Today, more than 3,600 families in Venango County, Pa., received free dairy products thanks to Venango County Dairy Maid Kaylee Knapp who partnered with American Dairy Association North East and the United Way of Venango County to take advantage of government grants to get immediate food assistance to her community.
ADA North East plays a vital role in bringing together milk processors and food banks to ensure families have access to nutritious milk and dairy foods as schools and childcare centers are closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We help these groups navigate their way through the distribution process to maximize the benefits of government programs for their communities,” said ADA North East CEO Rick Naczi. “We are fortunate to have young dairy promoters like Kaylee who are passionate about the dairy industry and about helping get nutritious foods in the hands of her neighbors in need.”
“I wanted to organize the milk drive to help our local dairy farmers who have had to decrease their milk production or dispose of milk,” said Kaylee. “I also wanted to help the people in our county who have lost their jobs and are struggling financially too.”
Two additional milk drives are scheduled in Venango County in the coming weeks.
Funding was made available to purchase the products through USDA’s Coronavirus Federal Assistance Program (CFAP). Each dairy package included a gallon of milk, a half-gallon of chocolate milk, a quart of buttermilk, two pounds of butter, a pint of cream cheese and 24-ounces of cottage cheese provided by Marburger Dairy of Evans City, Pa.
In addition to CFAP, ADA North East is working to assist milk distribution efforts through Nourish New York programs, a state-wide effort in New York to provide emergency funding to food banks and to support dairy industry efforts to get milk to the food banks during the crisis. More than 26,000 gallons of milk are scheduled to be distributed through next week through these avenues.
For more information about dairy checkoff programs, call 315.472.9143..
About American Dairy Association North East
American Dairy Association North East (ADA North East) is the dairy farmer-funded organization funded by participating dairy farmer’s checkoff investment to build demand and sales for milk and dairy foods throughout the local region. Representing more than 10,000 dairy farm families in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and northern Virginia, ADA North East develops and implements local programs to drive milk and dairy sales at retail outlets and in schools. The organization also conducts consumer education about dairy through events, traditional and social media, and in collaboration with health professionals through National Dairy Council®. ADA North East works closely with Dairy Management Inc.™, the national dairy checkoff organization, to support nutrition research, national partnerships and developing export markets for dairy to bring a fully integrated promotion program to the region. For more information, visit www.AmericanDairy.com, or call 315.472.9143.
