HELPING OUR COMMUNITY AFTER HELENE

We are currently serving our community as a farm resource distribution hub in the wake of Hurricane Helene’s devestation. All of the hay, livestock feed, veterinary / medical items, and farm supplies are FREE, thanks to the continued support from the WNC Regional Livestock Center and so many generous farmers around the country!

Everything is FREE and set up for self-service pickup at grace farms: 4 Hawkeye Way, Fletcher 28732 next to Cane Creek Pool.

The shipping containers filled with supplies are opened up every morning (by 6-9am depending on the day) and are closed up in the evening when it starts to get dark.

I post everything that is currently available on my personal FB (public posts) and then they get shared to local community pages from there. Please check my Facebook page to see what we currently have in stock.

If you’ve used our resource hub, I simply ask you take a quick 3-minute survey to help me secure a research grant to help offset our personal costs: https://forms.gle/ZsB2PU1eFWWFoyK8A

In the early days of the disaster, grace farms became a central supply hub in the Fairview / Cane Creek area (just outside of Asheville, NC) by providing crucial supplies for many families in desperate need. Due to the quick collaboration and generosity of several agencies - paired with the ideal location and infrastructure – we were able to mobilize efforts very quickly to help some of the hardest hit areas in WNC.

The first three weeks of community relief were dedicated to aiding those with the most critical and urgent needs. We were able to serve as a base camp for several horse rescue teams, relief crews, and dozens of volunteers committed to helping victims of Helene. Thanks to the generous donations of friends / family / community, we sourced and provided so many generators, refilled propane and oxygen tanks, secured and distributed insulin / medical supplies, fed many mouths, opened up our very tiny, very messy bathroom to dozens of friends / neighbors / strangers for hot showers / toilets / laundry, and were able to supply + refill HUNDREDS of gallons of gas for weeks on end…5 damn leaky, stinky, messy, broken-gas-can-spout gallons at a time. They just don’t make quality gas cans like they used to!!

After those early weeks of providing lifesaving supplies, medical support, and rescue services; the handful of families who were relying on us for their daily survival were able to stabilize…and the broader community mostly had their critical needs met. When families were no longer relying on us for daily support, grace farms transitioned its longer-term objective to a more focused initiative of assisting small farmers throughout the coming months to meet their immediate needs.

The farm swiftly secured three shipping containers to organize and house livestock feed, hay, veterinary/medical items, and farm supplies. We have been able to distribute a steady supply of necessary resources to WNC’s small farmers. With the help and commitment from the WNC Livestock Center and through many generous organizations donating feed and hay, we are committed to supplying local small farmers with essential necessities to keep their livestock alive through the winter.

Jason and I were now both back to work, and I successfully have transitioned the hub to a self-service model. Local farmers are now driving through + loading up all the supplies they need to support their livestock operations.

We haven’t had time yet to fully address the wreckage and cleanup requiring attention on our two properties (the farm plus our rental property down the road). We have both a basement and hay shed full of toxic flooded waste that needs to be removed before the mold takes hold. I have a horse paddock that has been turned upside down that needs rebuilding. We have 2 acres of pasture filled with debris from a river that raged through it (leaving behind things like a refrigerator, trees, and relentless amounts of trash). The cleanup and recovery from Helene will continue in the many busy months to come.

We’re tired. We’re weary. The adrenaline has faded. My laptop no longer recognizes my fingerprint to unlock access because my fingers are so callused and dry from this wintery weather. (It’s a very small, but very annoying nuisance.) But in the grand scheme of things, we are SO insanely fortunate compared to the many who lost everything in this disaster. I count our blessings daily. Time (and lack of service) had prohibited me from watching any news or venturing out to see any of the hard hit areas, but that’s just as well since I don’t think I’m mentally prepared for any of that.

However, my community is resilient and unbreakable. I’ve witnessed more beauty and strength in the last three weeks than perhaps my lifetime…so I know we will pull through this. The goodwill and generosity of strangers has been unrivaled. In the heated and divisive era we now live, it has truly been great to absolutely disconnect from all of that for this long while.

The people to thank for their support, donations, love, time, labor, and so much more has become too numerous to document and continues to grow by the day…but I will continue to do my level best to try. Visit my Facebook page for the updates and thank you posts to the incredible people across the entire country who have helped us make this resource hub possible.