Appalachian Sustainable Agricultural Project

“The executive committee consists of the officers of the organization, as appointed by the board. The executive committee performs duties specifically delegated to it by the board.”

“The return was prepared by an independent accountant with assistance and oversight by management. Upon completion and review, the return was provided to all voting board members prior to submission to the irs.”

“Enforced as necessary. Any board member with a conflict of interest on any specific issue informs the board. In such a case, the board member would abstain from voting on the issue. Staff and board members are required to annually disclose potential conflicts of interest.”

“In the annual budgeting process, the board approves a budget line for aggregate salary expenses. Thereafter, individual salaries and salary increases for employees are determined by the executive director. The board of directors sets the executive director salary after a performance review and a check of comparable salary information for nonprofit organizations with similar budgets.”

“The organization's governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and certain financial statements are available upon request at the organization's administrative office.”

“Asap's local food campaign, capacity building work gives farmers and buyers the skills they need to succeed. The appalachian grown regional branding and certification program certified 884 farms, including access to promotional and packaging materials to identify farm products as certified local. More than 445 partner businesses including grocers, restaurants, distributors, hospitals, colleges, and public schools also participated in the program. Local food campaign organizers help make connections between farmers and buyers, share stories about food and farms in our communities, and promote local food where consumers shop and dine. Additionally the program assisted more than 100 farmers markets to understand best practices for management, promote themselves, and navigate the regulatory environment. The program held its 16th annual asap business of farming conference, delivering 17 workshops to more than 300 participants in 2019. Asap published 70,000 copies of the local food guide in 2019. Our websites are cited by multiple farmers as a key source of customer traffic. Asap's farm tour is an annual event connecting the public to their local farms and producers. Participating farms are open during one weekend to invite visitors to their farm, providing guided tours, demonstrations, and hands-on experiences. In 2019, more than 1,500 visitors were welcomed to 19 farms participating in the tour. Asap's growing minds program connects health and wellness programming with local agriculture. This program provides support and resources in order to create healthy food environments and experiences to better the health of all members of our community, including children, their parents, teachers and school staff. The program facilitated positive local food experiences through cooking demonstrations, farm field trips, gardens, and locally grown food served in school cafeterias to thousands of children throughout our service region. Asap's growing minds provides workshops, conferences, and other trainings to hundreds of professionals, so that they can integrate local food, healthy eating, and farm-based activities into their work. Funds were distributed to teachers and community health professionals, to facilitate the creation/maintenance of school gardens, provide cooking classes, or take farm field trips. Dietetic interns from partner colleges and universities were trained in farm to school and implemented more than 3,000 local food/farm to school experiences. Asap launched the growing minds @ community colleges, a statewide initiative to embed farm to preschool into 22 of the 58 nc community college early childhood education programs. The local food research center (lfrc) examines the social, economic, and environmental impacts of localizing food systems. The center researches and tests asap's theory of food system change. Asap's theory is that creating democratic and responsive food systems will increase community well-being, build resilient economies, and support environmental sustainability. Closer connections and knowledge developed through food system experiences empowers citizens to consciously create a just and sustainable food system. In 2019, lfrc synthesized and published research on asap's annual farmer survey and an analysis of the most recent census of agriculture data. Additionally, the lfrc led research and conducted an assessment for a regional multi-year project to support farmers and local food development for seven nc appalachian counties. Lfrc provided research framing and content support for the local food guide, the farm tour guide, the annual calendar, asap's annual report, the growing local weekly radio segment, and more. Research findings also supported asap's fundraising efforts; research staff provided content, framing, and writing support for several multiple proposals. Lfrc also provided ongoing evaluation assistance to other asap programs and administered asap's annual survey to farmers, which informs the wor”