List of 2025 Grantees

Social and Healthcare Services

  • ABCCM. Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry (ABCCM) addresses poverty, hunger, homelessness, and access to healthcare for underserved populations across North Carolina.
  • Advent Health. Our grant supports the refurbishment of the lactation room in AHH’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and the Labor & Delivery Unit.
  • Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP). ASAP serves the Southern Appalachian region by helping local farms thrive, linking farmers to markets and supporters, and building healthy communities through connections to local food.
  • Asheville Poverty Initiative (API). API feeds homeless individuals and builds community in West Asheville by serving a hot lunch six days a week, distributing groceries and providing a central gathering spot for the community.
  • Bounty & Soul. Bounty & Soul operates 10 no-cost community markets, 100 at-home deliveries and 6 community delivery sites providing dignified access to healthy food (95% fresh produce).
  • Calvary Episcopal Church Food Pantry. Calvary Episcopal Church Food Pantry provides healthy food (fruits, vegetables, milk, protein, soup and baby food) and is in many cases is a major source of nutritious meals for families in Henderson and Buncombe counties. The Food Pantry also grows some of the produce distributed and offers health related screens and information. Our WCMA grant supplements in-kind donations by funding food purchases.
  • Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte, Western Region. Catholic Charities provides burial/cremation assistance to struggling families as part of an overall effort to strengthen families, build communities and reduce poverty.
  • Church of the Advocate. The Red Door Program provides individuals (the majority of whom are homeless) with a hot lunch and access to the “shoe room” and the “toiletries room” where volunteers help select free shoes and personal care items for those in need.
  • Council on Aging of Buncombe County. The Council on Aging of Buncombe County is a 60-year-old organization that connects seniors with federal, state and local resources for the aging.
  • Eblen Charities. Since 2010, Eblen Charities has administered a program to provide more than 29,000 needy school children with vouchers that can be redeemed for shoes and clothes at Goodwill locations. 
  • Food Connection. Food Connection rescues food from event locations, hotels and restaurants and repackages the food into “heat and eat” meals and delivers the meals to distribution locations around Buncombe County.
  • Four Seasons Hospice. Four Seasons is an award-winning, nationally recognized nonprofit organization providing Care Navigation, Home Care, Palliative Care, Hospice Care, Pediatric Palliative Hospice Care, Grief Services, and Caregiver Support to fourteen counties in WNC.
  • Haywood Street Congregation. Haywood Street Congregation operates a community Respite facility, which is a short-term facility that hosts the homeless or those living in a shelter who have been discharged after an acute medical procedure that requires continued care.
  • Helping At-Risk Kids (HARK). The HARK program works with the NC Department of Social Services to serve the needs of at-risk children.
  • Helpmate, Inc. For 46 years, Helpmate has worked within our community to provide safety, shelter, and support for victims/survivors of intimate partner domestic violence.
  • Homeward Bound. Homeward Bound works towards preventing and ending homelessness in our community through permanent housing and support.
  • MANNA Foodbank. MANNA works to involve, educate and unite people in the work of ending hunger in WNC through various programs.
  • MemoryCare. MemoryCare provides specialized medical care to older adults with cognitive impairment, supports caregivers with education, counseling and improved access to services and fosters community education. 
  • Pisgah Legal Services. Founded in 1978, Pisgah Legal Services provides free civil legal aid, anti-poverty advocacy, assistance with applications and appeals for access to healthcare for vulnerable people with low incomes, including struggling veterans, families on the verge of homelessness or bankruptcy, victims of domestic and sexual violence, people in need of health care, and senior citizen victims of fraud. 
  • St. Vincent DePaul Society. St. Vincent DePaul Society provides financial and food assistance to those in need within the community.
  • Western Carolina Rescue Ministries. For over 40 years, Western Carolina Rescue Ministries has existed to serve the homeless, poor, and addicted populations of WNC. One of their programs is Abba’s House which provides addicted women who are pregnant or have young children with a free safe space to work towards recovery and other goals while staying with their children.

Education

  • Avery Creek Elementary School (ACES). Avery Creek Elementary School is a K-4 elementary school with approximately 530 students, of which 68.4% are economically disadvantaged and 58% are minorities.
  • Big Brothers Big Sisters of WNC. Big Brothers Big Sisters matches mentors with children facing adversity and provides ongoing activities, training & support services to sustain successful match relationships.
  • Boys & Girls Club of Henderson Cty. Boys & Girls Club of Henderson County, strives to be a place where every child feels a sense of belonging and safety so that they can discover their full potential and create a bright future for themselves.
  • Bridges Reading Enrichment Program. The Bridges Reading Enrichment Program promotes literacy assistance for reading challenged first through third graders from Estes Elementary School.
  • NC Arboretum Society. The Bridges Reading Enrichment Program promotes literacy assistance for reading challenged first through third graders from Estes Elementary School.
  • Organic Growers School. Organic Growers School provides a variety of educational agricultural programs, including organic farming mentorships and home gardening workshops.
  • RiverLink. RiverLink promotes and educates about the environmental and economic vitality of the French Broad River and its watershed.
  • UNCA Foundation. UNCA Foundation supports various activities at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, including their SkillSet program that provides hands-on experience to underprivileged for members of the community, with particular focus on women, to bridge the gender gap in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM).
  • YMCA. Our WCMA grant funds the YMCA‘s program to provide financial assistance, including YMCA memberships to Avery Creek Elementary families whose state vouchers do not fully meet their needs, as well as those requiring full financial assistance.

Animal Welfare, Natural or Cultural Resources

  • Asheville Art Museum. Our WCMA grant supports select arts-based educational programs for students, children, and families.
  • Asheville Chamber Music Series. Our WCMA grant exposes middle and high school students to chamber music by funding classroom visits by Asheville Symphony musicians as well as student attendance at live performances.
  • Asheville Community Theater. Our WCMA grant funds a program that brings professional teaching artists to Asheville area kindergarten and first grade classrooms one day a week for 45 minutes.
  • Asheville Humane Society. Our WCMA grant supports the Asheville Humane Society's Community Solutions department, which provides medical care, exams, labs and meds for pets with urgent medical needs whose families, such as seniors, victims of domestic violence, the homeless or housing insecure and veterans, could not afford to pay the expenses without this assistance. Our WCMA grant allows the pets to stay with their families instead of being surrendered.
  • Asheville Junior Theatre. Our WCMA grant supports Junior Theater’s funding for 20 wireless, digital microphones and student scholarships for youth aged 4-18.
  • Asheville Symphony Society. Established in 1990, the Asheville Young People’s Concerts provides a symphonic musical experience for Buncombe County fifth grade students before they join a band or orchestra in middle school the next year.
  • Charlie’s Angels Animal Rescue. Our WCMA grant supports the New Leash for Life program, which partners with the Western Correctional Center for Women in Black Mountain to allow inmates to train and live with young, rescued dogs under the supervision of a professional dog trainer.
  • Echoes of the Forest. Echoes of the Forest funds the creation of commissioned sculpture using wood salvaged from Hurricane Helene. 
  • Pisgah Area SORBA. Established in 2015, Pisgah Area SORBA is a chapter of a larger regional group focused on maintaining and expanding roughly 100 miles of mountain biking trails in the Bent Creek Experimental Forest.