CONWAY — Just a few weeks after losing its main field to the South River’s floodwaters, Natural Roots has reached its initial $85,000 GoFundMe goal through hundreds of community donations.

As of Wednesday, the farm had raised more than $87,000 to recoup some of its produce losses and property damage, although the farm is still waiting on estimates for riverbank stabilization costs. During this time, the farm will be keeping the GoFundMe open for further donations.

Natural Roots founder David Fisher, who operates the community-supported agriculture (CSA) farm on land rented from South River Miso Co., said he and his partner Maggie Toran are “really grateful” for the support from people across the Pioneer Valley.

“The support we’ve gotten has been huge,” Fisher said prior to U.S. Sen. Ed Markey’s visit to survey flood damage. “It’s incredible.”

As heavy rains pounded Conway throughout July, the South River flooded Natural Roots’ main field and wiped out 95% of its crops, which means the more than 200 families participating in their CSA will likely get little or no produce from their farm shares.

Fisher and his team wrote on GoFundMe that they are still waiting on a couple other factors before determining a final price tag, including long-term reinforcement and stabilization of the riverbank and unknown impacts on their other sources of income.

“While we know there will be no income from wholesale, retail and winter share sign-ups, how the rest of the year will play out in our farm store is still a big unknown,” an update on the GoFundMe reads. “We also depend on CSA renewals for the coming year, so when that time comes, we hope our members will come back next year and will continue to invest in us, despite the unfortunate circumstances this year has brought with it.”

During Markey’s visit on Wednesday afternoon, Fisher shared a similar sentiment regarding the community’s dedication with the state and federal government representatives in attendance. He said they’ve been farming for more than two decades in Conway and plan to continue doing so, if their dreams aren’t washed away by climate change.

“We’ve been here for 26 years and we have been feeding hundreds of families year in and year out,” Fisher said. “The farm is thriving when we’re not getting washed away by climate disaster.”

Natural Roots’ GoFundMe can be viewed at gofundme.com/f/natural-roots-flood-relief.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.

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