Swannanoa’s post-Helene wishlist: FEMA buyouts, accessible food and affordable new homes ...Middle East

Mobile homes line the riverbank in Swannanoa, North Carolina on Oct. 7, 2025. (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline)

This is one of multiple stories published by NC Newsline around the first anniversary of Hurricane Helene, documenting communities recovering in western North Carolina. Read the previous stories here and here.

SWANNANOA — For two Saturdays a month, residents of Swannanoa have the chance to shop for fresh produce.

The farmer’s market kicked off earlier this year, a new effort from a local nonprofit that cropped up after Hurricane Helene’s floods devastated the community.

Ingles off Highway 70, the town’s only nearby grocery store, is closed indefinitely due to storm damage. For those with cars, the easiest option is a drive up the road to Black Mountain. For those without, it requires a lengthy bus trip.

The bi-monthly market is the latest effort from advocates to fill the gaps, along with Bounty & Soul, a nearby nonprofit long focused on food insecurity. But try as they might, there’s no replicating a full grocery storefront.

“It’s not putting a dent in the system, really,” said Sierra Cranford, the creative director of Swannanoa Resilience Hub and manager of the market. “It’s just what we can do right now.”

The incorporated community, a 15-minute drive east of Asheville, was one of the areas hit hardest by Helene. The Swannanoa River’s surging currents washed away storefronts and homes alike. Debris and damaged homes still dot the riverbank cutting through town.

Lacking access to groceries looms large, particularly for those who live in low-income housing and don’t have cars. But it’s far from the only pressing concern in Swannanoa.

Housing in the community has been upended. Countless affordable homes and rentals were destroyed, and most of the remaining properties are more expensive than residents can afford. And a key FEMA buyout program’s slow rollout has left homeowners impatiently waiting, one year later; the state has more than 300 such applications pending before FEMA.

“We have community members … stuck in a situation where they’re paying a mortgage on a house they can’t live in, and paying rent somewhere to live,” said Tonia Allen, executive director for the Swannanoa Resilience Hub. “That’s untenable. These folks are having to access financial assistance repeatedly, because they can’t cover both.”

Swannanoa lacks “large tracts of buildable land,” Allen said, and the priority remains rebuilding owned homes. But rentals are key, she said, in a town that serves in part as “workforce housing for Asheville.” Tenants, displaced into higher-cost apartments, are forced to find aid to pay for them. And some landlords who owned affordable properties locally don’t have the capital to rebuild themselves, she said.

“A lot of people, maybe they inherited this rental,” Allen said. “And they’re living pretty close to the edge.”

Rebuilding downtown Swannanoa: Blunt Pretzels’ efforts to feed locals & a new grocery store

One storefront in Swannanoa’s Beacon Village has become a refuge for the hungry — Blunt Pretzels.

The German soft pretzel spot began handing out free meals after the storm, in tandem with World Central Kitchen. At its peak last October, they were feeding about 2,000 a day. The store established its own nonprofit, Blunt Kitchen.

Over the months, as more locals regained power, water and work, the rush at mealtimes slowed down. Now, in the coming weeks, Blunt Kitchen will instead start creating pre-made meals — ”high-end TV dinners,” volunteer chef Christopher Smith calls them — with the intent to keep feeding those in need without such a logistical burden.

Smith has high hopes for the future, too. He wants the community to know Blunt as the go-to spot in times of need and disaster. They’re setting up a high-powered food truck that’s “ready to feed people on no notice” — equipped with an independent water source and its own power source.

“Next time the s— hits the fan, people will know, okay, Blunt Kitchen,” Smith said. “They’ve got water, they’ve got food. I can connect with my people.”

And Smith wants to teach people how to better ride out the next storm: how to cook with alternative food sources, how to keep things sanitary when water’s not available.

“Do little clinics to set people up for next time,” he said.

Soon, there will be another spot in Beacon Village for produce and food. Two doors down from Blunt Pretzels, an empty storefront is undergoing total renovation. When it’s complete, it’ll be a small grocery store: Rite Buy Grocery, owned by local couple Diana & Justin Rhodes.

“With our major grocery chain closed, it just became really obvious to me that we need more options in the Valley,” Diana Rhodes told Black Mountain News in August.

The store is planning a soft open by the end of the year.

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