Farm Fresh Fast addresses closures after Hurricane Helene losses, insurance denial

Reform Insurance Now SC recently joined former employees, local farmers and community leaders to outline how Farm Fresh Fast, a farm-to-table restaurant with locations in Greenville and Simpsonville, was forced to close after Hurricane Helene and a rapid denial of its commercial insurance claim.

Farm Fresh Fast opened its original Greenville location on South Church Street in 2017 and expanded to downtown Simpsonville in 2022. After years of serving fresh, locally sourced food, the Greenville location closed in July 2025, while the Simpsonville site continued operating to keep the business afloat. The Simpsonville restaurant also closed on November 17.

According to owner Jonathan Willis, Hurricane Helene caused a power outage and extensive losses, including $40,000 in spoiled food. Willis filed a commercial insurance claim, but the insurer issued a six-page denial letter within three days, while the region was still experiencing widespread outages. The denial stated the business did not carry a specific endorsement for food spoilage from a power outage, despite operating as a restaurant whose core asset is perishable inventory.

Farm Fresh Fast has filed a bad-faith lawsuit alleging the insurer unreasonably denied a legitimate claim and failed to properly investigate the loss.

“We paid our premiums. We provided everything they asked for. And in three days, we got a long denial letter claiming our policy didn’t cover food loss — for a restaurant,” Willis said during the briefing. “Something is very wrong with that.”

The closures have resulted in lost jobs, lost income for employees and lost business for local farmers who supplied the restaurant.

Reform Insurance Now SC said the case points to a broader breakdown that leaves small businesses vulnerable.

“No restaurant should discover after a hurricane that its insurance policy doesn’t actually cover its food,” said Beth Baxa of Reform Insurance Now SC. “Whether the failure occurred when the policy was sold, written or reviewed, the result was the same: this business was left unprotected when it needed help most.”

The organization said the situation reveals longstanding transparency issues in commercial insurance, where small businesses often purchase policies believing they cover basic risks of their industry, only to learn after a disaster that exclusions remove that protection. Reform Insurance Now SC is calling for clearer, more upfront disclosure of what is and isn’t included in commercial coverage.