SWANNANOA, N.C. — Buncombe County residents are rallying at several benefit concerts this month to support a college damaged by Hurricane Helene. 

Founded in 1894, Warren Wilson College is a private liberal arts institution known for its student-run farm. 

The farm is commonly referred to as the heart and soul of the college.

Jason DeCristofaro, director of creative arts and events at the school, says the farm serves not only as a classroom environment, but a resource for the Buncombe County community. 

"This is a fully operational, working farm," DeCristofaro said. "Under supervision, students are working the land every day."

The farm has been instrumental with providing food to partners and organizations to ensure families are fed. 

"As a campus community, we use a percentage of the food [here], but we also give a lot of that food to organizations in the community to provide relief for people who are dealing with hunger and food insecurity," DeCristofaro said. 

But the farm has hit a major roadblock — several buildings on campus were damaged by Helene.

DeCristofaro says the part that was most affected was the farm. 

"The biggest [loss] is the soil," DeCristofaro said. "There's a long road to recovery. Being right on the floodplain of the Swannanoa River, the farm really bore the brunt of much of the damage of the flooding."

"In a weird way, the farm taking that hit prevented further damage from happening," he said. "But as a result, the soil was impacted."

"Our gardening crew, which grows a lot of food on campus, are not able to grow anything at the moment," DeCristofaro said. "As a campus that prides itself on being self-functioning, that's been a tremendous loss for us. It's something that can recover, but it's a long road to recovery."

After seeing the destruction, DeCristofaro began organizing benefit concerts to help the college restore the grounds. 

"For the month of November, there are nine benefit concerts I produced along with students who work to help produce the concerts," he said. "I've been very fortunate [for] venues in the community who have donated their space for these concerts to happen."

"We've already done three concerts. These are mostly in the Asheville area, though we have concerts going out as far as Athens, Georgia," DeCristofaro said. "The idea is to reach as many people, let people know this is our situation."

The benefit concerts come at no cost to attendees, but any donations will be used to help get the farm up and running again. 

"One of the things people have asked me is where is this money going," he said. "There's a lot of recovery efforts here on the farm. There's obviously short-term things in terms of equipment, buildings, vehicles that were damaged, but there's also the long-term work of recovering the soil and getting to where it's a viable and fertile ground where we can start growing again."

"This is something that's going to take a great deal of money, time and a lot of human resources," DeCristofaro said. "Every dollar that you're donating at these concerts goes directly to those causes."

Lily Fidler is a senior at Warren Wilson, serving as the student shepherd on the farm. 

Fidler says the farm has been preparing her for livestock farming careers. 

She says many students depend on the farm and is hopeful about it soon being restored.

"This place has changed my life and so many of my peers' life," Fidler said. "Without it, we wouldn't be where we are today."

"There's a spirit of resilience, there's a spirit of community here on campus with the students, staff and faculty," DeCristofaro said. 

Two concerts taking place this weekend are:

• Save the Land: Benefit Concert for the Warren Wilson College Farm, Nov. 16, at 7 p.m. at the Asheville Music Hall 
• Restore the Farm: Benefit Concert for the WWC Farm, Nov. 17 at 3 p.m. at Groce United Methodist Church

Anyone unable to attend the concerts can donate to the farm cause at the Warren Wilson Make a Gift page.