N.C. Department of Ag to send relief checks to farmers

Hastings

After almost a year since Hurricane Helene devastated North Carolina farmers, relief from Raleigh is on its way.

N.C. House Rep. Kelly Hastings, District 110, which comprises mostly Upper Cleveland and Western Gaston County, stated in a social media post on Friday that The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (NCDACS) is expected to send the first round of relief checks for farmers starting the week of Aug. 25.

The funds are part of Hurricane Helene relief that devastated Western North Carolina last September.

Hastings mentioned in his statement that NCDACS is currently running three State funded programs to provide crop and infrastructure loss relief to farmers.

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Hastings also provided some viable information regarding funding for not only Hurricane Helene relief but other crop relief for 2024 unrelated to the storm.

It stated, in part, DACS was appropriated $200 million for Hurricane Helene related crop losses in S.L. 2025-2 (Sec. 2D.1), which was signed into law on March 19th, 2025. In the same session law, DACS was appropriated another $100 million for crop losses in the 2024 Crop Year which were unrelated to Hurricane Helene. In S.L. 2025-89 (Sec. 1.3), DACS was appropriated an additional $142 million for any disaster in 2024 inclusive of Hurricane Helene losses. In total, the agency is charged with distributing $442 million in crop loss relief funds to NC farmers.

He added, “This sum is the largest crop loss funding pot the Department has been charged with managing; the last crop loss program of comparable size was for Hurricane Florence in 2018 at $240 million.”

He also noted that DACS had completed collecting all crop and infrastructure loss applications and is “wrapping up with reviewing and validating these applicants.”

Eligible applicants will receive monetary support from the NCDACS.

Hasting explained in his social media post, the relief amounts will vary depending on several factors.

“The size of each check will depend on their individual level of loss as well as the overall level of demand for the programs,” he said. “The validation process involves working with the USDA on verifiable county level losses as well as a third-party contractor to verify Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TINs).”

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Hastings concluded his statement with statistical data, which included the total number of farmers who have applied for these programs is 7,576. Of that number, Hurricane Helene related applicants numbered 1,145.

Hasting concluded, mentioning 500 of those applicants included infrastructure losses, with Non-Hurricane Helene related applicants totaling 6,431.

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Chuck Thompson is a reporter for The Shelby Independent.