We have studied the spin-wave stiffness of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya helimagnet FeGe in a temperature range from 225 K up to TC≈278.7K by small-angle neutron scattering. The method we have used is based on [Grigoriev, Phys. Rev. B 92, 220415(R) (2015)PRBMDO1098-012110.1103/PhysRevB.92.220415] and was extended here for the application in polycrystalline samples. We confirm the validity of the anisotropic spin-wave dispersion for FeGe caused by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. We have shown that the spin-wave stiffness A for the FeGe helimagnet decreases with a temperature as A(T)=194[1-0.7(T/TC)4.2]meVÅ2. The finite value of the spin-wave stiffness A=58meVÅ2 at TC classifies the order-disorder phase transition in FeGe as being the first-order one.