At Michele's Granola, we believe everyone deserves good food. That simple belief is the impetus behind our Give One for Good Food program, through which we donate 1% of every sale to organizations working to improve our food system and to make nutritious food more accessible to all. When we collaborate with other brands on Limited Edition varieties, we ask our partners choose what organization should receive the donation, broadening our network.
As we were putting the finishing touches on our Limited Edition Banana Bread Granola collaboration with our favorite spice-maker, Spicewalla, disaster struck. Hurricane Helene tore through their hometown of Asheville, NC, leaving widespread destruction in its wake.
The Spicewalla team, deeply rooted in their community, had already chosen Bountiful Cities, a nonprofit focused on local food security, as the beneficiary. In that moment, the need to act became urgent. We made a financial donation to support Bountiful Cities’ critical work, and we encourage you to join us in supporting the organization's fundraising efforts to rebuild their local food system in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene!
Our team spoke with Outreach Coordinator Cathy Cleary to learn more about this incredible organization:
Michele’s Granola (MG): How long have you been working in food justice?
Cathy Cleary of Bountiful Cities (CC): For about 16 years.
MG: How did you get started in this line of work?
CC: I owned a restaurant in Asheville and got really involved in the local food movement. It seemed pretty obvious that only resourced people were able to take advantage of local food at markets and shops because of the cost. I realized it went much deeper and that a lot of marginalized folks didn’t have access to fresh food at all. I helped to start a cooking and gardening education program in public schools called FEAST so that all kids could have access fresh food for a lifetime. If you give a kid a veggie they eat for a day, if you teach them to garden and cook they eat for a lifetime! FEAST is now a program of Bountiful Cities.
BC: Bountiful Cities is a long-term food security organization focused on fresh food access through urban agriculture. We envision abundant fresh food growing everywhere and people sharing and resources with each other so that we can all thrive.
CC: I LOVE cooking and gardening in community with other people. I love watching kids discover how digging for potatoes is like discovering gold underground. I love hearing kids exclaim that they can’t wait to eat fennel again. I love learning from elders their tricks for peeling apples, or keeping the bugs off of squash plants. I could go on, but really it’s a beautiful thing to share food and knowledge and I get to witness and be part of that with Bountiful Cities.
CC: It’s so important to know how to pivot! In the wake of Hurricane Helene Asheville has been hit so hard, and fresh food especially has been in short supply. So much of our more rural farmland has been lost or contaminated due to all the flood water, but urban growing spaces fared a lot better. This is an opportunity for us to really ramp up food production in our urban farms and gardens so that we can produce food for our city. There are so many barriers and lack of agricultural education might be one of the biggest. If people don’t know how to grow food they are at a serious disadvantage. We’ve pivoted and offered hands-on workshops for free to hundreds of community members.
CC: Hood Huggers Foundation does amazing things in our community! I’m so impressed with them!
CC: Neck Pumpkin! It’s a huge butternut-like winter squash that I grow in my yard. They are so prolific - I can grow 400 pounds of squash in half of my tiny front yard. They keep really well in a basement - no need for refrigeration. I like to make a Thai coconut pumpkin curry with them.
CC: Hyper Local Food is my dream for everyone! It’s defined as food grown within walking distance from where you live. Wouldn’t it be great if we all had little front yard farmstands and could share our extra with our neighbors? It’s a dream for the future, but it’s been done for all of human history. We truly could feed everyone if our yards were growing food. [View a fantastic talk from Cathy on Hyper Local Food here]
On behalf of all of us at Michele's Granola, we thank Cathy and Bountiful Cities for their important work, and we encourage you to support their efforts to rebuild after Hurricane Helene by donating here.
Photo credits: Bountiful Cities. Volunteers Beyla Munach and Fred Dulin working in the garden.