In 2024 in the wake of Hurricane Helene, our East TN community (and beyond!) donated nearly $150,000 to the Resilient Farm Fund, which the Appalachian RC&D Council in turn granted out to 35 family farmers who produce for our food system. Farm recipients were located in Cocke, Greene, Washington, Johnson, and Carter counties. With this they rebuilt barns, moved soil, purchased new equipment, and rebuilt fences, and more to fill the vast gaps of insurance.
As you know very well, in this past year there has been incredibly inspiring rebuilding, recovery, and hard work. We also now know more about how the soils and landscape were affected by such devastating flooding and how much more rebuilding there is to be done. We have made a $150,000 goal in 2025 to go directly to farmers still recovering. These farmers form the backbone of our regional food system and are stewards of our watersheds. They need our collective support to rebuild where insurance simply did not cover their staggering costs. See more at: arcd.org/farmerfund
To meet this goal we are organizing a ‘Resilient Farmers’ Benefit Concert on November 15th at Paramount Bristol, featuring performances from local and national bluegrass, rock and old time artists. Proceeds will go directly to farms through an application process similar to what ARCD conducted last year. Tickets are on sale at paramountbristol.org. All concert details at: arcd.org/rffconcert
