Our mission is to build community and promote economic justice.


Dismantling stereotypes, reducing fear, and empowering hope through telling stories across socio-economic difference.
We envision a beloved community that celebrates mutuality, abundance, and justice.

A steadfast presence for over a decade, Asheville Poverty Initiative builds community and promotes economic justice from our community center at State St. and Haywood Road. Our programs, 12 Baskets Café and Realities of Poverty, prioritize inclusivity, abundance, and dignity to address hunger, housing, and poverty. Everyone has, and everyone has needs.

Come for the food, stay for the community.

Click Here to read our 2022 Strategic Plan

View our 2024 Impact Report, 2020, 2019, and 2018.

Guiding Principles

  • We value community where each person feels known and has a sense of belonging.

  • We value mutuality and believe that everyone is both a giver and a receiver. We recognize that each of us is both a “have” and a “have not.”

  • We value abundance and believe that our work involves deconstructing the prevailing cultural belief of scarcity. API helps “rewire” our thinking to recognize how much abundance already exists and that there is more than enough to go around.

  • We value economic justice and believe that our shared stories promote advocacy and equity building.

  • We value alternative social space where shared stories can begin to reconstruct and rebuild a new vision where all people are valued equally and given opportunities to communicate, gain understanding, and be transformed.

  • We value hospitality and believe that creating a sense of welcome around the table is foundational to creating an inclusive community.

While our society has various ways to try and meet the immediate needs of those impacted by poverty, these basic services are rarely able to change the unjust systems that cause so many to go without in the first place.

API believes that by listening to and learning from those most impacted, the vision moves beyond charity to a transformed and empowered community working together to create a more just and equitable economic reality.  

 

A Brief History of API…

Asheville Poverty Initiative was launched in January 2011. The idea developed out of local community and faith leaders who gathered to envision a more faithful way to engage the increasing poverty in WNC, and a member shared his experience with the Poverty Initiative out of Union Seminary in New York. For a year API leaders communicated with the Poverty Initiative in New York and collaborated with local nonprofits in Asheville to investigate the gaps in resources and refrain from duplicating services.

History of 12 Baskets Cafe…

Founding Executive Director, Rev. Shannon Spencer, shares the beginning of 12 Baskets Café:

“When I started to pick up food in June of 2015, I thought for sure we'd have space to serve it pretty quickly.  So I kept collecting and kept asking places (primarily churches) if we could hold the Café there. More food kept coming in as I was repeatedly told "no" to the space. This created quite a capacity problem.  So I did two things: pulled out a folding table from my basement and popped it up outside the bus stop at Pisgah View Apt. [section 8 housing]. I chose PVA because of my relationships with two residents there who are now poverty scholars. We've been serving a meal at PVA once a week since then. The second thing was call on every friend I had to see if I could use their freezer. At one point we had food in 5 different freezers in 5 different locations.” - Rev. Shannon Spencer (2016)

12 Baskets soon started serving one lunch a week out of Kairos West Community Center two blocks down from our current location on Haywood Rd in West Asheville. When the community center found a new space at 610 Haywood Rd, API and Kairos West collaborated to outfit the space with donated freezers, dishwasher, and steam table for the Café to operate regularly. They officially opened at 610 in October of 2016! At first 4 meals a week were served, but popular demand and level of food donation quickly grew the café to 5 days a week. Asheville Poverty Initiative took over the lease at 610 Haywood Rd in November 2019 when Kairos West moved, allowing both programs to continue to grow and the Café to add two more tables.

Today, 12 Baskets Café is a by-donation community conversation café using 100% rescued food served by a waitstaff of fellow community members. We are privileged to serve our community every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm with coffee and conversation starting at 10:00 am.