Support Farmers and Grassroots Food System Organizing in WNC

UPDATE - We raised our goal from $100,000 to $250,000. See our update below for more details and our expanded plan. Please continue donating!

The disaster in Western North Carolina has left many without power, water, and food, and simultaneously stranded high quality produce at local farms in the fields without hands to pick it, fuel to distribute it, and markets to sell it. Many of these farmers are donating their produce to local relief organizations (and we so appreciate that!!) but we need to ensure these farms get paid for their food, so that they may cover their expenses and keep their businesses financially solvent and continue to provide our community with this vital nourishment not only now, but well into the future as we continue to rebuild our lives, communities, and the local food system.

Farming is already hard and hardly pays the bills in functioning systems as it is. Some expenses farmers have now and into the future: labor (not usually for themselves, but to pay helpers), fuel for tractors/weedwackers/walk-behind tillers/etc, power tools and hand tools, seeds, soil, seed starting supplies, irrigation and water infrastructure, shade cloth, greenhouses, animals, vet care, fencing, packaging, sales & marketing, etc. Farms are businesses too and they need to make money from the food that they grow to pay for all the many expenses.

This is the moment that we have all talked about for Western North Carolina. It is our time to practice rebuilding a grassroots local food system from the soil up that feeds our communities and supports our farmers mutually. We want to document this process for all to see and learn, so the rest of the world can be better prepared in the future for their own natural disasters.

This GoFundMe Campaign will be used to:

1. Directly pay farmers for the pounds of food that they are donating to local relief organizations.

How? Our small business, The Farm Connection (Alyson Wade), will be managing the funds, distributing directly to registered farms to pay for food that local farmers bring to donation. They will submit records to Alyson that show the date that produce was donated, the place or organization that it was donated to, what it was, how many pounds were donated, and finally a retail value for the food that was donated. The Farm Connection will directly write checks to farmers in a first come, first served fashion.

2. After farmers are paid, funds may also go to the following other needs that arise during this emergency, primarily local food system related:

a) supporting emergency local food system infrastructure (pop up markets, refrigerators, freezers, coolers, marketing & communications, etc)

b) operating funds for farms who lost all of their salable products due to storm damage (ordering supplies for continued production, etc)

c) documentation of the damage and recovery (labor, materials, production costs, etc) for video team.

The Farm Connection is a family-owned nursery and garden center in Marshall, NC. We specialize in organically grown food, medicine, and native plants. We are passionate about everything local food related, and we love connecting with and supporting local farmers in any way we can! Check out our website and also consider placing an online order for plants and other gardening essentials to support our small business. Funding for this GoFundMe and our small business are being managed separately, so your continued support of our business is also much appreciated!

https://thefarmconnectionmadco.com/