Dairy farmers are partnering with local food pantries as they look to help each other out through a supply management program created as a result of the pandemic.
After reaching out to the USDA for a $500,000 purchase of the product backlog at the food processing companies, farmers and Midwest Dairy were approved for the grant waiver.
The Executive Director of the Nebraska State Dairy Association said Midwest Dairy then began distributing food to pantries but quickly learned most do not have refrigeration.
This led to the Alliance for the Future of Agriculture in Nebraska to create a grant opportunity for food pantries to purchase their own refrigerators or freezers.
“So, there’s definitely a need out there for us to help out our food pantries and it really was exacerbated in this time frame where the farmers were trying to find a home for their product and common sense would be to give it to people who need it,” said Executive Director of the Nebraska State Dairy Association Kris Bousquet.
The Hastings Food Pantry was one of 40 out of a total of 110 requests who received a $4,000 grant as a part of the supply management program after receiving a call from AFAN.
“At the same time, we had been looking for a way to replace them because everything we had was things that had been in somebody’s basement or garage and then donated to us and we were repairing a lot of our stuff. So when this call came in it was just at the right time,” said Hastings Food Pantry Board President Don Gronemeyer.
Gronemeyer said their new equipment is more efficient and allows them to store more food to give out to clients.
Source: nebraska.tv
