Spirits were high Friday at the last Dairy Drive-Thru organized by Cornell Cooperative Extension, Barney and Hoffman’s dairies and members of the 4-H Project Clover Aid during this round of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Lynn Bliven, agricultural issues leader for the county’s office of Cornell Cooperative Extension explained why Wellsville’s was the last drive through.
“Changes in the weather, not as much to give away, and there are more places giving out food,” she said. “The governor’s Nourish New York is a statewide program and they are now providing fruit, vegetables and other fresh produce. There are also more food pantries open.”
Should there be a second wave of the coronavirus in the late summer or fall, Bliven said she wasn’t sure if the dairy drive-throughs would return because alternate programs are in place and should be able to quickly reorganize.
While 350 gallons of milk were given away along with bags of cottage cheese, sour cream, and yogurt Friday, totally the four drive-throughs have given away 1,100 gallons milk, Bliven calculated.
The idea of the Dairy Drive-Throughs came from Kelly Barney of Barney Farms which early in the NY On Pause order was forced to dump milk as markets dried up. Farmers are prohibited from selling raw milk at their farms unless they have official permits.
“My hoof trimmer told me they had organized dairy drive-throughs in Tioga County. It seemed like a win, win for everyone, so we decided to do it here,” she said.
While cars lined both sides of the street at the three previous drive-throughs in Whitesville and Friendship, in Wellsville cars stretched from the central campus of the elementary school down west School Street to Williams Avenue, the north end of Williams Avenue to midway down Rauber Street. Vehicles lined up from the arterial kept trying to jump the line. Some did, some got the message that people had already been waiting in line for over 30 minutes, and they could go to the end of the line.
At this drive through organizers were joined by volunteers from Hoffman Family Farms from Shinglehouse, Pa.
“People have been very appreciative of the dairy products. People have even called the barn, I don’t know how they got the barn number, but they’ve called the barn to say thank you. We’ve been able to give the products left over from the drives to the needy and shut-ins and they’re overfilled with joy to think that someone cares and remembered them,” Barney said.
As the need to provide dairy products to the community lessens, Lisa Reynolds, STEM and Ag. Education leader said the focus of their efforts will now turn to the farmers themselves.
“As the weather changes and the farmers are getting busy plowing and planting it is difficult for them to get out and purchase products, so we’re going to start providing food boxes to them. We’ll be delivering the boxes directly to them. It is like a little love note, letting them know how much we appreciate them and what they do.”
She added that any donations made to the Dairy Drive-Through will be used to help the farmers.
To donate to the farmers, make out a check payable to CCE-Allegany. Write, “Dairy Drive” on memo line and mail it to: CCE Allegany County, 5435A County Road 48, Belmont, N.Y., 14813.
One hundred percent of all monetary donations will go back into the drive to provide products for distribution to local farms.
Source: wellsvilledaily.com
