Greenlife Grocery selects WNCAP for its next 5 percent Community Giving Day award

From the press release from the WNCAP

Asheville, NC — When Greenlife Grocery selected Western North Carolina AIDS Project (WNCAP) as recipient of its next 5% Community Giving Day award, the nonprofit was also handed a chance to promote one of its most important awareness days – National HIV Testing Day- which takes place each year during the last week of June.

Five percent of total sales at Greenlife Grocery on Thursday, June 21st will be donated to WNCAP, to help fund HIV/AIDS prevention and care in the eighteen counties that make up the Western North Carolina region.
The timing of WNCAP’s 5% Day, planned for Thursday, June 21st, is no accident, according to Nicole White, Marketing Team Leader for Greenlife Grocery. Four times a year employees from the store choose a nonprofit to benefit from the 5% Day program. “The employees usually try to think creatively and choose a nonprofit that has a connection to some event or activity going on that month,” says White. “When we learned that WNCAP was looking for a way to generate interest in National HIV Testing Day in June, we recognized it as a natural fit. Greenlife has been committed to community health and wellness since opening its doors in 2004.”

National HIV Testing Day is annual campaign coordinated by the National Association of People with AIDS to encourage people of all ages to “Take the Test, Take Control.” According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, one in five people who are living with HIV are unaware of their status. Testing is recognized as a critical HIV prevention strategy since research confirms that when people learn they have HIV or AIDS they are more likely to take precautions to avoid transmitting the virus. Research also confirms that when people who have HIV/AIDS enter care early and stay engaged in care for their HIV, they experience much better health outcomes compared to people who enter care late.

WNCAP Educators and volunteers will be on site at Greenlife Grocery, 70 Merrimon Avenue, all day on Thursday, June 21st to answer questions and provide information about testing locations in Western North Carolina.
To add a fun element to the day, WNCAP staff and volunteers will be bagging groceries during the lunch and dinner hours. Those planning to bag groceries include: Jeff Bachar, WNCAP Executive Director; Harry Brown, Chairperson of WNCAP’s successful Dining Out for Life event; Buncombe County Commissioner David Gantt; and Asheville-Buncombe County United Way Executive Director David Bailey.

Greenlife Grocery’s Third Thursday Tailgate Market will also take place on the afternoon of June 21st, and Deja Fuze is scheduled to perform between 4 and 7pm. Vendors at the market, which will take place in the Greenlife parking lot include Common Ground Farm, Crystal King Designs, Beulah’s Bavarian Pretzels, Natalie’s Naturals, Native Touch Bodycare, Darned Ideas Crafts (and more!).

For more information visit www.WNCAP.org or www.wholefoodsmarket.org/stores/asheville.