Special thanks & gratitude for all the support from our local sponsors, staff, volunteers, talent, service providers, vendors, food trucks, food tents, attendees, and everyone who came together to make Boomtown FestAVL 2025 a possibility and allowing Boomtown & The Big Secret to raise $3,500 for community non-profit beneficiary
@foodconnection_wnc who have helped lead the way recycling food “reducing waste & easing hunger” in the local/ regional WNC communities as well as distributing over 10K meals to communities torn apart from Hurricane Helene. Below are words from Food Connection regarding their support during the flood & beyond. Please visit their page(s)
@foodconnection_wnc to learn more about how to support their mission.
“In the days after Helene, we found Food Connection’s home base to be unharmed. We had power, but no water, no internet, and no cell service. Our standard operating procedure was turned upside down. Everything was different except for our one constant - our neighbors and community members were in need of food.”
“We started rescuing unprepared food that was beginning to thaw, teamed up with Mikasa Criolla, who cooked the food, and we kept serving our neighbors and everyone else we were able to reach. As the weeks went on, we began to receive food donations from World Central Kitchen and Mercy Chefs, as well as numerous other donors from outside of the affected area. In a ten day period we shared over 10,000 meals when, at that time, we had previously been serving 1,000 meals.”
“As things have gotten closer to normal, we are consistently putting out triple the meals we were pre-Helene and we don’t intend to stop. We are back to our model of rescuing surplus chef-prepared food from restaurants, caterers, and institutions and redistributing it to our neighbors - connecting those who have too much with those that don’t have enough.”
“After getting our 501(c)(3) nearly a decade ago, we have kept over 400 tons of fresh food out of the Buncombe County landfill and are close to hitting the 1 million meals served milestone! We are so grateful for our volunteers and financial supporters who support our mission and keep us going.”
