Net funds raised by food sales at the recent Village Art and Craft Fair were $17,145, chairman Jeanne Cagle reported. The Food Booth Grant Committee—Carol Anders, Allan Campo, Tom Crook, Jan Davis, Jack McWhirter, Ami O’Neill, Julie Ratcliffe, Carla Schell, Chair Lisa Sellers, and Lyn White—studied more than 40 applications and recommended that proceeds be divided among 11 groups. These are: the Community of the Beloved, Calvary Episcopal Church Food Pantry, All Souls Counseling Center, Vecinos Farmworker Health Program, Loving Food Resources, the Welcome Table of Black Mountain, the Hope Chest, WNC National Alliance for Mental Health, Camp Diversity, Helpmate, and Children First.
Community of the Beloved
This all-volunteer organization’s mission is to build community with people who are homeless, children and their families, senior citizens, immigrants, people with disabilities, and neighbors in Asheville. It has established a “community house” in the Asheville downtown area, where the needy can find food, clothing, advocacy, a meeting place, and a safe place to be. Volunteers—many of whom are homeless themselves—go out into the community to find and assist people by bringing food, supplies, and clothing to them.
The Community also develops educational programs, conducts street tours to acquaint people with the situation as it exists, is creating a “poor people’s media project,” and explores efforts to provide meaningful work that pays a living wage.
The Community’s $2,500 grant will contribute to the group’s annual budget of $21,200 (of which $16,500 goes for the community house rent).
www.beloved.bbnow.org • 242-8261
Vecinos Farmworker Health Program
This award-winning organization provides the only free primary and preventive mobile medical outreach and health education program to migrant and seasonal farmworkers in Jackson, Macon, Swain, and Transylvania counties. They are patient-driven and provide care onsite in migrant labor camps.
The $1,000 grant is to purchase hygiene packs —which contain items like socks, antifungal cream, tooth care items, soap and multivitamins—and stock their mobile pharmacy with over-the-counter medications.
ndollar@vecinosinc.org • 400-3675
Camp Diversity
At the end of Camp Rockmont’s regular season, counselors and workers joined adults who planned their vacations so that they could return to the place that changed their lives. They returned to “Adventure Camp,” to give economically-disadvantaged boys an opportunity to experience Christian community in a traditional camp atmosphere. The Camp’s founders believe that appropriately structured challenges can impact personal growth, build self-esteem, self-respect, self-confidence and self-reliance.
The Camp’s $1,000 grant is to help provide this wonderful experience for 100-150 boys each summer.
campdiversityfoundation.org • 686-1010
WNC National Alliance on Mental Illness
NAMI provides support services for those with various forms of mental illness and their caregivers, operating on a $90,000 budget. NAMI networks with a variety of local agencies including the YMCA, YWCA, VA, UNCA, Warren-Wilson College, Gay Pride, and others, operating on the campus of St. Joseph’s Hospital
The $400 Food Booth grant is for materials for Mental Health Awareness Week, October 2-9.
namiwnc.org • 505-7353
Hope Chest for Women
HCW assists between 80 and 140 uninsured or underinsured women each year who have been diagnosed with breast or gynecological cancer and are burdened with expenses and hindered by limited resources. It helps coordinate services and provide resources for individuals and supports cancer prevention programs in a number of venues. It provides emotional and physical support to these women on many levels, from making a doctor’s visit possible to delivering soup for the family after a chemotherapy session.
HCW’s grant of $1,500 will help provide items not covered by insurance or Medicaid such as pre/post surgery medications, gas cards for transportation to appointments, lymphedema compression garments, and help to relieve the pressure of household bills in emergency situations.
hopechestforwomen.org • 418-1344
Children First
The Family Resource Center is the “hub” of the Emma Community, offering assistance to disadvantaged children and families in West Asheville. They help families meet their basic needs, offering food, clothing, financial assistance, case management, parenting classes, and holiday assistance. Volunteers can donate to and help with the Center’s food pantry, clothes closet, community garden, and building maintenance.
The $650 grant will provide 15 low-income families case management for long-range planning.
childrenfirstbc.org • 239-0776
All Souls Counseling Center
The Center provides counseling—mostly one-on-one with some family and marriage counseling—to the under- and uninsured. Clients pay fees based on their ability to pay, averaging $12 per session, which amounts to about a fifth of the Center’s annual budget of $500,000. The rest comes from community donations and grants. Most therapists offer their services at a reduced stipend or on a pro bono basis.
The Center’s grant is $2,000.
allsoulscounseling.com • 259-3369
Welcome Table
The Welcome Table of Black Mountain serves a weekly hot meal to 250-300 people in the parish hall of St. James Episcopal Church. Guests are low income elderly, recovering alcoholics, recovering drug addicts, homeless men and women including about 15 homeless veterans from First, Inc. as well as trusted women and their sponsors from the women’ correctional facility. The Welcome Table purchases almost all of their food from local sources, and the volunteers are mostly the clients themselves plus the core leadership, so clients are able to give something in return for the care they are receiving.
The $2,095 grant will help fund a new program for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts to assist them in finding jobs and increase their employment skills.
welcome-table.org • 777-5612
Helpmate
Helpmate provides the only safe-house in the community for victims of domestic violence. Last year it served more than 1,900 women and children in domestic violence situations, providing emergency shelter, individual and group counseling, criminal and civil court advocacy, preventive education, and a 24/7 crisis phone line.
Helpmate also works with over 20 community “partners” to help give its clients safety and self-sufficiency, including court personnel, law enforcement systems, school systems, health providers, and other not-for-profit agencies.
The $1,500 grant will assist Helpmate to continue its work even as the incidence of domestic violence increases and available health and human resources decrease.
helpmateonline.org • 254-2968
Calvary Episcopal Food Pantry
The all-volunteer Pantry serves up to 350 people per week. With our 2010 grant they purchased an upright commercial refrigerator, so now have two refrigerators and two freezers. Calvary Episcopal provides three large rooms to operate from, and with the purchase of used shopping carts they now have a really convenient method of serving their clients. Clients come mainly from North Henderson and South Buncombe counties. The Pantry operates weekly on Wednesday at the moment but with increased clients and insufficient funds they may have to scale back to biweekly operations. They are currently one of Manna’ largest distributors but supplies from Manna are dropping due to over-subscription.
Their Food Booth grant is $2,500. The Pantry has recently started the lengthy process of applying for federal grants.
calvaryfletcher.org • 684-6266
Loving Food Resources
This all-volunteer organization serves people who are living with HIV-AIDS or who are in home hospice care with any condition (160 last year). It provides food and health and personal care items with love and compassion. A self-select store offers groceries and fresh produce each Saturday. Volunteers make deliveries twice each month to homebound clients, both locally and in outlying counties.
LFR’s $2000 grant will supplement food purchases. The bulk of the food comes through Manna, but LFR must also purchase important nutritional and personal care items from produce markets and from retail outlets like Aldi’s.
lovingfood.org • 255-9282