When Hurricane Helene struck the Southeast in late September, countless families, communities and businesses were devastated. One local company has done its part to help ease the community’s journey to recovery.
Tierra Farm, an organic food company based in Valatie in Columbia County, spearheaded a relief effort to help those impacted by the destructive storm.
“A few weeks ago, we had people asking if we were going to be doing anything to support relief efforts down in the Carolinas, Tennessee, and the Southeast area that was struck by the hurricane,” said Al Fox of Tierra Farm. “We said ‘sure, we would be happy to do something.’”
And they did.
The company put out the word with its customers that they were doing a relief fund drive and any monetary donations would be matched 100% by Tierra Farm. Their customers stepped up.
“We did it for a few days and we got about $5,000 worth of donations and once we doubled it, it was $10,000,” Fox said. “In the end, we spent a couple more thousand than that and we went out and secured items that the relief center said were needed — water, generators and miscellaneous supplies for babies like diapers and formula.”
Tierra Farm worked with ABCCM Servant Leadership Center, a nonprofit organization supported by over 300 churches of all denominations that provides emergency assistance to anyone who needs it, to identify what was needed and then set about acquiring it.
“We purchased 16 pallets of water from a local water supplier in Johnstown. We bought generators from The Home Depot in Catskill and we had a bunch of stuff donated to us by local outreach people that we also palletized and put on the trailer and sent it down to an outreach center, which was a Christian-based ministry that teams up with a veterans’ group there, and we dropped it all off,” Fox said.
The supplies went to Asheville, North Carolina, which was devastated by the hurricane.
In addition to the 16 pallets of water purchased from Crystal Geyser Water in Johnstown, Tierra Farm sent 16 generators and three pallets of supplies, including diapers, formula, cleaning supplies and miscellaneous items in a 53-foot trailer. Transportation to get the supplies to Asheville was donated by Philip and Melissa Dennis of Dirt Daubers LLC, according to TierraFarm.com.