The White House declined to comment on Stein’s request, but said the administration would continue to support farmers.
“President Trump cared deeply about the farmers and all Americans affected by the devastation of Hurricane Helen, so he personally assessed the damage and led historic recovery efforts,” spokesman Anna Kelly said. “He will continue to ensure that our farmers have the policies and resources they need to feed the world.”
Local aid groups say they are still responding to rising food insecurity across the region.
“The flow of government assistance — both the state and federal governments have not yet expanded to the situation at hand,” said Paula Sellers, deputy director of local nonprofit group Bounty & Soul.
We are seven months later and the big dollar has not yet been fooled by the locals.
Paula Sellers, Associate Director of Bounty and Soul
The organization has partnered with more than 70 local farms to provide free food to communities around Black Mountain and Suwannanoa, but Sellers said it would be a heavy lift to expand operations while the local growers supplying the group are still recovering.
Luckily, Bounty & Soul has seen a leak of generosity from those trying to help. “The scale of what we’re doing has increased dramatically,” she said.
Sellers estimated that the group’s food purchase budget has increased by 340% since Helen. Before the hurricane, Bounty and Seoul usually organize six food markets a week for those in need. Currently, there are 10 people and serve more than 25,000 people each month.
The organization still purchases produce from local farmers, but it had to make up for it with purchases from wholesalers to handle the higher demand. And Sellers said they know that Bounty and Seoul cannot meet the needs of Western North Carolinians through private donations alone.
“The nonprofit sector is very much on the burden of recovery in many of the small communities in the area,” she said.
Disasters tend to push out farmers who are already struggling financially, said Michael Swanson, chief agricultural economist at the Wells Fargo Agrifood Institute, an industry news service.
“Usually someone takes up the area and does the crop, but there’s a change between people who are doing better and just want to keep trying it out and people who say, ‘I was thinking about going out anyway’,” Swanson said.
Ager has urged fellow lawmakers to promote more funding, but warned that the state aid package is “probably too late to get back and run some fields” for spring planting. State-level relief could arrive faster than federal funds, usually managed through the agricultural sector through local farm service agencies, he said.
Agel, a fourth-generation farmer who raises beef and pork with his siblings at Hickory Nut Gap Farms in Fairview, said: Helen defeated electricity, trees and washed down the roads for a month on the property.
“There was a lot to do,” Ajer said, but he added that he “feels quite lucky” compared to what other growers endured.
The WNC Community, a local agricultural nonprofit, has been providing emergency disaster funding to farmers in recent months.
“We’ve filled the gap we knew we didn’t have other funds,” said executive director Jennifer Ferre, who estimated $2.1 million had been administered to 385 farmers so far.
Like other local nonprofits, the WNC community has received an influx of private donations that it quickly distributed to help farmers resume operations as much as possible. However, there were limitations to organizational support. It often helps to buy gravel to repair roads between pastures, but it cannot rebuild a collapsed barn, Fale said.
“The need was so overwhelming,” she said. “We had to see what we thought we could help people and prioritize them…we returned to business the fastest.”
Ferre said she is trying to become a resource for farmers supported by her group as new funding arises. Applications for grants can be complicated, and many farmers need loss documents when they are simply trying to pay their bills.
Laura Roafer, director of the Empowerment Mountain Food Systems Program at North Carolina State University, says that all farmers need is “fast money.” By the time Helen was hit, her initiative had already set up a programme that would provide $3,000 in business grants to local farmers. After that, I was able to streamline the application process and earn money faster.
“We really want to be strategic,” Lauffer said, adding that the group is now focused on understanding “how this little money can make the most impact.”
The launch this year has resulted in significant cuts in the agricultural sector, including a $1 billion food bank and school lunch programs.
The agriculture sector is “eager to deploy some of its disaster aid across the United States over the coming months,” a White House spokesperson said in a statement. A spokesperson for the agency said Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins is focusing on addressing the needs of affected farmers and “ensure that these regions have the resources and personnel they need to continue to serve the people of America.”
For now, there is a gap in needs.
“To the legislators and those in a decision-making position around disaster relief funding, I’ll just say: get the pace up,” Sellers said. “We’ve only been seven months later, and the big money hasn’t been fooled by the locals yet.”