From the Get It! Guide: Allison Casparian has spent her entire adult life working in food. But it wasn’t until she experienced her own personal health crisis that she realized the power of nutrition and wellness.
Green developments: How Asheville’s public housing communities are leading the eco-scene
From the Get It! Guide: Green jobs, lush community gardens, community cookouts and water quality testing — these might not be things many in Asheville picture when they think of public housing. But residents says Asheville’s public housing neighborhoods are investing in their communities’ welfare and leading a growing interest in “greening” up the neighborhoods.
A seat at the table: Alia Todd and Asheville Sustainable Restaurant Workforce
From the Get It! Guide: While the national attention and popularity of Asheville’s restaurants has meant economic prosperity for some, the Asheville Sustainble Restaurant Workers say it often comes at the cost of inequality, low pay and unfair working conditions for the approximately 11,600 restaurant employees in the city.
Essie Silvers connects Oakley’s tailgate market and community garden
From the Get It! Guide: It was midwinter of 2012, and most Asheville residents hadn’t yet turned their thoughts to ripe tomatoes and summer squash. But Essie Silvers and a handful of her neighbors had a mission to bring a farmers market to their food-insecure East Asheville community.
The roots and reason of Asheville’s buy-local sensibility
The city’s local push has transformed from mere trend to full-fledged movement, a move that now seems natural, but how did local businesses get whipped into such a unified front?
Building Bridges confronts racism in Asheville
From the Get It! Guide: “I kept hearing about how diverse this community is, but I didn’t see it,” recalls Building Bridges co-chair Audrey Yatras of her 2006 move to Asheville. “We want to pat ourselves on the back, but we’re actually not diverse at all. “
B-Corps: Business as a force for good
From The Get It! Guide: The traditional view of business is severely limiting, if not destructive. To address today’s greatest challenges, we need to harness the power of business as a force for good.
How to lobby your local government
From the Get It! Guide: Government is pervasive and omnipresent that it may be easy to think that an individual voice will not be heard. But Timothy Sadler doesn’t think that’s the case — in fact, he says, getting involved in local government is just a matter of learning the ropes.
Just Economics changes the definition of success
From the Get It! Guide: How do we define a successful business? According to Just Economics, it’s about more than dollars and cents.
Asheville Grown Business Alliance: Working for now and 50 years down the road
From the Get It! Guide: The Asheville Grown Business Alliance takes 2015 by storm with a focus on diversifying, learning and courageously leveraging our community’s assets to create radical resilience and prosperity for everyone.
Kenilworth honors King’s legacy with discussion of civil rights and modern racism
The event centered around a discussion of the “History of Civil Rights in WNC and the Current State of Racism Affecting Black Asheville,” and featured speeches by Darin Waters and Dwight Mullen, professors at UNC Asheville. Marvin Chambers, a founding member of the Asheville Student Committee on Racial Equality and a leader in North Carolina’s civil rights movement, served as moderator for the discussion.
Giving back: Volunteering opportunities for 2015
Volunteers come in all shapes and sizes, with skills ranging from data entry to hair and makeup design. Whatever your interests, talents or passion, there’s likely a nonprofit or community group in WNC that could use your help. To get you started, Xpress has rounded up 10 area groups seeking volunteers for 2015.
Student documentary invites the public into public housing
Working in collaboration with Housing Authority residents and the Women’s Wellbeing and Development Foundation, a group of Mars Hill University undergraduate social work students will spend a semester interviewing and filming public housing tenants before assembling their footage into a short film. The idea is to increase a sense of connection in a city where public housing communities are physically and socially isolated.
Ujamaa Freedom Market wins grant from Whole Foods
Local worker-owned mobile produce vendor Ujamaa Freedom Market was among 12 nonprofit organizations in the Southeast tapped to receive grants from Whole Foods Market’s Whole Cities Foundation.
‘Everybody’s Environment’ discusses diversity in conservation movements
The Center for Diversity Education at UNC Asheville hosted the day-long conference “Everybody’s Environment” on Friday, Oct. 10. The event invited staff from local environmental and conversation groups, community organizers and the public to discuss strategies for creating a more inclusive environmental movement, with more diverse staff at environmental organizations and stronger ties to the communities they serve.
In photos: Blue Ridge Pride Festival
Blue Ridge Pride hosted the annual Pride Festival on Saturday, Oct. 4, in Pack Square. The event was part of four days of Pride activities that included the Miss Blue Ridge Pride Pageant and a performance by comedian Jennie McNulty.
Cherokee garden kits grow ‘simple solutions’ for wellness
The Eastern Band of the Cherokee are working to overcome problems plaguing their community with a literal grassroots solution — a community garden kit program designed to encourage physical activity, increase access to healthy foods and promote family and agricultural traditions.
Forty years of strengthening ‘Our Voice’
Our Voice began as an all-volunteer, grassroots endeavor in 1974, focused on crisis intervention and counseling referrals for survivors of sexual assault. Today a small staff and over 50 volunteers work to provide a 24-hour crisis line, counseling services, community outreach and youth programs. The organization will celebrate its 40th anniversary on Sept. 4.
Greening tactics: Different paths lead to gardens in abandoned spaces
Many gardens in Asheville rest on public property that was once overgrown and unused. These spaces have been transformed but the methods that brought the transformation sometimes differ. Some gardeners in Asheville have taken their spots through guerrilla gardening. In some ways it’s comparable to being a graffiti artist or even a squatter, but some say it’s preferable to jumping through the hoops of bureaucracy.
Check it out: Seed sharing is sprouting at the library
The premise of a seed library is relatively simple — patrons of the library “check out” their selections to grow the season’s crops and then return usable seeds from their harvest at the end of the season. The goal is to provide a free source of locally adapted crops and contribute to the biodiversity of local agriculture. Ideally, as the seed library continues to operate, the number of seeds and varieties available will continue to increase.
YWCA to build an edible garden honoring Laurey Masterton
The Asheville Design Center, through its Asheville DesignBuild Studio, is helping the YWCA to construct an outdoor classroom, covered pick-up spot and memorial garden honoring community activist, entrepreneur and former YWCA board president Laurey Masterton.