Photo from our Appreciation Dinner at The Blowing Rock Conference Center in November. Flowers & music provided by local grower and floral designer Devin Lacey of Booze & Bouquets.
Dear Casting Bread Community,
I hope that each of you enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving meal surrounded by good people, warmth and love.
If you were able to attend our Appreciation Dinner at the beginning of November, we hope you felt all of the gratitude and love that Casting Bread holds for you. If you could not be there, please know that for all you have done for your community, a simple “thank you” will never feel like enough. But, we sincerely thank you nonetheless. We couldn’t have made it here without each and every one of you.
Many of us are entering this holiday season still heavy with realities of life after Hurricane Helene. Over Thanksgiving I traveled roads through WNC that I have traveled countless times in my life. Two months after the storm I barely recognized so many of the usually familiar sights. There is still so much devastation here, so much mud, trash and ruin. Western North Carolina still needs so much help.
And, even with so much devastation around us, we carry on with our Christmas shopping because we believe in finding and creating joy and hope however we can. This Giving Tuesday, I would like for this message to leave you full of hope. I am honored to share with you, our incredible community, all that lies ahead for Casting Bread.
Casting Forward
This Giving Tuesday we are thrilled to announce the beginning of our Capital Campaign: Casting Forward. Grateful for our longstanding partnership with Faithbridge UMC and its supportive congregation made up of accepting and loving individuals, together we will take this pivotal step towards creating a new space. Together we will build something beautiful which will allow us to serve our neighbors with greater efficiency, dignity, and support. This is not just about rebuilding what has been lost—it’s about reimagining what can be.
As the cold weather has settled into the High Country, the time to support and invest in this community is right now and we can find comfort in knowing that big financial ripples come from individuals supporting small, grassroots organizations just like Casting Bread. The work we do enables us to spend our time with people who were brave enough to ask for help, and to connect them with those of you who wish to offer relief.
Why Us?
We can clearly see that our most vulnerable neighbors were disproportionately impacted by Hurricane Helene. The two largest trailer parks in Boone sat in flood areas and roughly half the mobile homes that were there (some of the last affordable housing in town/bus limits) are completely gone. According to the U.S. Census Bureau about 20% of people living in the 27 counties in North Carolina under a major disaster declaration after Hurricane Helene, had high social vulnerability to disasters. These counties “suffered catastrophic flooding, power outages, property destruction and loss of life due to Helene, which reached Category 4 intensity on September 26. Thousands of homes were destroyed, many of which were not covered by flood insurance.” There are so many who are now experiencing housing and food insecurity for the first time in their lives, our people are more vulnerable than ever. Supporting organizations who worked to combat these issues long before Helene is the most effective strategy for improving the quality of life for the most vulnerable of our people.
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Hope After Helene
The moment the rain stopped, Casting Bread got to work. With no electricity or phone service for miles and thawing freezers full of meat, we hoped we would still be able to offer at least the comfort of a hot meal. Completely cut off, we had no idea of the extent of the destruction all around us but we knew that sharing food, compassion and community is what Casting Bread could offer, even with our building rendered useless by flooding.
It certainly looked different from our typical Cafe. Meat sizzled on charcoal grills, smoke billowing out from under our bright orange tents. Everyone wore mud caked thick to their shins and it squelched under every step. Most of the folks we fed weren’t our regular clients, whose faces we know well. Many new faces of those lived close by and yet we had never met before. But we found strength in each other, wrapped up in a whirlwind of feeding any and everyone who came, doing all that we knew to do.
Day after day people came to Casting Bread in need of supplies, and day after day people from this community and far beyond, showed up however they could to meet their neighbors’ needs. I heard so many echo the same idea: “I’d rather be here working, helping, than at home. At home the sadness creeps in, but when I’m here I feel better.”
When fear surrounded us, it also brought us closer to one another. All of our faces wore the same mix of exhaustion, fear, appreciation, sorrow and hope. This expression is all too familiar at a food pantry like ours. The kind of work we do at Casting Bread so often brings people to us in their most vulnerable moments, and Helene was no exception. The difference this time around was that we were also broken and in need of their help.
Thanks to this incredible community, our little pantry seamlessly continued its services and acted as a distribution hub for essential supplies in the most dire weeks following Helene. We are grateful, humbled and proud to have made it this far. However, despite the hard work of so many and our best efforts, we must finally accept our own reality: Casting Bread’s building is unusable.
With your help and support, we’ve done our best to adapt and continue serving in temporary spaces, but this is not sustainable, safe or possible for the long term. We loved our old brick building by the river and have grieved the lost memories its walls held. And, we have always known that Casting Bread is so much more than a place. When we look ahead, we know that rebuilding is not just necessary—it is an opportunity for all of us to create something new. With eighteen years of experience to guide us, and all of you beside us, Casting Bread is ready for its next chapter.
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How to Help
Today on Giving Tuesday, we begin this important journey to create a space which goes beyond meeting immediate needs—a space that inspires hope, fosters connection, and nurtures a community to do more than rebuild, but to flourish. To learn more about Casting Forward and our plans, please feel free to email me anytime at clara@increasefoodsecurity.org. I know you may feel overwhelmed by the needs around you, as they are great. So, you found some comfort in my reflections from the days immediately after the hurricane. A time when I, along with many others, found solace at Casting Bread. Look out for an Impact Report from us before the New Year in which we will share with you a summary of how your continued support has allowed Casting Bread to feed this community throughout 2024.
To join us and help ensure Casting Bread continues to be a steadfast source of support and opportunity for all, please note your donations as for “Casting Forward”. No donation amount is too small as we work towards this goal and we are able to gratefully accept financial donations through our website at increasefoodsecurity.org or via check which can be mailed to:
Casting Bread
194 Aho Road
Blowing Rock, NC
28605
With so much gratitude and love,
Clara Coffey
Executive Director
Casting Bread Free Market and Cafe
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