Asheville Forager founder and co-owner Heather Collins, 42, is both an A-B Tech alumna and current student who has turned her passions into a thriving business on Wall Street in downtown Asheville.

On a beautiful fall afternoon, the Philadelphia native moved from table to table chatting with lunchtime regulars. A man in a baseball cap munched a vegetarian sub as a mom rocked her baby beside a sunny window. Outside, a street performer packed up a banjo beneath a row of yellow Ginkgo trees. Free of noise and traffic, Wall Street may be one of the city’s sweetest spots. And Asheville Forager, a New York style deli and grocery store, is set like a jewel right in the heart of it.

Heather, her husband and their 2-year-old daughter moved to Asheville from Virginia Beach in 2020 for her job as a veterinary technician. “We had never even heard of Asheville,” she said. To boost her skills at the time, she enrolled at A-B Tech to take online accounting classes. 

Meanwhile, her husband Padraic “Paddy” Collins, a veteran of the restaurant industry, opened the Capital Grill in Arden. As they became acquainted with their new city, the couple began to talk of opening a grocery store that also would be a zero-waste community hub for local farmers and vendors to showcase their wares. 

After Hurricane Helene, the Collins’ life changed drastically. Heather lost her vet tech job due to Helene and the family lost Paddy’s father, a huge emotional blow. For the first time, the couple struggled to make ends meet. Heather applied for a financial hardship loan at A-B Tech and was able to get a $1,000 scholarship. 

“I found out about it in the college’s weekly newsletter,” she said. “The community was so warm. Nobody made me feel like I didn’t deserve it."

After seeing how local farmers and vendors were affected by Helene, the couple began to talk again about starting a business. “We said, wow, if we were downtown when people were without power and food, how many people would we have been able to help?” Heather said. “We wanted to help local vendors.”

After much work that included installing a commercial kitchen by hand, their dream was realized when Asheville Forager opened in July 2025. Located in the former location of Asheville Emporium across from The Market Place restaurant, the eatery functions as butcher, baker, deli and grocery boasting products by more than 100 vendors who produce everything from honey to chocolate to beer and wine. Heather said the New York style deli also expanded this year to meet increasing demand for catering and lunchtime sandwiches. A typical day could see a hundred challah loaves baked for a religious retreat, several trays of mini subs for a local jewelry store event, and a tray of pastries prepped for a gaming store’s new release. 

True to their original mission, Asheville Forager is zero-waste. They use biodegradable products, and keep up with inventory, pulling items from shelves to use in the day’s menu before they expire. Heather told a story about how once using some extra pork from the deli for Cuban subs turned into a city-wide phenomenon. “It was going to just be a day’s special, but everyone went crazy so now we have it on the menu every day."

Asheville Forager is a family affair. Heather does the inventory, payroll and social media, while her husband focuses on management and cooking. Even the couples’ 8-year-old daughter Brighid helps with watering baskets of veggies and composting scraps at her elementary school’s garden. The shop employs six people, including a full-time baker who makes croissants, muffins, bread, and other tasty treats.

Six years after taking her first online class at A-B Tech, Collins is poised to get an Associate of Applied Science in Business Administration degree, and a Retail Marketing Certificate this spring. With one Associate degree in Accounting and Finance and several related business certificates already under her belt, she now feels ready to tackle much of her business by herself without hiring contractors. As a staunch "do-it-yourselfer", she sometimes marvels at the fact that she became a college student. 

“One class led to another,” she said. “All of them were online so I could do them from anywhere. That’s why I was able to continue. I’m an accidental student.”

Learn more about A-B Tech's Business Programs at abtech.edu/programs.