Developed to assist children, adults, and families with total healthcare, Eblen-Kimmel Nutrition strives to help provide food to those who are hungry and living with illnesses and disabilities in our community. Through valued partnerships with Ingles Markets, Hearts With Hands, area credit unions, area schools, and Meals on Wheels, Eblen-Kimmel Nutrition supplies tons of food each year through our grocery, school snack, back pack and lunch programs to the families the Eblen-Kimmel Charities serve.
The Hearts with Hands / Eblen-Kimmel Grocery Partnership: Through this partnership, hundreds of thousands of pounds of food have been provided to local families who are dealing with hunger as well as illness by offering short to long term assistance through Hearts with Hands and Ingle’s Markets.
This innovative way to address hunger has brought together the premier hunger assistance organization along with the top grocery market chain in western North Carolina to help bring relief to hungry families in our community. Thanks to these generous partners the families we serve has one less battle to fight.
The Food for Thought School Breakfast and Lunch Program: In alliance with the Buncombe County and Asheville City School Systems, the Food for Thought School Breakfast and Lunch Program provides assistance for any and all children who cannot afford breakfast and /or lunch during the school day and are not eligible for the federal free or reduced lunch program.
All children are eligible for the program and referrals are made to Eblen-Kimmel Charities by area schools. Each child enrolled receives a prepaid lunch card, the same as all other children prepaying for their lunch and the schools then bill the Eblen-Kimmel Charities. The children do not know where the cards come from as they maintain their dignity and are not identified or singled out as someone in need.
The Food for Thought Snack Program: As an extension of the Hearts with Hands Grocery Program, the Food for Thought program works within the local school systems to provide food for local children and their families. Operating under the premise that children cannot learn if they are hungry, this partnership serves hundreds of children each year.
Thanks to our partners the Sunrise Kiwanis Club, North Buncombe Kiwanis Club, Beverly-Hanks & Associates Realtors, Hearts with Hands, the Credit Unions of Western North Carolina, Carolinas Credit Union Foundation, the Bell South Telephone Pioneers, Asheville Cleaners, Biltmore Farms, Manna Food Bank, Hearts with Hands, and Ingle’s Markets, tens of thousands of snacks will be provided to local children at no cost who may not be able to bring snacks to school.
The Hearts with Hands / Eblen-Kimmel Back-Pack Bunch: An outgrowth of our Food for Thought program and in partnership with Ingles Markets, the Back-Pack Bunch provides food for students in five counties in western North Carolina that students can take home with them on weekends and during breaks in the school year.
Each student participating in the program receives a backpack filled with ready to eat or easy to fix food that will help get them through the days they do not receive meals at school.
The Food Stamp Intervention Program: Created with the assistance of Buncombe County Department of Social Services Director, Mandy Stone, this partnership helps provide assistance to families awaiting their food stamps.
Out of concern for the families needing food stamps and the fact that they may be without food while they wait for their card to arrive, DSS joined Hearts with Hands, Ingles Markets, and the Eblen-Kimmel Charities in providing assistance to help them bridge the gap between hunger and help.
Meals in Motion: To help ensure continued deliveries of meals to the elderly homebound in Buncombe County, Meals on Wheels has joined with the Eblen-Kimmel Charities Group to create the partnership of Meals in Motion to help defray the increasing cost of gasoline for the volunteers delivering meals to the clients of Meals on Wheels by providing gas vouchers to volunteers as needed.
Due to the rise in gas prices, Meals on Wheels had been experiencing a loss of volunteers who not only provide their time and the use of their cars, but pay for their own gas as well. Without these valued volunteers, many of those who depend on Meals on Wheels for their food and daily visits would find themselves dealing with hunger and loneliness.
Thanks to this partnership with Meals On Wheels and the Biltmore Oil Company, volunteers can be kept on the road and the elderly and homebound in need of meal assistance can not only continue to be fed, but see a friend on a daily basis.