ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — The Asheville Independent Restaurant Association is a nonprofit organization supporting a collective of small restaurants in Buncombe County.

After Hurricane Helene swept through the region, leaving many without water, power or, most tragically, a building left at all, AIR was there to bring the community back together.

“We focus a lot on education for our members. We do a lot of programming around employment law, best practices in various food and beverage related topics. We, of course, do marketing support for our members,” said Meghan Rogers, AIR executive director. “The big thing that we’ve been doing lately is really trying to advocate for our members during the recovery process and the reopening process.”

AIR counts nearly 140 restaurants as members, in addition to several other partner organizations that want to work with AIR restaurants.

Rogers said that while a handful of AIR restaurants were lost to the storm, around 110 have already reopened in some capacity. A full list of the reopened restaurants can be found here on the AIR website with their days and hours.

AIR has been a big part of supporting the businesses until they got there. During the thick of the hurricane aftermath, the organization hosted an informational meeting in conjunction with the health department to discuss how to reopen.

“We invited our members, previous members, and then we opened it up to any restaurant or food and beverage organization or business that wanted to get that information,” Rogers said. “We probably had 130 people show up to that meeting.”

While the meeting was held to answer questions for the restaurant community, Rogers said that the members brought questions of their own.

“It was this sort of camaraderie, this we’re in this together, how can we help each other? What resources can we share?” Rogers reflected. “It was a hard meeting but it was also a really inspirational meeting.”

Other meetings followed. Rogers described AIR as a tight-knit group that has grown even closer as the storm has passed.

“Once you realize how the rising tide lifts all ships, you wanna just continue down that same road,” Rogers said. “I see our group, our restaurants in particular, continuing to grow closer together and understand that our success as a group is our success as individuals.”

Looking ahead at the new year, Rogers said that AIR is planning several occasions to get their members back on their feet and their food back onto Asheville’s plates.

A few popular events the organization plans to hold are Restaurant Week, the return of the AIR passport and A Taste of Asheville.

The first, a week of promotions and special meals at restaurants around the city, is planned for two months in a row this January and February.

The second, a book of offers and coupons, will be sold at a flat rate but feature deals at different restaurants all over town. The idea is to get people to travel to tastes and places they may not have eaten at before: a passport.

The third is a ticketed event which offers small delicacies from a selection of Asheville restaurants and taps.

More information about all three will be released in the days to come.

“It’s been an interesting process, but I think we are proud of the response that we’ve had in trying to make sure our members had the information that they needed,” Rogers said.

More information about AIR, meanwhile, can be found on their website, www.airasheville.org.