ASHEVILLE: HOPE Bus launches in South Slope, offering message of hope, mental health support

The HOPE Bus is a reimagined former food truck of Bear’s Smokehouse, in the heart of the South Slope district, which will now be a place for people to share messages of hope and demonstrate their commitment to breaking the stigma of mental health, as well as contribute through donations to the Linked4Life Foundation, helping provide free counseling for food and beverage workers in Asheville.

TOPICS:

• HOPE Bus
• Mental health
• Linked4Life
• Bear’s Smokehouse
• Free counseling
• South Slope
• Cheryl Antoncic
• Donation

Heading down the South Slope, one will see a new bus sitting at Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ. That bus is called the HOPE Bus, and as of July 4, it’s officially open to the public. Cheryl Antoncic, co-owner of Bear’s Smokehouse, is also the founder of the Linked4Life Foundation, which has a mission focused on breaking the stigma around mental health. The opening of the HOPE Bus is the next addition to the foundation.

Antoncic said the idea is that people will come by and make a small donation toward the foundation and then write a little message of hope to hang up in the bus. The bus itself is actually a former Bear’s bus from which they used to serve food during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Since it’s now retired, it made a lot of sense for us to reimagine and transform it into the Hope Bus and try to continue to give hope to others who really need it,” she explained.

Antoncic said that the idea for the HOPE Bus started back in 2019 when Bear’s lost a former manager to suicide at the age of 25. She said that was the catalyst that set the idea in motion to be able to show that someone always cares. All of the money collected from the HOPE Bus will go towards providing free counseling to food and beverage workers in Asheville.