FAIRVIEW, N.C. — Groups and coalitions were created to help address the needs born out of the destruction caused by Helene.

What You Need To Know

  • The Garren Creek Foundation was formed in the days and weeks after Helene

  • Julie Moller is the president of the nonprofit

  • The group collects clothing, heating supplies and accepts food donations

One is a nonprofit organization called The Garren Creek Foundation, which is banding together in an extended time of need.

On a cold wintry night in December, volunteers packed into the Nesbitt Chapel Community Center located in the Garren Creek section of Fairview.

There’s abundant fellowship, conversation, good food and Christmas carols.

Julie Moller said these are volunteers from the Garren Creek Foundation, a group formed out of necessity after Helene.

“I'm here. We're in a media blackout. We didn't have service. We were all in survival mode, so we didn't know that we were in a devastated area. We thought all of western North Carolina was like this,” Moller said.

Moller would learn like so many others how hard the Fairview community had been hit.

Shut off from the outside world, Moller said they had no idea their community’s devastation was especially bad. 

So she chose to do something about it.

“We tried to set this up as much like a grocery store as we could because we want to encourage people to come and shop,” Moller said.

Moller, the Garren Creek Foundation president, called it a food pantry without barriers. Some meals are prepared when people arrive, and others are made hot off the stove. There were also shelves of clothing without prices.

Moller said food insecurity was an issue long before Helene’s wrath.

“Now we have it, and we just want to keep providing these services to our community,” Moller said.

Word of mouth about the needs became the mechanism for the delivery of supplies they so desperately needed.

Moller said when their efforts kicked into overdrive, word traveled around the area and onto social media.

“People would just message me, say, 'hey, I got your phone number from so-and-so. Hey, I saw this on Facebook, so I'm messaging you, how can I help?' And it really just has spiraled from a word-of-mouth situation,” Moller said.

A groundswell of help poured in. Some in-state and some out of state. All of it comes from donations. 

“We’re just trying to rebuild people’s lives,” Moller said. “The exponential growth that has happened in this, in three months, is astronomical. It went from literally a cooler full of water to people bringing truckloads of supplies for us from Maryland and New York.”

Not all news is happy. January 15 was their last day to use the borrowed space for operations.

The building, the Nesbitt Chapel Community Center, belonged to the Nesbitt’s Chapel Church down the road.

But taking back the building couldn’t take away the comradery built over time.

“Then eventually we realized that the sense of community that happens when people gather for a meal, it's really important for just our own emotional healing journey from this,” Moller said.

An emotional journey they are riding together.

“Honestly, a lot of times. It's just brings me to tears,” Moller said.

The foundation continues to collect clothing and heating supplies. Food donations are welcome, too.

Moller confirmed the foundation is working to renovate a new building near the old one but will not move into the space for a few months.

A neighbor is letting Moller’s foundation store previously donated goods at their property.

She welcomes monetary donations and for people to follow their Facebook page for updates on the progress made for their new location.