East Fork is proud to announce its fourth and final community partner of 2026: Big Ivy Health, a grassroots organization born out of Hurricane Helene, provides free healthcare to the people of Barnardsville, North Carolina through a weekly clinic.
Big Ivy Health is also the very first employee-recommended community partner. Amar (pronounced Amm-er) Dibble, a production generalist on the East Fork glaze team, recommended Big Ivy Health for consideration during the selection process. Amar has known Katrina Tobin, founder of Big Ivy Health, through their own community work. The two have organized community outreach for houseless individuals and supported educational outreach on racism together. After Hurricane Helene struck, Amar witnessed and participated in mutual aid efforts that helped funnel resources between Asheville and Barnardsville.
Katrina, a registered nurse at Mission Hospital with extensive training as a disaster nurse, found herself uniquely qualified in the wake of the hurricane.
Not that anyone desires the opportunity to dig into disaster-informed training, Katrina found herself able to help her community when the hurricane struck in September 2024. Barnardsville is a small, rural community with a population of 559 at last census count in 2020. Due to its rugged hilltops and mountainous topography, Barnardsville experienced significant challenges post-Helene. Barnardsville’s elderly residents and those living with medical disabilities could not leave their homes with storm damage that prevented road access.
Big Ivy Health began spontaneously in the wake of the storm. Katrina and an EMT friend began doing wellness checks on residents, often taking supplies and medical care via ATV to resident’s homes when road access was nonexistent. During that time, Katrina helped residents avert medical disaster, provided wound care, and offered preventative medical care. Through those efforts she discovered an underlying community need— people, many of them elderly, needed access to medical care.
By connecting to the community, Katrina founded Big Ivy Health and started a community clinic inside an old RV. The clinic is open once a week for now and is completely volunteer run.
When East Fork connected with Katrina, she shared her goals for the long-term. Big Ivy Health wants to upgrade its space, expand its hours, and improve the RV to become a truly mobile clinic. To create more access for its residents, Big Ivy Health would like to operate from the food pantry located at the Big Ivy Community Center, a central hub for Barnardsville residents. Additionally, Big Ivy Health would benefit from resources to train community health care counselors, people who can administer basic medical care and be trained to monitor patients and record health data.
As community partners, East Fork donates 1% of all sales for the entirety of the quarter to Big Ivy Health. Our hope is that we can collaborate on uplifting their work and materially contribute to their long term goals. From now through December, all purchases through East Fork will contribute to Big Ivy Health. Online, there are options to donate directly.
To learn more about Big Ivy Health, visit their Facebook page.
