East Fork aims to use our power, resources, and platform to build co-conspiratorial relationships with grassroots justice movements to help achieve a more equitable world.

East Fork commits to contributing to the collective well-being of our community by leveraging our resources, energy, platform, and objects we make. We recognize that the most power-wielding institutions, systems, and societal norms do not support this outcome. We seek to champion and scale the impact of work being done in our community to build a new way of being.

Communities most impacted by systemic oppression know best how to address their own needs, and well-resourced, grassroots, justice movements led by people most impacted are our best hope for achieving our vision of a more equitable world. We strive to build co-conspiratorial relationships: soliciting the knowledge and guidance from our community partners before leveraging our assets accordingly.

To sustain this work, we aim to habitualize the ever-deepening practice of acknowledging, analyzing, and challenging the ways we benefit from white supremacy and perpetuate harm. This process starts first within ourselves—how am I complicit in supremacy? How am I causing harm to myself and others— and extends to our interpersonal relationships, then to our business, and—lastly—to our customers, investors, vendors, colleagues in the business community, and regional community members with power and influence.

We strive for meaningful community impact—not perfection.

We want to be clear about what we are and aren’t doing; what we can and can’t offer.

We hit the ground running, but East Fork is still a very young company. We’re just getting started! And already in our hardly 5 years of being a “real” business, we’ve built and torn down and rebuilt and torn down dozens of systems and workflows. Every day brings a new opportunity to ask ourselves if we could be doing something differently to better align with our mission, with more ease and play along the way.

Since 2020, East Fork has worked to identify partners each quarter who are regional, justice-minded, human-centered and working towards liberation for the future of our community. We use a variety of tools to funnel money toward their efforts and tell their story in ways that authentically represent them. Throughout the quarter we do that in two ways: one, we ask customers to donate directly to the organization to access our discounted Seconds collection, and two, East Fork hosts a raffle of highly sought-after items and 100% of the proceeds go to that quarter’s partner.

In that time, we’ve raised $471,186.55 through our raffles alone (not including direct donations to our community partners); and while we’ve always taken seriously our role as a vessel through which to spread wealth, we’re just beginning to articulate our philosophy around the how’s and why’s. The how’s and why’s have looked a little different year after year, and as we grow, we’ll continue to evolve—one of our core values is Adaptive Tenacity, after all.

We haven’t come across many models of engaging in this work from the position of a for-profit business, and so we’ve had to get creative, which is what we’re good at! By taking a little bit of this and a little bit of that, we find ways to leverage our resources for a more equitable world and pick up lessons for doing it better next time along the way. We’re so grateful for our customers, community, and partners for joining us on this journey—especially to those who’ve called us in when our impact didn’t match our intention and who challenge us to do better.

It is our aspiration for each partnership that we move past transaction to transformation—for us, for you, and for our partners. In addition to your donation, we also encourage you to engage, support and uplift our partner’s meaningful work.

By working with grassroots initiatives and organizers we understand that this is the first time many of them will have consistent visibility at this level, and we want to be intentional in introducing them to our large and very engaged customer base. Because of the nature of our partnership, we find it is our duty as we introduce our partners to protect their first priority: the work.

We hope that you follow, share, donate, and support our partner. However, please be respectful when engaging and remember that our partners are not indebted to us or to you because of a donation. Be mindful of their time and energy.

Our store associates are happy to talk to you about our community partners, but please direct any requests or concerns to Davia Young, Community Impact Manager, [email protected]

If you have any questions about our community partnerships or our approach to community work, please reach out to East Fork at [email protected]

Our values—Equity, Compassion, Sincerity, Accountability, and Adaptive Tenacity—inform our business decisions and our leadership philosophy and practice. Learn more about them here.

What's a Second? A second is a not-quite-right pot that we aren't able to sell at full-price. They are still beautiful, useful, functional, and safe. There are so many reasons a pot can be a second—they might be a little wonky and off-center, have minor pinholing, or funny little bumps under the surface we call "bloats." Learn more.

Did you put "Racial Justice Coalition" in your email subject line? Hold tight! It could take up to 15 minutes to receive your email. Check your spam folder. If you still don't see anything from us, email [email protected]

Yes! You may even find that we carry a limited supply of Seconds inventory from retired seasonal glazes.

Unfortunately, we don't offer the ability to show specific Seconds pots to customers before they buy online. Occasionally, we love to open our Asheville factory for in-person Seconds sales for folks that live locally.

All seconds are final sale. Seconds are not eligible for returns or exchanges. Please be sure to reach out to [email protected] with any questions you may have!