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The New Farm
138 Kimzey Road, Mills River, NC 28759
We moved to the new Farm about 10 days before Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina. We lost two trees but no damage and no flooding. We have electricity and water. The Internet will be installed October 30.
In the days following the hurricane, we started contacting 200+ of our volunteers to make sure they were okay and if they needed anything. We do know people who lost everything and others who lost some things. Thank God all those losses can be replaced - everyone was safe. We were originally making runs to Charlotte for supplies but after the second day the priorities shifted. Both Henderson and Buncombe counties have literally tons of food, water, and clothes for now. We then started doing in person welfare checks and running supplies from the distribution centers to people's homes. Rebecca has been traveling between Charlotte and Swannanoa bringing in camp showers and supplies. Brendan, Maddie's husband, has been leading teams into the worst hit places opening roads and cutting people out of their driveways. Maddie has been flying solo slowly moving the Farm ahead including the final flood clean-up of the old flag garden to return the land to the Schaeffer family. We continue to work with various external groups to help our community.
All external volunteer events we had planned for early October have been canceled and hopefully we'll be able to reschedule. The three storage pods are onsite at the Farm, along with the two golf carts. We'll begin unloading over the next few weeks and will need your help with those and many other 'new farm' projects. If you would like to volunteer to help please email veteranshealingfarm@gmail.com.
We canceled workshops until the end of this month. We'll have a medicinal herb class Saturday, October 26, Herbs for Men's Health. Check the calendar later this week to sign up. The Farm will be effectively closed from Monday November 4 through Friday November 8 for internal training. We are working diligently to get the Farm back to normal operations for our Veteran community.
There are so many people that stepped up or came in to help WNC. We are forever indebted to all of them. Progress is being made everyday but the outlying areas are another story. Complete towns, and our neighbors that lived there, have disappeared. Recovery will be years coming. Please keep them and our search and recovery teams in your thoughts and prayers.
Our fall fundraising mailer went out September 24. The VHF is 100% donation supported with occasional grants. We completely understand the increased financial needs with all of the destruction in the area and are grateful for your continued support. Be safe.
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