Every year since the Appalachian Grown program was founded, a survey has been sent to participating farms to assess the impact of program services and gather feedback to shape the program’s future direction. In December 2021, this annual survey was sent to 760 Appalachian Grown certified producers. The survey asked about their experiences farming in … Read more
ASAP began piloting the Double SNAP program in 2019 at the Asheville City Market and has since expanded to eight farmers markets across three counties. This report is based on a survey of farmers market managers, vendors, and customer networks at markets that participated in the Double SNAP program in order to assess impact and … Read more
This is a short summary report describing the themes and impact of ASAP’s Growing Local Radio. This was a radio series developed to engage individuals more deeply with the region’s advancing local food system. It was designed to use storytelling to increase the audience’s awareness of what was happening regionally around local farms and local … Read more
This paper discusses the findings of research conducted by ASAP’s Local Food Research Center with entrepreneurs of local food in Appalachian Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina. The research investigated the experiences of local food entrepreneurs to understand their motivations for working with local foods, the challenges they experienced, and the strategies they used … Read more
This report discusses the findings of research conducted by ASAP’s Local Food Research Center, which investigated the impact of place-based food and farm experiences on participants in a local food system building effort in Western North Carolina. The research focused on experiences at farmers markets and on farm tours. As organizers deeply involved in this … Read more
In ASAP’s mission to support Southern Appalachian farms and build a local food system, we developed the Appalachian Grown (AG) branding program in 2007 with the goal of expanding local market opportunities for farmers by providing a way for the public to easily identify products from local farms. We send a survey to all AG … Read more
In October of 2020, a survey was shared with farmers markets participating in ASAP’s Double SNAP program to assess the impact and gather feedback. The Double SNAP program doubles the value of a shopper’s SNAP benefits used at market. The survey was open for six weeks and collected 113 responses from market managers, vendors, and … Read more
In ASAP’s mission to support Southern Appalachian farms and build a local food system, we developed the Appalachian Grown (AG) branding program in 2007 with the goal of expanding local market opportunities for farmers by providing a way for the public to easily identify products from local farms. We send a survey to all AG … Read more
The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent closure of restaurants, schools, events, and in some places, disruption of farmers markets, is having an immediate and potentially devastating impact on farmers and vendors selling to local markets in the Southern Appalachians. In order to better understand these experiences and how to best support these farm and food businesses, … Read more
ASAP’s Local Food Research Center completed a Food and Farm Assessment in the seven western counties of North Carolina and on the Qualla Boundary to guide the work of the EmPOWERing Mountain Food Systems Project in November 2019. Learn more about the project here.