As many of you are aware, Biltmore Village (where our commercial kitchen has been located for most of a decade now) was one of the direct impact zones for Hurricane Helene. Our site, which sits well above the routine “gets flooded every year” valley bottom, still took 4-5 feet of mud and water, as well as losing electricity long term (we’re still waiting for it to be restored three weeks later). The loss of power took out the walk in freezer, which holds a dozen or more pallets of fruit, and the water and mud damaged our equipment, ruined our finished product, and destroyed ingredients, packaging, labels, and most of the other necesseties of a small food processing business. We have been able to recover a small amount of finished products from above the water line, salvage and clean storage tubs for our fruit, tables and shelving, etc, and are in the process of repairing and replacing necessary equipment. We’ve located a new site for our kitchen, and are making the move there, but face some truly staggering bills to stand this thing back up and get it running again. We’re at a scale where we work in pallet quantities, so it’s going to take thousands of dollars for nearly every item - sugar, four kinds of fruit, several different sizes and styles of jars/bottles, etc, etc. Our return is not in danger - we’ve committed to making this happen. However, the speed at which we’re able to do so depends entirely on our ability to fundraise and therefore jumpstart the process. With succesful fundraising, we can be back up and producing in weeks, reducing the financial stress for the seven families who have members working in our kitchen and the five farms we regularly purchase fruit from. Without it, we will be somewhere between many months and a couple of years getting this thing back on its feet.

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