Brionna Dallara

1 month ago | mountainx.com | Brionna Dallara

In early March, Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) cuts hit local organizations when the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it was eliminating more than $1 billion in funding for the Local Food for Schools and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement programs for 2025.

1 month ago | mountainx.com | Brionna Dallara

Pisgah Legal is part of a statewide group that receives funds to carry out the program and receives a grant between $400,000 and $450,000, Kiger says. But since the ACA programs budget will be cut by 90% in August, she foresees a significant reduction to the grant, which would mean fewer navigators to assist people with language and legalese barriers and longer wait times. There are “more people facing more barriers and less access to critical services they need,” Kiger says.

1 month ago | mountainx.com | Brionna Dallara

An example is the Southside Community Stormwater Project, completed in 2023. RiverLink partnered with residents of the Southside Community, Wildlands Engineering and the Asheville Housing Authority to construct green infrastructure, wetlands and rain gardens that capture and filter runoff before it reaches Nasty Branch (Town Branch) and the French Broad River.

1 month ago | mountainx.com | Brionna Dallara

On April 23, during a call with Xpress, Kieran Roe, executive director of Conserving Carolina, a land conservation organization that works with private land and public trails, detailed his anxieties over potential federal cuts to a program that has been a pillar of his nonprofit’s work for 20 years.

1 month ago | mountainx.com | Brionna Dallara

Tami Helfrich, co-owner of YOLO Frozen Yogurt on Merrimon Avenue, says a lot of folks assume the shop’s name refers to the phrase “You only live once.” But the prefix actually stands for “Yogurt Local.”In recent weeks, the shop has celebrated the completion of a new mural that honors both interpretations. For over a month, a group of 15 Asheville Middle School students worked together to add splashes of color to one of the business’s previously blank exterior walls.