Meet Celeste Gray, the foodie entrepreneur who’s bringing a new film fest to Asheville.

story and photo by Naomi Johnson

Five years ago, when Celeste Gray was getting into the business of renovating houses and restaurants, people asked her if she had a degree in design. “I’d tell them no, I didn’t have any experience—I just decided this was what I wanted to do and did it. That’s my personality.” These days, the 38-year-old is bringing that same brand of decisiveness to Asheville’s food scene as the driving force behind the organization Fresh Asheville. Its first big event, the Asheville Food and Environmental Film Festival, will be held later this month at UNCA and other venues around town. Its centerpiece: Fresh, a movie that changed Gray’s life.

Not that she’s a newbie foodie. Gray grew up in a Louisiana family that prized the fresh and the homegrown, and she dreamed of someday having her own farm. In the meantime, she’s held down jobs ranging from bartender at Scandals to owner of her own import business. In March, after watching the documentary Fresh, she decided to put her long-held ideals into action. To make Fresh, filmmaker Anna Joanes rounded up food-world luminaries like author Michael Pollan and uber-farmer Joel Salatin of Polyface farm in Virginia. She released the film in 2009 but not through normal channels. It was licensed only to individuals, who were required to screen it at community-building gatherings. The idea is to “join the Fresh movement, a constantly growing community striving to alter the way our food system works,” says the group’s website.

The film asks a lot from viewers, and Gray got the message loud and clear. She hosted several film viewings at Carolina Cinemas and created an organization around the cause, Fresh Asheville. Next came the idea for a full-scale film festival on the topic, and first-time community organizer Gray found herself working full time on Fresh Asheville projects.

Gray believes the time is ripe for Asheville’s food producers to collaborate. In the past six months, Fresh Asheville has gained support from local organizations and companies like Slow Food Asheville, UNCA, Danny’s Dumpsters and the grassroots environmental organization WNC Alliance. She says the owner of a local food services provider, Food Experience, saw the film and immediately planted a huge garden outside the company’s Arden headquarters. She’d like to see UNCA pair more service-learning students with local farms and have farms send more local veggies to city school cafeterias. She likens the community to an ecosystem, in which all the parts need to work together.

She hopes to make Fresh Asheville an annual event, and she needs help footing the bills. In addition to seeking sponsorships, she is soliciting public funding on the website Kickstarter to cover the considerable cost of screening rights. With a goal of $10,000, and just $755 in the bank at presstime, Gray remains remarkably sanguine. “I think Asheville really has the potential to become a model city,” she says, noting that cities like Toronto, San Francisco and Salt Lake City are hosting Fresh screenings and events. “We just have to work together.”

The Asheville Food and Environmental Film Festival runs September 22-25 at UNCA and other venues. To learn more or get involved, go to www.freshasheville.com.