A new program spearheaded by the Asheville-Buncombe Food Policy Council gives SNAP users more spending power when purchasing fresh fruits and vegetables grown in Western North Carolina.
![](https://mountainx.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/FOODdollars_and_sense-330x219.jpg)
A new program spearheaded by the Asheville-Buncombe Food Policy Council gives SNAP users more spending power when purchasing fresh fruits and vegetables grown in Western North Carolina.
The past year has brought a few changes to the organization, including new coordinator Kiera Bulan.
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.
How does Asheville, one of the busiest tourist hubs in the state — a place where you can’t throw a rock without hitting a chef or a farmer — have so many people lacking access to good food or outright going to bed hungry?
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.