<div>I started The Culinary Gardener ten years ago to grow great produce for Asheville area restaurants. I began the business on 6,000 square feet in a neighbor’s backyard, and have grown the farm to 2.5 acres in production, with seven full time, year round employees, and one part time, year round employee. I have been able to grow my business over the years by developing deeply rooted relationships with Asheville area chefs, many of which I have worked with since day one. These chefs are not only incredible supporters of the farm, but they are some of my closest friends. 
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<div>Prior to the devastation from Hurricane Helene, my farm was providing 75-95% of the produce that many of these restaurants were using on a weekly basis. I am eternally grateful for the trust these restaurants have put in my farm, and how their purchasing has allowed me to increase the amount of employees I have, as well as continually increase how much money I pay my employees. I am so grateful to finally be able to say that I pay all my employees well, and that everyone gets paid above the living wage of Asheville after a 90 day trial period. Trust me, it took me many years to be able to say that. 
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<div>However, now that Asheville restaurants are shuttered indefinitely due to catastrophic flooding and a massive failure of Asheville’s water system brought by Helene, I am struggling to find ways to sell what produce we have that was not destroyed by the storm. Most importantly, none of the existing sales outlets are paying more than 50% of the prices I am able to get selling directly to restaurants. We add value to our sales by consistently selling clean, uniform, high quality produce and by providing a diverse selection of special crops produced with my own style that I can only describe as “striving towards perfection”. 
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<div>So now, I ask for your help. I ask for your help in helping me continue to pay my employees for the rest of the year. Most of my employees rely on me to feed their families, pay their car loans, mortgages, child care, etc, and most of them do not have the privilege to apply for disaster unemployment. I am committed to not laying off any of my employees, but need your help in achieving that goal. 
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<div>Please help me during this extremely challenging time, and know that your donation will be used exclusively to cover payroll costs and other costs associated with taking care of my employees. Any amount raised over my goal will be distributed to Asheville area restaurants and other farms in the area in need of financial assistance. 
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85th Day Food Community x

Christine K Tomasino

Laurie Sweeney

Hubert McCabe

David Colquitt

Anonymous

Lisa Meyer

robbin gourley

Kristine Ku

Maggie Lynn

Christiane Johnson

Eleanor Ferguson

Gurudayal Khalsa

Michelle Laporte

Dan Perkins

Martha Rome

Samantha Gabai

Lisa Armstrong

Adam Smith

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