Asheville is a city that reminds me a lot of home. Talking with members of the local community and seeing the similarities between here and Springfield has really helped me understand why food insecurity is such an important issue to me. Working with the church to serve the community meal on Monday was a very impactful experience. It was our first day in Asheville and our first day interacting with one of our local contacts, Chris. He told us a lot about the history of the area and what the needs of the community were. There aren’t many grocery stores that are close or accessible to some parts of the Candler/Asheville community, a situation that is all too common in Springfield as well.
I think the most impactful experience of this trip so far was the feeling of seeing that what we do right now matters. We’re serving a community meal on a Monday night for people in need in Candler, NC and have affected dozens of lives that night. That alone has to me is amazing. The people who came to the meal and the volunteers who helped us make the meal were incredibly kind-hearted and I could tell they really cared about what they are doing. The meal was definitely as much a social event as it was a meal for people in need, which made me feel more at home.
Food insecurity affects this community, as well as many other communities across the country. Seeing what people are doing to make an impact, even if it’s in a small way, has opened my eyes to new possibilities for serving those with food insecurities back home in Springfield.