Forest City Data Center

10/06/2026

🌟📣 Applications for the Future is For Everyone Fund are still open! There are only 2 weeks left until applications close Monday, October 19th.

If you're a school, nonprofit, community organization, or municipality with an idea to strengthen this community, now's the time. Grants support community enhancement, economic vitality, education, and sustainability projects.

Start your application at datacenters.atmeta.com/fife

09/17/2026

We were proud to sponsor Saturday's Stars of Rutherford Awards Gala at Tryon Equestrian Center!

Congrats to Rutherford Housing Partnership, this year's Meta Nonprofit of the Year, and to all nominees strengthening our community. We're also honored to have been nominated for the Legendary Ford Spirit of Community Award.

Thank you, Rutherford County Chamber, for a great night! 🏆

09/14/2026

Forest City has shown us what it means to invest in what matters: good schools, strong nonprofits, and the local organizations that make this a great place to live and work.

We’re proud to keep that partnership going! Our Data Center Community Action Grants are now part of the “Future is for Everyone Fund,” Meta’s $1 billion commitment to the U.S. communities that host a Meta data center. Applications open today!

From September 14 - October 19 we are sourcing projects across four themes: Community Enhancement, Economic Vitality, Education, and Sustainability. Same local focus, same application portal, and returning applicants are always welcome.�

Learn more about the fund and applicant eligibility at http://datacenters.atmeta.com/fife

09/09/2026

Save the Date! Our annual community grants program is now part of the Future is for Everyone Fund, Meta's $1 billion commitment to invest directly in the U.S. communities that host a Meta data center. Applications open on September 14 for schools, nonprofits, and community organizations that make this a great place to live and work.

When the call opens, you'll be able to apply for projects across four focus areas:
🤝 Community Enhancement: the shared spaces and services that bring people together, from parks, trails, and gathering places to connectivity and support for first responders like police, firefighters, and paramedics.

💲Economic Vitality: supporting the people and organizations that power local economies — helping workers gain the skills, certifications, and hands-on experience the modern economy rewards, and backing initiatives that create jobs and give a community its character.

🎓Education: programs, tools, and spaces that help learners of every age discover what they're capable of, from early literacy and the arts to hands-on science and technology, plus resources for the educators who make it happen.

🌳Sustainability: caring for the land, water, and wildlife that make this area home, including habitat restoration and conservation that connect people to the natural world.

Want to be ready? Mark your calendar and start thinking about the projects that matter most here. We'll share the application link and full details the day the call opens.

Learn more about the fund at datacenters.atmeta.com/fife

08/14/2026

When we host our Community Action Grants ceremony, we keep it local! 🎉

This year's event was made possible by incredible small businesses right here in our community:

🎈 The Balloonista — bringing the celebration to life with stunning balloon displays
🍽️ Parcel 191 — serving up delicious local catering
💐 Bostic Florist — adding beautiful floral touches
📷 Steep Creek Photography – for capturing every detail

Supporting local businesses is part of who we are. From our grants program to our events, we're committed to investing in the people and places that make Rutherford County special. Thank you for helping us celebrate our 2026 grantees! 🙌

07/30/2026

North Carolina, this one's close to home. 🕶️

Meta just announced nearly $2 million in AI Glasses Impact Grants for 30+ organizations across 18 states — and two are right here in North Carolina.

Agerpoint is giving farmers real-time, hands-free crop health intelligence to help secure our food supply. And through its Senior Valor initiative, TraVolve Wellness is helping rural veterans and older adults navigate daily life with more confidence and independence.

As your neighbors at the Forest City Data Center, we're proud to see North Carolina organizations putting this technology to work.

Meet the full cohort → meta.com/community/ai-glasses-community-stories

We've awarded AI Glasses Impact Grants to 30 organizations across the US using Meta AI glasses to help people work safer, learn faster, and live more independently.

06/11/2026

America needs hundreds of thousands of skilled tradespeople — electricians, mechanics, fiber technicians and more — to build the AI infrastructure powering our future. That's why Meta just launched America's Workforce Academy, the largest private-sector commitment to the skilled trades with a job guarantee in American history.

This cost-free program supports all participants while they learn, and every graduate is guaranteed a job on a Meta partner's construction site. No experience needed. It's a $115 million first year investment — now piloting in four states, with plans to grow.

Learn more: https://www.meta.com/AmericasWorkforceAcademy/

05/11/2026

Big news in clean energy ☀️🔋

Last week, Meta announced two partnerships pushing the boundaries of what's possible for powering AI infrastructure.

We're working with Overview Energy to bring solar power from space to Earth—satellites collecting sunlight around the clock and beaming it to solar farms on the ground. And we're partnering with Noon Energy on ultra-long-duration storage that can hold clean energy for days, not just hours.

These are the kinds of investments that help strengthen the grid and support reliable power for our data center operations here and across the country.

Learn more about these innovative energy solutions 👇

https://about.fb.com/news/2026/04/powering-ai-strengthening-the-grid-space-solar-energy-and-long-duration-storage/

04/30/2026

This week, we celebrated our 2026 Meta Data Center Community Action Grant recipients at the Forest City Data Center. It was a joy to bring together this year’s grant recipients, community partners, Meta team members, and local leaders!

Through our Data Center Community Action Grants program, Meta provides funding for nonprofits and schools — addressing critical community needs by putting technology to use for community benefit, enabling people to build strong, sustainable communities, improving local STEAM education — to support the long-term vitality of Cleveland, Henderson, McDowell, Rutherford, and Polk Counties. Learn more on this year’s projects:

Boys & Girls Clubs of Cleveland County: To inspire environmental stewardship through hands-on gardening projects that apply scientific measurement and engineering to sustainable food production.

Boys & Girls Clubs of Rutherford NC: To establish a technology-rich SmartLab that provides youth with hands-on, project-based experiences in robotics, coding and engineering design.

Cleveland County Arts Council: To transform traditional art spaces into digital arts hubs by providing iPads and interactive displays for advanced AI-integrated art instruction.

East Rutherford Middle School: To integrate entrepreneurship and STEAM skills through a student-led coffee shop utilizing digital marketing, inventory software and 3D-designed branding.

Explore Forest City: To modernize the Forest City Clubhouse with advanced audiovisual technology that enhances public accessibility, visibility and inclusive community programming.

Foothills Community School: To foster student-led scientific exploration and laboratory mastery through participation in regional and state-level Science Olympiad competitions.

Henderson County Education Foundation: To expand equitable access to science kits, robotics competitions, and community field trips for students in underfunded elementary and middle schools.

9496 LYNK Robotics: To provide rural students with professional mentorship and industry-grade fabrication tools that bridge the gap to high-demand engineering careers.

Rutherford Early College High School (REaCH): To launch a centralized AI hub equipped with GPU-accelerated workstations for training machine learning models and analyzing autonomous drone data.

Norris Library Foundation: To eliminate financial and language barriers to science education by providing free community access to telescopes, microscopes and bilingual STEAM kits.

REIGN (Rutherford Education, Innovation & Growth Network): To catalyze a regional AI ecosystem by training instructors, launching literacy workshops and integrating AI readiness into local startup development.

Rutherford County Schools Education Foundation: To accelerate district-wide AI literacy and robotics participation through student-led summer enrichment camps and modernized high school engineering labs.

Rutherford Outdoor Coalition: To empower the next generation of river stewards through hands-on water quality testing and watershed restoration efforts focused on environmental resilience.

Rutherfordton Elementary: To ignite a love for electrical engineering by integrating Snap Circuit kits into hands-on collaborative lessons for students across all primary grade levels.

STEM West: To immerse rural and underserved students in local STEM career pathways through interactive rotations with industry partners and college faculty.

Our thanks to Rutherford County Commissioner Donnie Haulk, Town of Forest City, Town of Spindale, Town of Rutherford, Rutherford County Economic Development, Rutherford Chamber and Rutherford County Schools for joining us.

04/28/2026

🌎🧊 April is Earth month — and we're proud to share a closer look at the water restoration work happening in Los Lunas.

Water is a shared and vital resource — and at Meta, our goal is to become water positive in 2030. That means restoring more water than we consume in our operations, while partnering with local communities to boost supply, enhance quality, and protect ecosystems.

In this video, our Water Program leads share what drives this work — and how projects near the Rio Grande are helping move toward that goal.

Watch the video to hear directly from the team 👇