Food security in Asheville, Buncombe County threatened by 'socioeconomic perfect storm'
BLACK MOUNTAIN - A colorful display of seasonal squash promised the perfect Thanksgiving centerpiece. They were among the lush offerings that appear twice weekly in a parking lot off N.C. 9 in Black Mountain.
They are also one small piece of the response to a crisis breaking records nearly every month.
“We’re seeing our highest need ever right now,” said Kara Irani, spokesperson for MANNA FoodBank, the Feeding America affiliate that serves 16 counties of Western North Carolina.
Before the pandemic, through its network of food distribution partners, MANNA was serving an average of 65,000 people a month. The number has more than doubled. October saw a chilling new high of 170,000 people served.
It’s “staggering,” Irani said. As numbers climb, she said, the food relief network becomes even more vital.
And so, the squash.
A morning at the market
The tables and tents were set up in the shadow of the former Bi-Lo supermarket, a gargantuan shell marked by faded lettering and a tattered orange awning.
On a Tuesday morning, a crowd was already gathered in the lot, waiting for go-time. Many carried cardboard boxes and reusable bags. Necks strained as people sought glimpses of food being set out by dozens of volunteers: bundles of leafy greens, crates of squash and sweet potatoes, bins of fruit, bread and overflowing produce.
This is Bounty & Soul’s community market. It’s a core program of the nonprofit, providing equitable access to food three times a week.
It’s a “free farmers market,” said Karla Garder, director of community engagement. “A ‘Choose Your Own Adventure,’ if you will.”
Much of the food is donated by MANNA FoodBank and store-level partners, Garder said, including Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Sam’s Club. There’s pet food from the Humane Society, bouquets of flowers in plastic sleeves and a tent of produce and vegetables from the more than 70 local farms and gardens Bounty & Soul partners with.
They always strive for “abundance,” said Paula Sellars, the nonprofit’s associate director. It’s their answer to food insecurity in Buncombe County. On a November morning, after a few brief remarks, she released the waiting crowd to the tables, where queues formed almost immediately.
“Gently, calmly, sweetly,” she said into the mic, a few rogue strollers pushing free of the pack.
Heading into the year, the nonprofit estimated it would serve 9,600 people a month.
Lately, it is averaging 17,336.
Since the start of COVID, Sellars said, it's seen a 340% increase in participation. When inflation followed on its heels, the numbers never came down.
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Last year, Bounty & Soul distributed more than a million pounds of food. In 2023, it anticipates a 20% increase.
“Buncombe County has the highest cost of living of any metro area in all of North Carolina,” Sellars said. Pair that with a lagging median income and climbing housing costs, and it’s the perfect formula for food insecurity.
Data from Feeding America, a nonprofit network of 200 food banks, found in 2021, 11.9% of Buncombe County’s population, or 31,670 people, are food insecure. Of these, 26% are above the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits threshold, which would provide food benefits to supplement their grocery budget, and 74% are below.
Irani said these numbers are a “good starting point, but don’t even get close to what the real need is.”
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In the county, 53% of renters struggle to afford rent, Sellars said. “So they’re choosing between rent and food. In that wage disparity, and in that unaffordable housing situation that we’re in, food insecurity is baked in.”
At MANNA, it’s what they call the “socioeconomic perfect storm.” Low wages and high cost of living were already amplifying the need in Western North Carolina, Irani said. But after the onset of the pandemic, the need continued to climb.
“We are serving more people right now than we have ever served, even at the peak of the pandemic,” she said.
At its two large warehouses on Swannanoa River Road, MANNA receives loads of food in bulk from grocery stores, major retail chains and packing houses. About 60% of its food is donated, and it works with wholesalers to fill the gap.
It’s the resourcing center for more than 200 smaller agency partners across Western North Carolina. Its fleet of 14 commercial vehicles delivers thousands of pounds of food daily across the mountains.
In Asheville, MANNA’s partners include the YMCA, Bounty & Soul, BeLoved, homeless shelters and area school systems. It also holds 14-16 markets monthly to address high need areas.
The ‘heart’ of community
For co-directors of BeLoved Asheville, Amy Cantrell and Ponkho Bermejo, food is at the center of nearly everything they do.
It’s the “heart” of community, Cantrell said. Picture a Thanksgiving dinner table, laden with food and surrounded by family or friends gathered in a communal kitchen, air warm as ovens work double time.
“When you are sharing (food) with people, you start hearing the stories, and they are hearing your story, too,” Bermejo said.
BeLoved began one of the first free farmers markets in the area, he said. It started in 2010 as a weekly pop-up at the Senior Opportunity Center in downtown, now the Grove Street Community Center.
The work has since blossomed into several different programs, like its BeLoved street pantries; mobile markets that deliver directly to impacted neighborhoods, a necessary pivot at the onset of COVID; and “Mama’s Kitchen,” a roving food truck that opened in 2022.
“We created this really innovative model of food sharing,” Cantrell said, noticing people struggled to access food they wanted to eat, striving for options other than canned and processed food. “It really changed the way food was shared in Asheville and Buncombe County.”
BeLoved distributes food and other resources multiple times a week. Rather than a set schedule, it is done as needed, Cantrell said, and by networking directly with communities around the county — from Leicester and Candler to Black Mountain, Swannanoa, Arden and the hub of the city itself.
On Thanksgiving, BeLoved and its food truck will be downtown.
The holiday can be a lonely time, Bermejo said. But with food deliveries in hand, people “don’t feel alone because they are between all their neighbors.”
Keeping food out of the landfill
Beef brisket. Crab cakes. Roasted salmon. Gourmet mac and cheese. Locally-sourced Brussels sprouts. Fifteen pans of pork tenderloin that have never left the kitchen.
These are the kinds of meals Food Connection rescues from places like the Grove Park Inn and UNC Asheville, from catering companies, universities, retirement homes, conference centers and other institutions.
In a buffet-style service, chefs must prepare a surplus of food, Executive Director Marisha MacMorran said. At $20 a plate, or $60 a person for a wedding or conference, they can’t risk running out. But when the kitchens close, guests leave or the conference ends — “it always results in leftovers. No matter how conscious you are.”
Food Connection launched in 2015. To date, it has distributed more than 600,000 meals and kept 240 tons of food out of the Buncombe County landfill.
Once rescued, one of two things happens, she said. Food Connection either redistributes through its partner agencies or distributes directly with its Mobile Meals truck, traveling to afterschool programs, apartment complexes, mobile home communities and neighborhoods.
Like Bounty & Soul, there are no eligibility requirements.
“We serve everyone that comes to us with no questions asked,” MacMorran said.
The January 2023 point in time count ― a U.S. Housing and Urban Development-directed annual count of those experiencing homelessness ― found overall homelessness in Asheville is down to 573 people, a 10% decrease from 2022. However, the number of unsheltered people is still 163% higher than before the pandemic.
There’s a misconception that only people facing extreme poverty or chronic homelessness are experiencing food insecurity, MacMorran said. And while many are, there is another “underlying population” who fall into the same gap.
“Food insecurity rates are undeniably rising across the country, and we are certainly feeling that here in Buncombe County,” MacMorran said, further exacerbated by the climbing cost of living.
“Sometimes I feel like I can't even breathe when the numbers are increasing so rapidly, and sometimes it just feels like we can't do enough,” she said. “And then every week we do our distributions, and we're able to connect meals to so many people. And it's also so beautiful.”
There have been detrimental impacts with the rollback of pandemic-era relief. In March, federal SNAP expansion benefits expired, and many people lost “a significant amount of assistance,” MacMorran said.
Irani called it the “SNAP cliff,” causing a spike in numbers, and fears similar impacts from student loan payments, which resumed in October, and a decline in federal child care investments.
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What happened after outcry around a potential food ordinance?
Food sharing in Asheville has not been immune to controversy. In January 2022, a circulating document detailed a potential city food sharing ordinance that would have limited distribution in public parks. The ordinance was in the “exploratory phase,” the city said, and had not been formally presented to council for policy consideration.
It sparked outrage. Many feared it targeted some of the community’s most vulnerable populations, including people experiencing homelessness.
Concerns flooded City Council at a January meeting, and though the city said there was no intention of banning food distribution in city parks, area organizations advocated against any potential policy that would create further barriers to food access.
The conversation ended without resolution. In a Nov. 16 email, city spokesperson Kim Miller confirmed there are no current city ordinances regulating or prohibiting food sharing, “and no direction from city Council has been provided to Staff to explore such an option at this time.”
BeLoved was among its fiercest opposition. Cantrell said the language in the document harkened back to issues they were fighting in the early years of BeLoved’s existence.
“If there is food insecurity in our community, we shouldn’t hide where we are sharing food,” she said. “It should be in very public places where people can easily access it and turn it into a way to bring people together. That’s what we’ve always done.”
When it becomes harder to share food, Bermejo said, that forces people to move. They hide. “Pushing people away does not solve the problem.”
MacMorran, who had also spoken out against any potential ordinance, said there are many reasons people are seeking help with food.
“We have so much diversity in life circumstances in Asheville,” she said. “Removing barriers to access benefits everyone.”
Looking for food assistance?
Bounty and Soul community markets
Tuesday Market
When? 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.
Where? Bi-Lo 205 NC-9, Black Mountain.
Latino Wednesday Market
When? 3:30 p.m.-5 p.m.
Where? 216 Whitson Ave., Swannanoa.
Friday Market
When? 4-5:30 p.m.
Where? Bi-Lo 205 N.C. 9, Black Mountain.
Food Connection
Saturday Swannanoa Curbside Drive Through
When? 11 a.m.
Where: 105 Whitson Ave., Swannanoa.
Call 1-800-820-1109 for the MANNA FoodBank helpline.
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Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@citizentimes.com or message on Twitter at @slhonosky. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Food relief efforts increase in Asheville amid 'record breaking' need
