Fresh Food With Dignity

A packed Jeep, a brand-new town, and the kind of fear that comes with starting life over from scratch. That’s where Ali Casparian’s story begins, and it’s also where a radically practical idea takes root: hunger relief can look like dignity, choice, and real community, not shame and scarcity.

We talk with Ali, founder and executive director of Bounty and Soul in Black Mountain, about the personal road that led her to Western North Carolina and into food insecurity and housing insecurity herself. From an immigrant family shaped by gardens and home cooking, she knows what nourishing food can do and what it feels like when fresh produce is out of reach. That lived experience becomes the blueprint for Bounty and Soul’s mission: connecting people to nutritious food, education, and community with compassion and love.

You’ll hear how one visit to MANNA FoodBank and a moment of seeing surplus produce sparks the first market, built with tables, baskets, and an intentional sense of beauty and abundance. We dig into why a farmers market style approach matters, how neighbors share what they receive, and what community strength looks like after major disruption, from the pandemic to a hurricane. We also talk mentors, the people who open doors when you’re exhausted, and why the cost of living, affordable housing, and even health insurance premiums are now inseparable from the conversation about food insecurity.

If this conversation shifts how you think about hunger relief in Asheville and across Western North Carolina, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it. What’s one local effort you’ve seen that protects dignity while meeting real needs?

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Transcript

Welcome And How They Met

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Allie Kasparian, I am glad to have you here today. I met you uh when I was in Leadership Asheville. You came and spoke, and I went home from that day and I told my parents all about you and I was so excited. I was like, well, they were there with another food bank and the way they get along is really cool. They weren't competitors, they really were trying to help each other, and it was really neat. And this lady spoke, her name was Allie something, and blah blah blah. And my parents just grinned and they said, We know Allie. We know Allie pretty well. And so I love when my parents know somebody before I do, and I think I'm special because I met you. But tell us what's your story and where are you from?

Starting Over After Trauma

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Yeah, well, thank you. It's a joy to be here with you. I love your parents, they're uh they're just the best. They're adorable. Yeah, so my story is quite a colorful one that led me here to the mountains of Western North Carolina in 2011. I had a near-death experience that, you know, I was in a place where I just needed to start my life all over. And um, it was a pretty traumatic experience. And um, I was coming to the mountains because it was a place of healing. And um, but I came not knowing anyone, not knowing what I was gonna do, just my Jeep, my 1999 Jeep Cherokee, packed to the gills with uh with my belongings, and uh I really was starting my life over at that point, so and I needed to get a job, find a place to live, which was a little difficult, not knowing anybody in a beautiful town, but a strange town to me, which didn't last long. No, um, because it's Black Mountain. That's right. So, but I did find myself very quickly in a place of food insecurity and housing insecurity. And it was a difficult time to find a job that paid well. You know, I had a 20-plus year corporate background experience working in the corporate world, and this experience had I had lost everything. So starting over in a small town has has its challenges, and one of them was finding a a job. So I started cleaning houses and I found my way to Montreat, which is where I met your brother.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Oh, you know him too.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

I know your brother. And your brother is who opened the door to so many of the people that are so near and dear to me that are part of Bounty and Soul, part of the organization.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Had no idea. No idea.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Yes, in the Montreat bookstore.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

That's funny.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

Yeah, he was he I walked in and he said, What are you doing here? And I said, My name is Hal. And I'm trying to find clients to clean houses for and cook for. And so he said, I want to introduce you to my mother. That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

So that's how I met your mother.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

How I met your mother.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

We just make a TV show series about that? I don't know. Anyway, sorry. Isn't there one? Yeah, I think so. I think so. I think so. Well, that's funny. My whole life I have followed my younger brother. Now, you heard that right. My younger brother. I have always been Newt's sister, always. And it it cracks me up to this day. And then, of course, I moved here after he did, so that makes sense. But when you're a kid and you're growing up in the same town in the same school, how are you Newt's sister? That doesn't even make sense. But anyway, no, Newton has been an amazing uh help to me. He's introduced me to a lot of people too.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

So he's a great networker.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

He is, he is, he's something. Let's say that's something. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Anyway, but he did he did what he said he was gonna do, and that was to open up my world to a lot of people, which which is what your mom did as well. But I it was interesting because I had a I had to pass her test. And and it it we we instantly connected, and I knew after leaving that day that we would, you know, we would be in each other's lives for a very, very long time. That's great. That's great. Yeah.

Founding Bounty And Soul

SPEAKER_00 4:47

Well, good. So how did you go from there to where you are now? Tell me what you do now. So tell me what you do now.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

Yeah, so I'm the founder and executive director of Bounty and Soul, which is this wonderful community-based nonprofit that is based in Black Mountain, but we serve multiple counties throughout Western North Carolina. And our mission is to connect, share, and celebrate nutritious food, education, and community. And it's all about access to fresh, healthy food with dignity, compassion, and love. And it really, you know, birthed out of my own experience with food insecurity and not having access to the food that I know to nourish my body. And I grew up on, I come from an immigrant family, from a family of Armenians and and Dutch. And we grew up eating out of the garden and self-of-lots of time in the kitchen cooking. And yet when you're experiencing challenges, uh financial challenges, it's not, you know, you you whether you go to a food bank or food pantry or you you're using snap benefits, there's not a lot to choose from as far as fresh food. So I thought, hmm, this is not dignified. And there also was a a feeling of shame that came with it. I felt like I always had to prove my poverty when I went to seek services somewhere. And I thought food is a human, is a human right.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

And how do we, how do we bring that to people? So I would went to the, you know, I I had landed in Black Mountain, found a little 300 square foot, what I lovingly called a chicken coop, because I think it actually was at one point a sicken coop. The plumbing wasn't great, wasn't working very well, but it was the only thing that I could afford. And um, so I was going to what is was called the Black Mountain Welcome Table and was there for a meal and also volunteering there. And it and that's how I got to know the community as well.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

That's great.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

So, but what what was missing is you know this access to fresh food and being able to choose your fresh food. So the there was uh an opportunity that came came about at Mana Food Bank, where I went there to visit and I just saw this excess produce and the light bulb went off. And I said, okay, wow, this is this is an opportunity. So it and came back to with to the community and said, okay, we've been talking about, because I would sit together with moms and grandmoms and um people in the community that were just talking about how whether they had diabetes, heart disease, or their kids just wanted fresh fruit, but they couldn't afford it. And so here was this opportunity. And I said, okay, who's got a truck? Who's got a you know, tablecloths? Someone's got bat baskets, because what I what I knew for sure was that the access and the the access point needed to be treated with dignity and care and beauty and abundance. So yeah, within a couple of weeks, we, you know, put up a couple of tables with tablecloths and baskets and picked up the food for Mana, all the produce. And that's what started the first market at uh at the St. James Episcopal Church.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

That's really cool.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Yeah, which now, you know, we do nine markets a week, and we have several sub-distributing partners and other community organizations that we pass the fresh food on that then share that with their neighbors. So yeah, we're serving about 26,000 people a month.

Dignity-First Food Access In Action

SPEAKER_00 8:43

Holy cow. Yeah. Well, the first place I saw what you do, like for real, saw it, was after the storm. I went down to Blunt Pretzels because some friends were meeting there. And I went down there and there was this beautiful wagon is the word I'm gonna use. It's probably not the right word, but it was a wagon that had tears. And it would, it, it just reminded me of maybe somewhere in Europe where you would see produce on the side of the, you know, on the side of the road for sale, and it was gorgeous. And I thought, well, that's odd that they would just have produce out there, but I guess they're selling produce. And so I went and looked and got closer and I realized they weren't selling produce. They were picking, people were picking out what they wanted, just like you would do if you went to a grocery store. And I thought that was that was unique and different. And I loved that. And it's like you, you just use the word, I think you used the word humanity or something like that. It was like these are people who need food. It's not like these are poor people who need food, because not all of us were poor, but we all needed food. And I just, that was my first picture of what you actually do. Um, and then my second was I have a friend who gets a brown bag from y'all. I think it's every week. And she has brought one one time she brought me, she said, I know that you love Brussels sprouts. And no one in my family will ever eat Brussels sprouts. And so I'm just gonna tell you that I'm giving you these, but don't tell anybody because I'm probably not supposed to give these away. And I thought, I will eat them. They would go to waste in her house. I'm not gonna feel guilty. And so I took them. But uh, but I I love both of those things. It's a brown paper bag that looks like she went to the grocery store and bought groceries and brought them home. And both of those things were just, I don't know, just a surprise to me. You know, I don't know. And and just well thought out. And it's the it's it is marketing, but it's the opposite of marketing. It's like not you didn't have your name all over everything, nowhere. I didn't see your name anywhere. So I thought that was really cool too. So sometimes when we're directors of nonprofits, that's all we do, all we think about. Um, both of us do that. I I work a lot too. And what else do you do when you're not, when you're trying not to think about work? What do you like to do?

SPEAKER_01 11:05

Yes, that's a really good question. Um I head to the woods. I spend a lot of time in the woods, which is part decompression, part connecting with something uh, you know, aside from the the work every day. And it's it's a deeper connection for me that I've had since I was a child. I used to swing on vines and eat in a brook and go fishing with my dad. And so I was very much a tomboy, but very much connected to the woods. I think I was an animal in a previous life because I just once I get into the woods, I just my whole nervous system just completely relaxes. And so and I I hike with my dog. I I'm a runner, but I had a serious injury last year that probably 95% there where I'd like to start running again. So yeah, and I love to cook, um, I love to garden. I live in Swanninau, and there's not a lot of like open land there. So a lot of the growing I do is shade fly shade plants in the summertime. And yeah, and I just love to explore cooking and you know, sharing that food with friends and family.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

Well, I hear about all the time about like the community garden people talk about you all the time. I mean, people talk about bounty and soul more than than they probably more than you that they do. It it comes up in I probably talk about bounty and soul every week. Wow. At least once to somebody. And uh I'm always like, well, I need to go meet Allie. I need to know her more than just, oh, mom and dad know her and think she's great. I need to know more about her. So that was why I called you and said, hey, come talk to us. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Well, I feel very I feel like it's a privilege to be welcomed here. Like I I feel, you know, I'm originally from New York and moving into the South, I thought it was going to be a more difficult transition than it was. And it was really understanding the the people here and what makes people, you know, what's what what's meaningful for people, how do people like to spend their time and really open to that. I mean, it goes way beyond the southern hospitality, you know, it it people people know each other and they I and I it nothing was more obvious to me than one right after the pandemic and then after the hurricane. They these were two huge events that really you saw the best in people and you saw humanity at its greatest. And you saw how communities are powerful, and that's people helping each other and coming out of the woodwork to just support and help each other. And it's beautiful. And I just I just feel really blessed and grateful to to have landed here and to be part of this community.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

You just said something that made me think about why is that? Why is it that when that here I'm originally from Georgia, you're originally from New York, there are people from California, there's people, a lot of people from Florida, there's a lot of people from everywhere. And I wonder if I know I don't know how we could figure it out. I'm sure there's a way, but but figure out how many people are who live here are from here. I know it's higher than we think, but I wonder if that's why we get along pretty well, because none of us, not many of us, are really from here. And I'm sure I just offended some people who are from here, from here, and I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

But yeah, um I just wonder if that's part of it. And I think it's how it's also how you land here and how you decide to put roots. I mean, I and I I found it and maybe because it in the place in New York where I came from, there were mountains that there were there were the Adirondack Mountains, but you know, there there were mountains, there was nature, um, there was the there was the city culture and all of that. But it it it it takes, I don't know, it takes like how how you land in a place and what's what what impact or what connection point is made in as you're landing and are do you become part of a community? Do you start a community? Do you do you just acknowledge and honor what has already existed here? Um I think that's I think that's what helped me is that you know I drove up with it with New York plates on my car and a Yankee sticker. Oh my goodness. Yes, I'm a brave girl. You're a brave girl. I am, but I I think and Bounty and Soul certainly was part of that landing and embracing. Um, and I think it was a way for people that were born and raised here to contribute to something that was to me a no-brainer because we had homegrown growers that gave to Bounty and Soul to give out, and and it and it is about community. And I think that that is so deeply embedded into the culture here is the importance of community, and whether your neighbors from New York or from California or for from Florida, that there is a true that's that's where the connection point is.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Yeah. I like yes. I wonder also how much I grew up in a city like in Atlanta, like in Atlanta, not near Atlanta, in it. And the woods and everything down there, not not so much a part of my life. My parents had woods behind the house and we would play in them, but I wouldn't say I was a nature girl or a whatever. I was definitely a tomboy, but not that. But once I got here and lived here, now I grew up coming here a lot, but once I moved here, I started spending more time in the woods, and I have I have, believe it or not, this is actually a lot calmer person than she used to be. I used to be really off the chain. Now I'm just sort of off the chain. But uh but I wonder how much of that makes a difference too. I don't know. I just I'm just throwing that out there. Yeah, I don't know.

Belonging, Nature, And Connection

SPEAKER_01 17:37

Well, I feel like nature is a connector, food is a connector. And I think that we have the the richness of both of those here. Food, whether it's farms and people are growing food or Asheville's food topia or at our dining room tables, right? Um, or connecting over a meal, like even with your friend sharing the Brussels sprouts for you. You know, she saw that as a way to connect you with something that you you enjoy and like, something that she may not eat. And instead of it going away, she shared it. I love that. Okay, good. So she's not in trouble. Okay, she's good. No, we hear that we, in fact, it's one of the things I love hearing from the community is about how they'll get food from the the it's a farmer's market truck, by the way. Okay, thank you. Yeah, and or the butt will get a big box at the Bilo market where they they'll take for themselves and then they'll share with their neighbors, or they'll make a big meal out of what they've received and invite over friends. So cool. Again, it's just it's all that's what it's about. It's not just about the food. Right. It's everything that's created around it.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

Very cool. Yeah. So what when did when did you decide um I am where I'm supposed to be? Like, were you in the chicken coop? Were you had you started down in Seoul? Have you where were you when you went, hmm, this is it, this is why I'm supposed to be here.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

It's a story that people tell a lot, but it's so true. So when I was traveling on 40 heading west, and I was driving from Raleigh, that's where my sister was, where I was staying. And as I was driving up 40 heading to through Old Fort, and I saw my first glimpse of the mountain. I know everybody knows. Every time I tell the story, people are like, Yes, I know exactly what I know where you were, and I know exactly where. And it was at that moment I was, and I was I was scared because I was, you know, heading into a whole new unknown for myself. And I felt an incredible amount of peace. And I knew that this is where life was leading me. Um and of course, I didn't know exactly what I was gonna be doing or who I was gonna be meeting or any of that, but like I I had that overwhelming sense of peace, and this is where I'm supposed to be.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

I love that. And I and you're not the first person to tell me that. That's true. That's funny. So the other question I like to ask people is who is there somebody in the community who's had the like a gigantic impact on you that that you want to talk about?

SPEAKER_01 20:20

Well, when I talk about bounty and soul, I always think of KK Cooper, who has since passed. And I believe she walks with me every day in spirit. That's really cool. She was so pivotal for me at a time where I was I felt like I was I wanted to give up. Like it was just real life was really hard. I had started Bounty and Soul. And again, I, you know, I started Bounty and Soul before it actually incorporated. So I again I'm I'm cleaning houses and cooking, doing a little catering on the side and um and starting this nonprofit. And it was all really hard. Yes. And I was exhausted. And I showed up, and KK was a a a client, and I showed up one day and she said, put that vacuum down, sit on that couch. She said, We need to talk, girl. Oh and uh she just looked at me, she said, What what do you want to do? What do you want to do, Allie? And I said, Well, there's this thing that I'm doing on the side, and I talked to her about bounty and soul, and she said, Well, she said, then that's what we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

And then the the very next day she started introducing me to people that she knew. We had a couple of house parties where I would give a little presentation about bounty and soul. She brought donations in, and um, and all along she just gave me such encouragement and hope. And and of course, she was a force to she was just and yeah, and soon after my father passed, uh, which was another critical moment of my journey. And I thought, okay, what am I doing? You know, I questioned what my choices were and all the things, and then and then KK passed after that. And I got these were two very significant people in my life. And They both supported what I was doing and saw me in my work in that work. And I said, Well, then you're you're you two are my angels from here on in. If I'm doing this, you're coming with me. You're on the trend with me. And I feel them every I do feel them every day. So I think KK, she she was special to a lot of people. Everybody that I know that knew that was friends with her was in her orbit. You know, it was a it was a big loss.

Mentors Who Opened Doors

SPEAKER_00 23:01

Yes. But she I she lives on. That's right. She lives on. Well, what's funny is Frank, her husband, was the first person who was an individual who came to the chamber and helped me when I was new, financially helped me. And actually, I'm gonna tell the story. He walked in to hear it. He walked in and Frank says, Cheryl, this place needs some help. I said, Yes, sir, it needs a lot of help. I said, I've painted the walls and I've I've done this and I've done that. Told him all the things I'd done since I'd gotten there two months before. And I'm still working and trying to figure everything out. And he says, These windows, you need new windows. I said, I absolutely need new windows. I need new floors. I need new windows, doors, walls, everything. And he said, Well, let's just worry about the windows. If you just paint the windows, you'd be a lot better off. And I said, Well, is that coming from the Frank Cooper Foundation? And he looked at me like, I cannot believe you just were bold enough to say that. And then I shut my mouth because the next one to speak loses. And Frank said, Well, I guess it is. And so Frank painted for all paid for all the windows to be repainted at the at the chamber. But he got me thinking that I really can ask people to help me. Yes. Like I don't know where that that was just the smart aleck Cheryl talking when she said that. But then I thought, opportunity, why not ask?

SPEAKER_01 24:18

And he did. And it's great because you connected with him on something that was important to him and meaningful to him, which was knowing Frank, it's like it's it's the beauty, it's what it looks like, it's the professionalism, the the integrity, all of that. So you connected with him at a at the at his sweet spot.

SPEAKER_00 24:36

So I just thought that was so funny. And then when you said KK, I'm like, oh no, I'm gonna cry. And then I thought, don't cry, because then she'll cry. And that's not the goal here. Yes. So tell me, is there anything that you would love to say or share or something I should have asked you?

Rising Food Insecurity And Hope

SPEAKER_01 24:52

Oh, good question. Yeah, I I think usually people ask, you know, how how are you, how is Bounty and Soul doing now, given all the challenges that we're facing. And I think it's good for people to understand just the convergence of different factors that we're that that people, everyday people are facing. And living here in this beautiful mountain town in this beautiful area of Western North Carolina that people don't often see what what what people are and families are struggling with every day. And that's real. I mean, before before the hurricane, one in six households were food insecure, one in four kids. And now post-Tolleen, it's probably one in four households and one in two kids. Um so that that's that's the reality that we're in, and also just the nature of, you know, we have such lack of affordable housing in this area, and also just everything that's going on in in the in the cost of gas, the cost of cost of everything food, the cost of everything. Yeah. So we are seeing uh and the insurance, like health insurance. I met a woman who who was in her late 50s, early 60s and was in tears because she had to give up her insurance because she couldn't afford the premiums. Yep. More than doubled. It's too like$2,500 a month. So this is the reality that we see in the work every day and um and the struggles that happen out within this beautiful context of the where we live. And that but I have like so much hope in in how there's the it's there's just so much strength and power in in community. And I I say that a lot, but it's true. It's whether it's donors, farmers, volunteers, uh, our staff is incredible, and that we come to a place every day. I don't even call it work, but we come to this place every day, and um we we do what's right, which is make sure that everyone has access. And and again, I think we can't a bounty and soul can't fill the gap that exists and that's growing larger. But I think that there is hope in in where people's mindsets are as far as taking care of each other, that even through a hurricane or either a per pandemic, that we can get through the the hardest of challenges together.

Closing And Sign-Off

SPEAKER_00 27:43

Thank you. That's good. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate it and I appreciate you coming today. Thanks for joining us on Exploring the Valley. Until next time, keep celebrating the pride of our community and discovering the magic of the mountains. In the meantime, you're free to move about the valley.