Support Dough House's Recovery from Hurricane Helene

Dough House, a vegan, queer-owned and operated donut shop in Black Mountain (20 minutes east of Asheville, NC), needs to raise funds to recover from Hurricane Helene. We have been in business for 3 years and hope for many more. We are also the only 100% vegan restaurant in Black Mountain.

Let me start by saying we are very fortunate that the business and our homes were untouched by the flood. Many of our friends and neighbors were not so lucky. In Western North Carolina, and especially within just a few miles of our shop, countless homes and businesses were washed away entirely. Instead of admiring our breathtaking views, our focus is drawn to the omnipresent piles of debris along the side of the roads. Many areas are still inaccessible due to washed-out roads or toxic mud. It’s rough here right now and will be for many more weeks or months to come.

Like almost every other business in WNC, we rely on tourist traffic to keep our lights on. While the region is well-traveled in the Spring and Summer, it is the Autumn that makes or breaks our year.

Because of the month-long utility outages caused by Helene, we lost out on the most important month for our continued survival - October. And now, with access to safe water still incredibly limited, we have seen a dramatic drop in business since we reopened 3 weeks ago while also having to purchase water to continue operating. This all happened with two months left before we renew our lease, and right as we are onboarding a couple of fellow locals to help us run and expand Dough House.

It is a major point of pride that Dough House has gone three years without accruing debt or needing outside investment dollars to run, even in the face of several major equipment breakdowns within the last year and an ever-increasing cost of living and materials.

No one enjoys asking for help, especially with such a record of self-sufficiency, but now we must ask. We are seeking $20,000 to recover our lost revenue from October and the revenue we are currently missing out on during this prolonged period of recovery. This money will settle up all of our bills from the last month and a half, allow us to run full payroll (and maybe even pay out wages lost from October), and give us a sure footing on which to start our 4th year in business (which is going to be all kinds of exciting for all of our customers, but especially our gluten-free fans).

Any amount you are able to give, or awareness you can spread, will help us tremendously. We want to find a way to more appropriately express our gratitude for this in the near future, but for now, we can only hope that our sincere thanks is enough.

Love and fried carbs,

The weirdos at Dough House ✨