Since 1995, ASD has been working to grow a stronger Appalachia through agriculture. We do that through five different focus areas: Food Access, Agriculture Education, Workforce Development, Resource Management, and Economic Development. While the footprint of our work started out primarily in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, we have expanded a great deal over the last several years. We now support producers in eastern KY, Appalachian OH, and WV and work with buyers ranging from Atlanta, GA, to Landover, MD, and even some herb buyers on the U.S. west coast and in Canada. Our virtual trainings have had attendees from as far away as Australia. ASD uses five strategies to accomplish its work: workforce development, agriculture education, food access, economic development, and resource management. ASD operates programs that create jobs in farming and agriculture and address food insecurity.

Since 2012, Grow Your Own participants have grown over 160,000 pounds of produce. ASD provides seasonally appropriate training, technical support, seeds, plants, tools and tilling services to program participants. Hands-on workshops teach basic nutrition, how to plan, plant, grow, cook and preserve home-grown produce. Market gardening families learn how to supplement their income through sales of their harvests. Home gardeners grow food for their households and share their bounty with neighbors and local food banks.