A $25,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission, along with matches from SEEC and Carver Industries, could be the first step in bringing local milk back to Schoharie County.
The funding—all together $55,600—will be used to put together a feasibility plan for a local food processing facility.
It’s one of two SEEC-led grants announced Wednesday; the Town of Jefferson was awarded a $300,000 Community Development Block Grant to look at traffic near the school. (See related story.)
Representatives from SEEC, Southern Tier 8, which help with the grant application; the Schoharie County Board of Supervisors, and others gathered Wednesday at Ann and Tim Diefendorf’s Highland Meadow dairy farm in Seward to talk about local food processing efforts and how the ARC money will be leveraged.
With their son, Randy, the Diefendorfs milk about 55 cows on the farm they run with Mr. Diefendorf’s parents, John and Barbara.
Their milk is shipped to Rensselaer County and Ms. Diefendorf has been working for years with Carver Company’s Duane Spaulding to find a way to process and even bottle it locally.
It’s an idea that could be expanded to other agricultural products, said SEEC Executive Director Julie Pacatte—like ideas being developed with help from SUNY Cobleskill.
Much of the credit for idea and the grant application’s success went to Mr. Spaulding, who brought Carver onboard and has been doing just about everything he can to grow farming locally.
“It just doesn’t make sense today to bring our food in from somewhere else,” Mr. Spaulding said. “It makes us too vulnerable—something COVID should have shown us. Especially when we have so much in out own backyard.”
Jen Gregory, executive director for Southern Tier 8, said she sees the Regional Independent Food Processing Feasibility Study as something other upstate New York counties could also take advantage of—and she encouraged the SEEC partners to seek additional ARC funding as their efforts move ahead.
In addition to the ARC grant, Carver and SEEC are both providing $10,000 plus in-kind participation of $10,600.