, drawing inspiration from the sensory richness and thoughtful attention to everyday pleasures found in Bite by Bite. This project invites participants to slow down, notice what truly sustains them, and translate those insights into imagery.

Think about what “feeds” you beyond food. If your emotions were a meal, what would they look like?

• What ingredients represent comfort, joy, courage, or calm?
• Are there flavors that reflect challenge or growth?
• Is your emotional meal carefully plated, messy and abundant, simple and nourishing, or extravagant and layered?

Using drawing, collage, paint, or mixed media, you’ll create your own “Feelings Feast.” Consider color, texture, scale, and composition as tools to express what sustains you. You might design a literal plate of symbolic foods, an abstract spread of shapes and colors, or an imaginative banquet table filled with metaphors.

There is no right or wrong interpretation — only an opportunity to reflect on what fills you up and what you may be hungry for.