|
|
|
|
Dear friends,
Thank you for all the support you've provided us in 2024! We’re closing out the year with a renewed commitment to our vision of strong farms, thriving local food economies, and healthy communities.
Please help ASAP with a donation as we enter 2025 so that we can keep building and growing.
At this time of year, we survey the farmers in our region so that we can learn about their needs and best respond. We ask questions to learn the most effective ways ASAP has supported their businesses. This year we’re also asking questions about the impacts of Helene and continued challenges post storm. With this information, we’ll be able to shape programming and advocate for the resources farmers need. We will help farmers recover and rebuild alongside our neighbors.
 We’re hearing from both new farmers and those we’ve worked with many times over the years.
“From 2019 to 2024, ASAP has supported my farm's development into what it is today. Programs like the cost share, the farm tour, workshops, accessible grant funding, attending the biz of farming conference and in turn speaking at that event—all have provided my farm with notable support. There is no organization that I'm aware of, even on the national level, doing as much as ASAP does and as well as they do. We are so lucky as a region to have ASAP! Whenever I meet a new or aspiring farmer I always encourage them to sign up to be a certified Appalachian Grown farmer because of the incredible services ASAP offers.”
This quote is from Vannah Roddy of Encompass Farm in Rutherford County. Encompass was one of the farms on the Farm Tour this past year—just one week prior to the storm. While in many ways the Farm Tour feels like a lifetime ago, it’s a powerful event for farmers and participants alike. One attendee on the tour said to us:
“We left with a renewed appreciation for our local area and farmers. It felt expansive—seeing a different way of viewing the world, of working. I personally left very motivated and inspired.”
 We see the power of these local food and farm experiences across so many aspects of our work—with the kids and educators in our Growing Minds farm to school programs, with families in our Farm Fresh Produce Prescription at farmers markets, and so many more.
As the year closes out, we’re embracing new ways of viewing the world, leaning into the inspiration we find in our daily work. We are motivated by your continued commitment to our shared mission. Thank you for caring about local food and farms in 2024. Thank you for helping us maintain the pastoral landscapes and farming heritage our region is built on. Thank you for standing with us.
Have a healthy and happy new year!
With deep gratitude,
Your friends at ASAP
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
