Initiative to help farmers affected by Helene

CLEVELAND, Tenn. (WDEF)- It’s been almost three weeks since Hurricane Helene devastated much of the southeast and killed over  250 people.

There have been many relief drives across our area to help out the victims of the storm.

However, there is now a relief drive that looks to give help of a different kind.

This effort is called the Woof and Hoof Initiative.

It has come about a partnership between several Cleveland area business owners and truck drivers.

The main collaborators are Bartlee Norton of Wholesale Carpet Sales and Flooring, the Southeastern Farmers Co-Op locations in Cleveland and Pikeville, the Tractor Supply Company location in Cleveland, Jason Dean, the Business Solutions Consultant for Miller-Motte College who has volunteered to drive 18 wheelers to the disaster zone in Elizabethton, TN, alongside Jackie Evans Trucking Company and Elite HVAC.

They say they want to focus their relief efforts on farmers who they don’t want to be overlooked in the recovery efforts.

Norton said he was made aware of the great need after a conversation with a friend who told him, “So many people are giving to us as humans, but what we don’t have is individuals that are helping our animals, and some of these are our livelihoods, farmers and ranchers. Not only have they lost their homes or their fields, but they’re having trouble keeping whatever livestock did live in an area that is safe. So we’re approaching this from a different perspective.”

The troubles of farmers who have lost everything due to Helene hit hard for those like Dean who have seen the destruction firsthand.

He went to several destroyed farms near Roan Mountain, Tennessee to volunteer and describes, “The property lines are all down, whenever I say property lines I mean fence lines. So this section of field, there’s no more fence there. There’s no grass there. There’s no more farmland of any kind, it’s rockbed now in many of the areas I was in.”

That is why he along with Norton and other businesses are focusing relief efforts on getting supplies directly to farmers in four rural communities.

These are Elizabethton and Roan Mountain in Northeastern Tennessee, along with Elk Park and Cranberry across the state line in Northwestern North Carolina.

These supplies will be brought into a warehouse in Elizabethton, and then directly delivered to farmers in those communities.

The Cleveland Southeastern Farmers Co-Op is one of several businesses who have partnered to help take donations by allowing customers to directly donate animal feed among other supplies purchased at their store.

Ashley Gravitt, the manager of that store, said, “We like to help whenever we can because we are for the farmers and the community, so anytime we can reach out and help the community, we really like to do that.”

The goal of this initiative is to send at least two tractor-trailers up to Northeastern Tennessee to help out farmers in need, but organizers hope it can be way more.

Dean says, “We’re not asking any one individual to fill up a tractor trailer. We’re not asking any one company or small business to fill it. We are asking them to help fill it.”

Norton, who is a farmer himself, says helping organize this is the least he can do.

He said, “When you look at a farmer that has been there for years and years and he’s been working all summer putting up crops and getting his cattle or horses ready for the winter, and all of a sudden he has nothing left, that should tug on people’s heartstrings.”

Donations will be taken at the Southeastern Farmers Co-Op locations in Cleveland and Pikeville starting tomorrow.

The Cleveland location will take them through Thursday and the Pikeville location will take them through Friday.

Additionally, Cleveland Tractor Supply will take donations on Thursday and Friday.

At any of these locations, you can purchase animal feed or other supplies to go to this relief effort, or give a monetary donation that will go to supplies.

To learn more about the Woof and Hoof Initiative, contact Bartlee Norton at 423-618-2846, or at bartlee.norton@gmail.com.