Cooperate WNC Impact Report
Hello friends!
It’s been a busy and wild year. We want to share about the collaborative work the CWNC staff (Alex, Justin and Zev) have done so far this year with community organizers around the region.
Western North Carolina is alive with a thousand everyday acts of care. Neighbors sharing food after storms, farmers swapping seed and labor, organizers weaving new ways of life beyond extraction and violence. Cooperate WNC was born to honor and strengthen these everyday gestures of survival and solidarity.
In the past year, our work has taken root more deeply than ever. Always starting with relationships and trust, we’ve worked with local community organizers on disaster recovery, leadership development, cooperative land access, conflict transformation and collective bulk purchasing. We are nurturing a resilient regional network that does not wait for rescue, but generates its own systems and culture of care, belonging, and shared power.
Going towards the winter now, I’m feeling courageous, energized and more confident than ever in the restorative power of this approach. Please check out the summary of some of the impacts of our work below, and let’s keep going together.
With gratitude,
Zev Friedman
By the Numbers
7 KinShip fellows supported from 5 WNC counties.
$35,000 regranted to community-led mutual aid projects.
4 organizations and community groups supported with conflict transformation workshops.
5,000 pounds of organic seed potatoes distributed to 70 farmers, growers, and local farm supply stores.
848 liters of organic olive oil distributed to 80 households.
420 pounds of organic pecans distributed to 40 households.
$14,272 estimated savings for our network members through cooperative bulk purchasing.
12 distribution hubs established in 11 counties
Updates and Announcements
Staff and Operations
In 2025, we grew from one staff member (Zev Friedman) to three. We hired Justin Holt as the Bulk Purchasing Coordinator, and transitioned Alex Lines from a part time contractor to a staff member who is taking the lead on creating and formalizing internal systems related to development, budgeting, operations, and more.
Strategic Planning
We’ve been working with Diana McCall of Artemis Facilitation to reflect on Cooperate WNC’s history, impact, and map out a thorough organizational strategy. With her expert guidance, we’ve refined a clear mission and vision, clarified our purpose, and identified 4 key strategic actions we can take over the next 3 years.
Kinship Cooperative Action Pod
After Hurricane Helene, we launched a new cohort of our Kinship Fellowship Proogram. This fellowship brings together 8 organizers working on land co-ops, mutual aid, racial equity, and ecological restoration, and supports them with peer learning, mutual aid skillbuilding, and mentorship. These fellows manage a grassroots participatory fund, distributing mini-grants to community-led mutual aid projects.
Conflict Transformation
We remain committed to conflict transformation work as an essential foundation for thriving mutual aid and cooperation. Over the last several years, we have have seen and been told about multiple cooperative projects that have been unable to thrive because they have ended in painful and difficult group conflict. We believe that supporting groups with conflict transformation skills before major conflicts happen can help those groups navigate conflicts more successfully. This year, we worked with two experienced conflict transformation facilitators, and led workshops with four community groups. We are working with them on designing long-term conflict transformation systems that integrate identity-based oppression and trauma healing.
Bulk Purchasing
This year, we have been focused on building more organized and reliable pathways for community bulk purchasing. We organized bulk purchases of disease-resistant seed potatoes, high-quality olive oil from Greece, organically grown pecans, and are currently working on a bulk purchase of blight-resistant hazelnut trees as well as rivercane plants. We are in conversation with community partners about how our bulk purchasing program can support more farmers in WNC, especially with the harmful funding cuts they’re experiencing.
Meeting Crisis with Cooperation
After Hurricane Helene, Cooperate WNC partnered with mutual aid groups to quickly move $25,000 in emergency funds to where they were most needed. Together, we supplied propane tanks in North Madison County, weatherproofed an emergency supply barn in Barnardsville, and purchased materials for four food pantries plus three new fridges and freezers for food distribution. We also funded safety gear for emergency forestry crews, tools and mushroom spawn to turn downed trees into food, critical survival supplies for unhoused neighbors, and winter clothing for over 100 Latine farmworkers. These efforts showed how cooperation and community care can turn crisis into resilience.