Volunteer Stories WNC

Nutrition is community. It brings generations together. It is the foundation of public health.

I gained firsthand experience learning how important eating nutrient-dense foods, like the Mediterranean diet, is. My neighborhood market was a three-minute walk from my apartment, and I never went to the grocery store to stock up. I made four small trips to the corner market. I knew I was eating healthy, but I still had a health scare and a grave diagnosis when I moved back to the United States, and when I moved to Murphy, I had to spend a year receiving cancer treatments. I was blessed to join my family in the Murphy area in 2016. I decided to attend WCU’s Nutrition Program, and part of that decision was to focus on community public health solutions. One of the first places I noticed that had volunteer opportunities in our area was Mainspring Conservation and Mountain True. Unfortunately, sometimes volunteering is hindered by poor timing and distance. So I continued to look for other opportunities to volunteer in Cherokee County. Around 2018, I met Marlana Baker, the Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences with the NC State Cooperative Extension office. Because of my nutrition studies at Western Carolina University, it seemed like a shoe-in to start volunteering with the extension office and participate in their Extension Master Food Volunteer program. It’s the equivalent of the master gardeners. I believe there are three of us now who have earned that title. It’s an ongoing program that prepares volunteers to perform food demonstrations at the farmers’ markets and other group settings. Marlana also introduced me to a group of people who were brainstorming ways to strengthen our local food system. I began volunteering as the group developed into the Cherokee Clay Food Alliance. When Hurricane Helene destroyed everything around us, and Cherokee County became one of the last routes going into the greater Asheville area, the CCFA had just become an official nonprofit organization. We were able to come together quickly and start a food drive in a parking lot, which then evolved into collecting food at the Western Carolina Regional Airport in Andrews. The CCFA then started working with MANNA on the Student Weekend Wellness program, which helped address food insecurity in the Cherokee and Clay County areas. Another effort of the CCFA has been to put on events and draw attention to our local Farmers’ Markets. There is now a Local Grower’s Farmstand where volunteers can serve our local food producers. 

Last year, Megan Lambert, Executive Director of CCFA, and I spent over 500 hours together working at all four local farmers’ markets. We purchased produce from over 60 local growers, and sold over $8,000 that went directly back into our local economy. The organization’s next step will be to open a Food Hub for the public to visit in Andrews in the coming months.

Now I’m trying to stay in the Brasstown area and develop a community garden that will focus on educational workshops for adults and youth education for groups like the Appalachian Wildling Forest School. We are adjacent to the Brasstown Farmers Market, between the Jenkins Branch and the Little Brasstown Creek. In one portion of the garden, we have a 20 by 30-foot area to cultivate potatoes and rows of corn, beans and squash, which are known as the three sisters of companion planting. We’ll also have some other vertical beans growing areas. The goal is that the majority of the yield will be passed on to the Brasstown Community Center Food Pantry. On the opposite side of the crop area, we hope to have a pollinator garden established this year. If my dreams come true, we may have an above-ground structure added to the area this year, but next year it’ll be more developed. That’s the dream for this initial year.

We are looking for volunteers to help with weeding and extra tending to the garden area. If anyone would like to help, they can text me at 828-541-3194 or email at cherokeeclayfoodalliance@gmail.com.

I’m trying to do my paternal grandparents proud. They were farmers in Wisconsin with an 88-acre farm in southern Wisconsin. I’m hoping that growing a large-scale garden is in my blood, and I can continue the tradition.

—Angela Henningfeld, Brasstown Community Garden, Cherokee Clay food Alliance and NC Cooperative Extension Cherokee County Center, Master food Volunteer