WNC’s family farms are broadening their horizons to explore new avenues for income.
Travis Smith equips city with Asheville Tool Library
Smith, who volunteers and serves on the library’s board, says the nonprofit has reached more than 300 paid members and is still growing. As a result, items such power washers and circular saws spend more time building and cleaning than they do collecting dust.
Anthony Thomas makes connections
Thomas’s UpStaff Personnel, an offshoot of the nonprofit Green Opportunities, connects unemployed and under-resourced community members with employers. Unlike other staffing agencies, he explains, the company also provides employees with a network of support, including transportation, child care and counseling.
Biz Briefs: Airport serves over 1 million passengers in 2018
Passenger numbers increased by 18.6 percent compared to 2017, assisted by new nonstop routes to destinations such as Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando and Tampa, Fla. A recent economic impact study found that the airport contributes nearly $1.5 billion per year to the local economy.
Biz Briefs: Venture Asheville announces 2019 mentorship cohort
Sixteen Asheville-area startups will receive intensive personalized support from Venture Asheville as part of the entrepreneurship initiative’s Elevate program. Local business owners will be paired with successful company founders, executives and functional experts to help work through the challenges and opportunities of business growth.
CoThinkk honors leaders and organizations making social change
On Oct. 20, local giving circle CoThinkk held its third annual community award night at The Collider in downtown Asheville. “Standing In We: Rooted in Collaboration” celebrated the region’s work toward ensuring more equitable outcomes for communities of color, particularly the efforts of African American and Latinx leaders to cultivate change.
ReCONNECT to Community brings Institute for Emerging Issues forum to Asheville; event postponed
The Asheville forum kicks off the IEI’s broader ReCONNECT NC initiative. Over the next three years, a series of six forums in four different cities will focus on the overarching theme of reconnection. Maggie Woods, policy and program manager at IEI, says people across the state are feeling out-of-touch and that this sense of detachment needs to be addressed at length.
Behind the wheel: A chef-farmer collaboration reboots the Ujamaa Freedom Market initiative
Through a partnership with Patchwork Urban Farms, chef Gene Ettison is leveraging a new entrepreneurial venture to bring healthy meals and grocery options to Asheville’s food deserts.
Area nonprofits discuss approaches to overhead funding
Nonprofits are often judged by their overhead ratio, the percentage of their total expenses made up by administrative and fundraising costs. But as Jeanette Butterworth with WNC Nonprofit Pathways, is quick to point out, organizations need funding to spend their funds well.
How local organizers shifted Asheville politics to the left
Movers and shakers on progressive issues have had increasing success in Buncombe County politics since the turn of the century. Activists and organizers on the left have carved out a stronghold in Asheville where they keep power by setting the agenda for conversation according to some. Meanwhile a rise in disaffiliation with the traditional two parties leaves openings for candidates that don’t fit traditional molds in Asheville politics.
Asheville candidates belly up to the bar on food issues
Asheville City Council and mayoral candidates fielded questions about everything from childhood hunger to city-county food policy partnerships at a recent food-focused forum at Lenoir-Rhyne University.
Explore Asheville CVB celebrates new office, brand & independence
The dreary Wednesday morning weather couldn’t put a damper on a 1 p.m. reception celebrating the new office location of the recently-rebranded Explore Asheville Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Community land trust project has bumpy launch
If trust is a function of time, an innovative approach to affordable housing may already be in trouble. On July 13, about 30 community stakeholders gathered in an echoey auditorium at the Dr. Wesley Grant Sr. Southside Center and took the first meandering steps toward establishing a community land trust. But the two-hour meeting produced […]
Legacy of loss: Food insecurity and its disproportionate impact on Asheville’s black community
This two-part series traces the history and examines the current state of the Southside neighborhood’s food access situation.
Mountain Sports Festival gets boost for another exciting weekend of sports, music, fun
The Mountain Sports Fest, which will be held May 26-28, enters its 17th year with a new director, several fresh events and a three-year grant from the City of Asheville worth $5,400 per year.
Cooking up success: Kids at Work program builds culinary and life skills
The initiative, which operates in seven counties in Western North Carolina, offers at-risk teens a safe place to learn how to be successful both in life and in the kitchen.
Signs of progress
Asheville
Learning to save gives lower-income workers peace of mind
Having $1,000 in savings can help people ride out most financial emergencies, says Celeste Collins, executive director of OnTrack Financial Education. A pilot program run by the nonprofit helps people learn to save and matches their contributions as an incentive to develop the habit.
Pretty please
Asheville
Dropping bombs
Ready for anything: Green Opportunities Kitchen Ready grads hit their careers paths running
In 2016, 42 students enrolled in the GO Kitchen Ready program, and 79 percent of them graduated. Of those students, 72 percent were employed within three months of graduation, the majority within the culinary/hospitality industry.