ASAN is growing as fast as the henbit and chickweed, this spring!  We are thrilled to make TWO major announcements this week, about the growth of our organization:

New staff:
First, we are thrilled to welcome Christine (Chris) Meyer onto the ASAN staff as our new Development Director!  Chris will help raise funding and awareness for ASAN, as she has done for a number of nonprofits in the New York Metro area, including Mount Kisco Child Care Center, Grace Church Community Center and Wave Hill.

After growing up in Tampa, Chris moved to New York City, where she graduated from CUNY, Hunter College, and was business manager of Industrial Design Magazine and an editor in broadcast and cable TV.  She then spent almost 30 years in Westchester County, NY, where she and her husband, Bill, raised their two daughters.

One of Chris’s daughters, Liz, co-owns Heron Hollow Farm in Maplesville, AL, so even before their recent move to Clanton, Chris and Bill had visited Alabama a number of times and been introduced to various local farms, restaurants, and farmers markets.

Chris is pleased to join ASAN’s staff, and looks forward to getting to know more of the ASAN family.  She is eager to contribute to ASAN’s vital support of Alabama farmers and ASAN’s other efforts to address local food concerns.

Please reach out and give her a warm welcome!  Her email address is [email protected].

New office:
ASAN is also thrilled to announce our move into a new office space in Birmingham, as part of the Urban Collective East, located at East Lake United Methodist Church!   The Urban Collective is a startup cooperative whose mission is to promote economic stability in our communities.  In addition to ASAN, its current members include:

Real Life Poets
Djembe Ile Drum School
Woni’s BookShelf
African Haute Couture
PEER Inc

Please check out and support these awesome folks who we now get to call our neighbors! (Don’t forget to follow Urban Collective East on Facebook as well!)

Up until now, ASAN has operated out of various home offices, depending on the organization’s leadership at the time.  This move into a public office space is big for us, and our corner of the Urban Collective is just the creative, collaborative, approachable space we’d been looking for.  We are excited to see what beautiful, powerful things emerge once we and our wonderful new neighbors get all our energies flowing together!