Casting Bread is a community-focused, client choice food pantry (market) and soup kitchen (cafe) located on Aho Road in Blowing Rock, NC. In 2023 Casting Bread provided free groceries to nearly 7,000 food insecure individuals and families.

 

We are an independent nonprofit agency offering a variety of services designed to meet the specific needs of our clients and to address the root causes of hunger in the high country. We offer a unique approach in multiple ways. We are proudly the only client-choice pantry in Watauga County. Our staff are born and raised NC mountain folk who believe it is important to offer not only healthy, but culturally and seasonally appropriate, foods rather than the same shelf-stable items available at all pantries. Finally, we are the only pantry in the area with no geographic restrictions on our services, so we never have to turn anyone away.

 

Since our founding in 2006, we have made these shifts from the standard food pantry model, instead we aim to highlight the deep historical influences, cultural and environmental nuances and strong community foundations that built the rich culture in this area. When we bring people into our market and cafe, we hear their challenges and victories, we cry and we laugh with them, and after eighteen years in operation, we can confidently say that we offer more than just food, but compassion and community as well.

 

Executive Director: Clara Coffey - castingbreadinfo@gmail.com

Operations Manager: Diann Miller