Cultivating Healthy Living in the North Carolina Mountains

Senior citizens in Buncombe County are taking control of their health, one step and one vegetable at a time. Through Project EMMA (Eat Better, Move More, Age Well), the Council on Aging of Buncombe County brings fresh, locally produced food and exercise programs to 400 low-income senior citizens. In the process of helping our elderly, the program provides an economic boost to Asheville’s local growers.

But by no means are they doing it alone. Instead, the Council on Aging is leveraging established programs in their local community, most notably the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP), which facilitates greater access to locally produced food, and the YWCA of Asheville. “Our philosophy has been to use our community rather than trying to recreate it,” says Wendy Marsh, Director of the Council on Aging. “The better the relationships you have with other established groups, the stronger your programs and overall community will be. More people will know about what you have to offer and will spread the word.”

Word is certainly spreading: it’s hard not to notice a rooftop garden atop the one of the tallest buildings in Asheville. It’s there, at Battery Park Apartments, a low-income housing facility for seniors, where ASAP helps residents tend plants and facilitates food-related activities. ASAP also works with the Buncombe County Child Care Services kitchen, which prepares the meals for the Council on Aging’s seven Senior Meal sites – at which 26,000 meals are served annually – to incorporate locally grown produce into the menu. They also plan walking excursions to local farms and will coordinate a food stamp-like initiative enabling low-income seniors to buy food at participating farmer’s markets in 2008. 

In an effort to combine nutrition with exercise, the Council on Aging tapped the YWCA of Asheville to administer fitness sessions.  Now the nationally certified Silver Sneakers fitness program, which focuses on strength, flexibility and endurance, is offered at five of the Council on Aging’s Senior Meal sites. 

Given the positive reception, the Council on Aging hopes to expand Project EMMA to include additional exercise and gardening sites or perhaps incorporate holistic medicine.  With local groups at the ready to provide support, the sky’s the limit.

The Council on Aging of Buncombe County was the recipient of a $44,997 Healthy Active Communities grant in 2007 to support Project EMMA.