Join us for a celebration to kick off Hispanic Heritage Month! Come and enjoy a family-friendly carnival, complete with games, music, cultural performances, and, yes, amazing food! This is a free event and we encourage all of our friends and neighbors to come and express their appreciation for Hispanic culture!

After the success of last year’s Dia del Nino celebration, the IFC and its four programmatic partners - Big Brothers Big Sisters of Western North Carolina, Boys and Girls Club of the Plateau, the Albert Carlton-Cashiers Library, and the WNC Rural Immigrant Services Collective - will once again be hosting a celebration of children at the Cashiers-Glenville Recreation Center on the first Saturday in June. Our hope is to make this year’s celebration even bigger and better than last year’s, with live musical and dance performances, more games and prizes, and, yes, amazing food!

Join us on Sunday, October 2 at the First Presbyterian Church of Highlands from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm for our 11th annual Empty Bowls fundraiser! Enjoy a soup from some of Highlands best chefs, visit with friends and neighbors and take home a hand-turned bowl all in the name of improving the lives of our region’s food insecure populations.

Purchase Tickets Today!

To celebrate the holidays and the beginning of a new year, the IFC will be distributing Winter Holiday Boxes at the Highlands Food Pantry. The boxes include a variety of specialty items with a Mexican flare. To receive a box, simply stop by the Highlands Food Pantry on Monday, December 21st between 3:00-5:30pm.

To celebrate community and family during these challenging times, the Highlands Food Pantry will be distributing Thanksgiving Baskets full of locally sourced produce and whole turkeys to our neighbors in need.

Monday, November 23rd from 3:30pm-5:30pm

Baskets will be distributed at the Highlands Food Pantry, which is located behind and below the Highlands United Methodist Church, 315 Main St, Highlands, NC 28741.

The International Friendship Center (IFC) of Highlands, NC is launching a Career and Professional Development Center to help address the issues of unemployment and underemployment which have been exacerbated during the global pandemic and create serious challenges for the residents of Macon and surrounding counties.  The service will link potential candidates with current job opportunities coupled with career coaching and mentoring to help candidates match their skills to the right job opportunities.

If you are a business leader in the area, please participate in either of two virtual focus groups to be held via Zoom on Thursday, November 12th at 12 Noon and Tuesday, November 17th at 5:30PM.  To sign up for this virtual meeting contact taylor@internationalfriendshipcenter.org.  “We want to understand from our business leaders the recruitment and retention challenges they face as well as any immediate skills and/or training needs they can identify,” stated Kaye McHan, CEO/president Highland Chamber of Commerce.

The International Friendship Center (IFC) of Highlands, NC is launching a Career and Professional Development Center to help address the issues of unemployment and underemployment which have been exacerbated during the global pandemic and create serious challenges for the residents of Macon and surrounding counties.  The service will link potential candidates with current job opportunities coupled with career coaching and mentoring to help candidates match their skills to the right job opportunities.

If you are a business leader in the area, please participate in either of two virtual focus groups to be held via Zoom on Thursday, November 12th at 12 Noon and Tuesday, November 17th at 5:30PM.  To sign up for this virtual meeting contact taylor@internationalfriendshipcenter.org.  “We want to understand from our business leaders the recruitment and retention challenges they face as well as any immediate skills and/or training needs they can identify,” stated Kaye McHan, CEO/president Highland Chamber of Commerce.

Nearly one in five people in Jackson and Macon counties fall beneath the poverty line, and one in four children in Western North Carolina face hunger on a regular basis.

On October 4, please join the International Friendship Center's Highlands Food Pantry and Highlands First Presbyterian Church, as they host the 10th Annual Empty Bowls event to fight hunger in our community. Now more than ever, we need your help to keep our neighbors from having empty bowls on their tables. The Food Pantry is staffed by its 70+ volunteers, and feeds more than 4,000 people a year.

Due to Covid-19 precautions and in an effort to keep our volunteers and supporters healthy, Empty Bowls will not be an in-person event as in previous years. We are working to create a drive-thru event to safely offer handmade ceramic bowls and delicious soups and dessert donated by our favorite local chefs and restaurants including:

• Old Edwards Inn and Madison’s Restaurant: Roasted Fall Squash Cream Soup

• Lakeside Restaurant: Tomato Bisque (subject to change)

• Marty Rosenfield: Duck and Potato Soup

• Kristy Lewis and the Highlands United Methodist Church: Chili

• The IFC’s Women’s Initiative: Posole

• Four65 Woodfire Bistro and Bar: Root Vegetable with Fennel Sausage Soup

Please check our Facebook page for updates regarding logistics. 

As in previous years, Empty Bowls will include a silent auction featuring a variety of fine, handcrafted items. Auction items are on display at Smitten, 468 Main Street in Highlands, until October 10.

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE: