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What a difference a few decades make! The images of New York City were taken in 1970 (Bernard Gotfryd, Library of Congress) and in 2018 by Afif Ramdhasuma (from pexels.com). Earth Day has been celebrated on April 22 since it was established through grassroots efforts in 1970. It was a response to increasing concerns caused by smog (intense air pollution caused mainly by exhaust fumes), Great Lakes at risk of dying from pesticide runoff and waste dumping, and rivers that caught on fire (the Cuyahoga River in Ohio famously caught fire in June of 1969). It was also the year when monumental legislation was enacted to address all kinds of environmental concerns. ...read more
At Home | Inspiration
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If it’s true, as they say, that seeing is believing, then we at Mast Store would like to propose another entry to your quip collection: Doing is moving. “Doing” not only requires movement - “doing” moves you both physically and emotionally. ...read more
Local Flavor | Mast Family Favorites | Travel
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What is a library? It’s a big building with lots of books in it. But wait, it’s so much more. The library is a gateway to your wildest dreams, a place to learn, a place to imagine, a place to make friends. Today’s libraries are repositories of books, but they also are places to get help to learn to read or improve your reading, to improve your math skills, to listen to a performance by a string quartet, to watch a movie, to refine your crafting skills, and to gather with fellow writers. Yes, libraries are SO much more. ...read more
Adventure | Inspiration | Mast Family Favorites
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... Our favorite foods! Food is universal because everybody’s got ta eat! And the last two months of the year are filled with more than their fair share of family meals, work gatherings, special outings to favorite restaurants, tins filled with homemade cookies and fudge, and the anticipation of food traditions handed down from generation to generation ...read more
At Home | Recipes
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Even before we bought the Mast General Store, we were taken by the beauty of Valle Crucis. We’ve heard people describe the drive out Broadstone Road as traveling through a time portal. In the 1970s, fields in the river bottoms would be filled with tobacco, cabbage, or high with hay to feed cattle that were grazing in the summer pasture. ...read more
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The lucky few who have seen the Earth from a different perspective – astronauts - all echo the same viewpoint upon their return. Yuri Gagarin, a Russian cosmonaut and the first human to go to space, commented, “Orbiting Earth in the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it.”
Behind the Scenes | Inspiration
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If you could do one thing that would help a child do better in school, have a better outlook on life, and be better able to fight disease, would you do it? Having enough to eat helps with all three of those situations and more. That’s why Mast Store, Merrell Footwear, and food security agencies in Mast Store's home communities are partnering again from October 25-November 7 to provide Food for Kids.
For almost a decade, Mast Store and Merrell have worked together to help food security agencies in Mast’s home communities fill backpacks with kid-friendly foods for the weekend. For each pair of Merrell Footwear purchased during this period, Merrell will donate funds to fill a backpack with food for the weekend.
According to Feeding America, about 20% of families that are food insecure do not qualify for government assistance. With the backpack programs, teachers identify children they believe are at risk and add them to the list to receive weekend food. On Fridays, backpacks that were filled by volunteers are distributed to the children and will be returned on Monday for refilling for the next weekend. Teachers say they can see a difference in classroom participation from these students because they are able to focus on their lesson material.
We often take our access to different foods for granted. Here’s a story shared by one of our food agency partners:
A load of produce was delivered to a school, and a curious 7-year-old boy picked up a container and looked at it with fascination. After turning it around to see all sides, he asked the driver, “What is this?” The driver opened the package and gave the boy a piece of the fruit. The boy exclaimed, “This is delicious! What is it called?” The driver responded, “They are called blueberries.”
“Making sure people, especially children, have enough to eat is an important step to becoming a better community,” said Lisa Cooper, president of Mast Store. “It is an investment in our future. We are glad to have Merrell’s help in making a difference.” Mast Store supports many groups fulfilling human needs in each of its home communities.
While the cost per backpack varies from organization to organization, it is basically less to fill a backpack for a month than most of us would spend on a moderately-priced meal for two at a local restaurant. Hunger doesn’t take the weekend off; it is one of the biggest contributors to learning disabilities and increases the risk of chronic disease. We are all putting our best foot forward through the continued partnership with Merrell and our food security agencies to make our communities better.
The Mast Store works with food security partners in all of its communities. There's always room for more volunteers, and because they have great relationships with food suppliers and grocery stores, any donation you make can be leveraged into more food value than you could do alone. Here are links to our partners; we hope you'll join us in helping with their missions.
Boone/Valle Crucis - Hunger and Health Coalition
Waynesville/Hendersonville/Asheville - MANNA FoodBank
Greenville - Loaves & Fishes
Knoxville - Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee
Columbia - Harvest Hope
Winston-Salem - Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina