When Ted and Flori Pate moved to Asheville in 2013, they didn’t have a grand plan to get involved in the community and change lives. It just happened that way.
When they each lost their remote corporate marketing jobs, they decided to remain in their newly adopted hometown to raise their family. In a fortunate series of events, they co-founded Dig Local, a location-specific marketing platform for small businesses. Ted took the lead, but the couple poured “blood, sweat, and beers” into the service, which has a website and a popular app. It’s been a local presence since early 2014.
The Food Connection followed in late 2014 as Flori’s brainchild. She partnered with Mary Evans of Pack’s Tavern, Buzz Durham of Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church and Woody McKee of AVL Ride to rescue prepared food, repackage it and deliver fresh meals to anyone who wanted one. To date, the Food Connection has kept more than 260-plus tons of prepared food out of the landfills and provided over 650,000 meals to the community.
Learn how you can get involved with the Food Connection.
How Did the Food Connection Get Started?
The original idea was to save food — from caterers, buffets, restaurants, hotels, schools and other institutions with more prepared food than they used — and deliver it to those in need. It turned out that nearly 40 percent of all prepared food is wasted, while about 34 million people nationwide experience food insecurity. Yet the simple concept needed to overcome serious obstacles, both locally and nationally, such as finding:
- Food-preparation partners willing to donate large-scale “unused but fresh” prepared meals
- Transportation to pick up the leftover food and deliver prepared meals to nonprofit partners and people in need
- Volunteers to receive the donated food and prepare individual meals
- Funds to pay for the services they needed, including storing and tracking all the food by type and date
- A way to educate food producers about liability by explaining the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act of 1996
Flori and her team worked hard to solve each problem in turn. Early on, UNCA and the Deerfield Retirement Center provided the food, which AVL Ride delivered to Beloved Asheville to distribute. Today, more than 24 businesses supply leftover food to at least 13 organizations, not including the Food Connection’s own delivery vans and volunteer vehicles. Flori and other Food Connection staff even traveled to Washington, DC, to lobby for the Food Donation Improvement Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law in 2023, which solved the final problem.
How Does the Food Connection Work?
The Food Connection is a “matchmaker,” according to Co-Founder and Creative Director Flori Pate. That means the organization partners with others to collect leftover prepared food. Labeling and storing it properly — and then combining it into individual meals — takes a lot of effort and the right tools. The goal, of course, is to get these nutritious chef-prepared meals to community members who don’t always have enough for their tables. In this endeavor, the Food Connection has had remarkable success, mostly due to the sustained demand in the region.
During the COVID pandemic, when restaurants closed down or significantly cut back on food production, the need for food didn’t shrink. In fact, it grew. To continue serving all those who had come to rely on its work, the Food Connection received an anonymous $200,000 donation and support from furloughed staff and chefs at Wicked Weed Brewing. That money allowed the organization to pay area chefs to prepare individual meals to be delivered to:
- Parents who work multiple jobs to make ends meet, sacrificing the time for healthy food prep
- Families trying to supplement their SNAP coupons
- People who earn just over the amount that would entitle them to SNAP benefits
- Those who live in food deserts
- People with mobility or other health issues
- Seniors who live on fixed incomes
- Kids (and teachers!) who need an after-school meal
- Anyone who wants a meal, as there are no barriers or judgements associated with the service
The food that comes in is piece-tracked to ensure safety. Most food is refrigerated or frozen immediately, and it’s handled according to ServSafe® rules. Each meal includes a use-by date and clearly states to heat the individual meals to 165 degrees. Since launching 10 years ago, there hasn’t been one complaint of someone becoming ill from the food.
How Is the Food Connection Funded?
The Food Connection and Manna Foodbank work as allies to help the food insecure in Western North Carolina, but they don’t share funding. The Food Connection has recently hired a Development Director to oversee grants and fundraising to expand the organization’s efforts to rescue more food and feed more people. Fundraisers include:
- Golf Against Hunger at the Omni Grove Park Inn
- Chefs in Action, an annual event that takes place in 2024 on September 18 at the Funkatorium, where 10+ donor chefs prepare food for the evening
- Individual donations from citizens like you, where every dollar delivers ten dollars in food
The organization relies on nine paid staff and about 100 volunteers. The Food Connection has built a large network of partners, from churches and schools to high-end restaurants and hotels. “People keep calling,” Flori said. “We’d love to see the day when the hunger issue is solved in Western North Carolina. But we’ve got a long way to go. As long as there are surplus chef-prepared meals, we’re committed to getting them to our neighbors in need.”
You can volunteer and donate to the Food Connection, too!
What’s Next for the Food Connection?
The Food Connection crew is actively involved in efforts to educate more people to do this type of work. They have a model for how well it can work in Buncombe and McDowell counties, they hope to expand the service to other areas — and other cities — with a similar need. For example:
- The nonprofit has plans to expand into Henderson County, if there’s enough support for it.
- Feeding Charlotte, a similar organization, was essentially birthed by the Food Connection’s team.
The Food Connection’s proudest innovation is offering the Free Food Truck Experience that goes to afterschool programs and directly into neighborhoods. They’re currently expanding their Free Food Truck with Candler distribution, adding to their Swannanoa and Leicester “Beyond the Busline” program that provides free meals, no questions asked, to anyone in need.
Community members who step up to serve help promote the Food Connection and its services. Zachery Adam of GoPrime Mortgage in West Asheville, values the role the Food Connection plays in the community and enjoys seeing the local Asheville community and non-profits participating in the various fundraising projects.
Flori Pate and the team at the Food Connection continue to believe that “no fresh food should end up in the trash while people go hungry.” As a result, they’ve delivered nearly two-thirds of a billion meals to those who need it.
Get involved with the Food Connection today.
Sources:
https://wncsuperheroes.com/superhero-spotlight-flori-pate-food-connection/
