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Glynwood Harvest Farmer
Award
Sam and
Denise Hendren, Clover Mead Farm
Keeseville (Essex County), New York
Glynwood Harvest Good Neighbor Award
Brad Matthews and Paul Wigsten
The Culinary Institute of America
Hyde Park, New York
Glynwood Harvest Award for Working at the
Intersection of Health and Local Food
Kaiser Permanente Comprehensive Food Policy
Lynn Garske, Environmental Stewardship Manager
Jan Sanders, National Nutritional Services Director
Oakland, California
Glynwood Harvest Connecting Communities,
Farmers and Food Award
New Entry Sustainable Farming Project
Hugh Joseph, Director
Glynwood Harvest Award for The Wave of the Future
The Strolling of the
Heifers
Orly Munzing, Executive Director
Brattleboro, Vermont
Glynwood Harvest Farmer Award
Awarded to a farmer who has developed a sustainable
farming operation and effective relationships within his or her home
community and other communities where the food is consumed.
Sam and
Denise Hendren, Clover Mead Farm
Keeseville (Essex County), New York
Sam and Denise Hendren have created a highly
successful grass-based dairy and artisan cheese-making business
while being leaders in the effort to strengthen the farming
community in the Adirondacks. They provide a superb example of the
ways in which innovative farmers contribute to the economic strength
of their community, protect its traditional character, and enhance
its environmental quality and general quality of life.
When Sam and Denise Hendren first bought the
old “Signor Farm” property in 1997, they had a herd of forty cows
and sold the milk for use in Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. When Sam
injured his back in a fall from the haymow, they were forced to
rethink their business. Out of this small tragedy, the idea for a
small scale artisan cheese making operation evolved. They spent the
next several years learning to make cheese, building their creamery,
acquiring their new herd and gaining organic certification. They
began actively making and selling cheese in 2002.
The Hendrens now milk eight to twelve Jersey
cows between May and December. The shorter milking season takes
advantage of the pasture season and the nutritional values
associated with milk from cows on fresh pasture. It also allows the
Hendrens to have some down time (relatively speaking) in the winter.
The cows produce about 108,000 pounds of milk during this period,
which translates into about 10,000 pounds of cheese. Even so, their
cheese is so highly regarded that they cannot meet the demand.
Through smart investing, planning, and quality
production, the Hendren’s farm has become profitable at a time when
most dairies are struggling to make ends meet.
According to the Cooperative Extension, “It is
a goal of Essex County to have a home town creamery in each
Champlain Valley town. Sam is the role model upon which we are
building.” In the words of a local official: “There are so few
businesses allowed in the Adirondacks that we want to see every farm
protected. Many of our farmers own small acreages, 100 acres of
tillable land, with old short tie stalls. If they raised Jerseys,
put them on rotational grazing, milked them seasonally and fed them
as Sam prescribes, we could have a local cheese economy that
supported the small farmers with a reasonable life style. This is a
repeatable model.”
In addition to being skilled entrepreneurs and
cheese makers, the Hendrens have played a major role in raising
awareness about the importance of locally grown food and local
agricultural issues, as well as new marketing initiatives that have
brought more local food to consumers in the region.
The Hendrens initiated, designed, and
implemented the Adirondack Delivery Pool, which markets and delivers
a variety of local farm products to restaurants and other food
buyers. Sam has helped to create and nurture the Adirondack Harvest
initiative, which encourages production and consumption of local
food, and has been instrumental in organizing and running two
successful Farmers’ Markets, which are the only “producer only”
farmers markets in the area. He started the markets to prove that
local growers of vegetables and local producers of other foods could
provide a foundation for a successful market. The markets not only
have succeeded, but the Lake Placid market is now the biggest and
most successful in the county. Additionally, the “producer
only” concept has helped jump start several new growers who would
have had a difficult time at markets that allowed the sale of
discount commercial produce from other areas.
A key player in New York’s fledgling artisan
cheese making industry, Sam helped found the New York State Artisan
Cheese Maker’s Guild [www.nycheese.org]. He has also been a board
member for the Essex County Farm Bureau and Cornell Cooperative
Extension for Essex County because he believes in “engaging the
people you disagree with.”
Sam and Denise have been instrumental in
revitalizing the Ausable Valley Grange, which has once again become
a true community center and which initiated the Champlain Valley
Foodshed Coalition, the primary vehicle in the area for talking
about unconventional and innovative farming practices and a range of
other rural issues. [see
www.avgrange.org]
Sam encourages other farmers to consider
artisan cheese making as a profitable and “sane” alternative” to
wholesale, fluid milk sales. Sam has mentored several farmers
interested in organic production techniques and works with several
interns who plan to have their own farms some day. The Hendrens
hope to create a cheese making cooperative with some of their
neighbors.
The Hendrens also take good care of the land.
In 2006 they received the CHAMP award for helping to protect the
water quality in Lake Champlain by reducing farm run-off.
Keeseville, New York, is directly across from
Burlington, Vermont; the Champlain ferry dock is just two miles down
the road. Although Clover Mead Farm is within the Adirondack Park,
significant development is allowed in this zone and property values
are high. The Hendrens are now working through the process of
selling a conservation easement that would restrict development on
the 112 acre farm.
The Hendrens were nominated by the Executive
Director of Adirondack Architectural Heritage, who concluded that:
“Quite simply, they have made this region a better and more exciting
place to live and have set an important example of how small scale
niche farming can succeed in the North Country.”
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Glynwood Harvest Good Neighbor Award
Awarded to an individual or organization that
has supported regional agriculture in innovative ways, which might
include but are not limited to public education, new connections
between farmers and urban consumers, or developing financial
techniques to support new farmers or farmers who transition to new
products.
Brad Matthews and Paul Wigsten
The Culinary Institute of America
Hyde Park, New York
Brad Matthews, Director of Purchasing, and
Paul Wigsten, Buyer/Purchasing Agent, have created connections
between regional farmers and the world’s
premier culinary college that resulted in almost $400,000 in
purchases from regional farmers in 2005. They also have helped
teach other institutions how to effectively source local foods and
are dedicated to teaching young chefs the pleasures and logistics of
using fresh, local ingredients.
The Culinary Institute of America is the
world’s premier culinary college.
More than 1,300 chefs complete their
training at the CIA each year and thousands of individuals take
continuing education classes. The professionals and others who
spend time in the college’s 41 kitchens and bakeshops form a network
of opinion leaders, purchasers and consumers with tremendous
potential to impact the way Americans think about food and use their
food dollars.
Over the past several years, the CIA has
dramatically expanded its support for regional farmers. Brad
Matthews, Director of Purchasing, began the program with two or
three farms more than a decade ago. Paul Wigsten, a fourth-generaion
Hudson Valley farmer himself, began his relationship with the CIA
when he first brought a sample box of fresh produce from his
Dutchess County farm to Matthews in 1993. Over the years, Matthews
had worked with the local growers to help them understand what it
took to sell their crops to organizations and businesses which buy
in large quantity, consistency in pack and specification, etc. In
working with Wigsten’s farm, it was clear that Paul understood both
what types of produce would appeal to chefs and how to package his
crops to make it easier for businesses to purchase directly from his
farm. Matthews was impressed with Paul’s product and product
knowledge and offered Paul a full-time position as Produce Buyer.
In Wigsten’s view, one of the challenges of the
CIA’s local buying program was educating farmers as to the quality
and quantity of produce that the college’s kitchens require. The
college visits each farm to review and preview the college’s needs
and holds special meetings on campus during the winter at which
chefs and farmers discuss the items the chefs would like to feature
on their menus over the next growing season. Working with the
chefs, many farms have begun to plant certain crops based solely on
the CIA’s needs. In addition to the CIA’s guaranteed market for
these products, the farmers have been able to find additional
markets for custom-grown crops.
These CIA initiatives – spearheaded by Mr.
Matthews and Mr. Wigsten – put $373,000 directly into the hands of
20 Hudson Valley farmers in 2005. In summer and fall that
represents 40 percent of the food procured by the CIA and
off-season, some of the products purchased included 780,000 eggs,
34,000 pounds of mushrooms, 17,000 pounds of tomatoes and 6,800
pounds of greens.
The CIA also operates four restaurants,
including the Culinary Institute of America’s American Bounty, its
flagship restaurant serving regional American cuisine. The American
Bounty’s chef-instructor, Anita Olivarez Eisenhauer, has also
refocused the emphasis on looking at local suppliers and the
freshest ingredients. On announcing the restaurant’s new menu in
celebration of the 35th Anniversary of Earth Day in 2005,
Chef Eisenhauer said that “Sourcing local ingredients whenever
possible is an important part of protecting our environment,
supporting local farmers, and maintaining a diverse and vibrant
regional economy.” Since working in the American Bounty kitchen is
the last course for many of the CIA’s graduating chefs, the
importance of this emphasis cannot be overestimated.
In addition, the CIA – in conjunction with the
Council for Independent Colleges and Universites (CICU), and the
office of New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton - has begun
sharing the success of its unique program with other private
colleges and universities in New York State through the
“Farm-to-Fork” initiative. The goal of this program is to work
toward convincing institutions of higher education about the value
of supporting local farmers. The CIA hosted the first Farm-to-Fork
conference at its Hyde Park campus in April 2006 and more than 30
colleges and universities joined to learn more about how they can
support New York State agriculture through their purchasing
decisions. Awareness of the initiative is growing and the idea is
gaining support statewide. Regional Farm-to-Fork meetings are
planned for fall 2006.
Thanks to the efforts of both Paul Wigsten
and Brad Matthews, students at the CIA – as well as those at other
private, independent colleges and universities across the state –
are being exposed to higher quality fresh produce on their menus and
the State’s agricultural economy is being bolstered through the
institutions’ support.
The efforts of Chef Brad Matthews and Paul Wigsten have reached out to and impacted local farmers, budding
chefs, restaurant goers, and other college and universities campuses
not just in the Hudson Valley and New York, but around the country.
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Glynwood Harvest Award for Working at the
Intersection of Health and Local Food
Awarded to an individual or organization that
has created ways to use local food to improve the health of children,
patients or others.
Kaiser Permanente Comprehensive Food Policy
Lynn Garske, Environmental Stewardship Manager
Jan Sanders, National Nutritional Services Director
Oakland, California
Kaiser Permanente, the largest nonprofit health
plan in the United States, has recognized that “Promoting the
consumption of locally grown seasonal food fits well with the
mission of health care.”
It has taken the lead in the health care industry by undertaking a
multi-year strategy for increasing access to healthier food for
patients, employees and visitors at its facilities and for residents
of communities it serves.
Kaiser Permanente is one of America’s leading
integrated health care organizations, serving almost eight and
one-half million members in eight states and the District of
Columbia. KP has a strong focus on preventive medicine and
environmental stewardship. It is becoming a model for the health
care industry by increasing access to fresh, healthy food at its
facilities – from snacks to the cafeteria, patient meals and
farmers’ markets. It is implementing a multi-year plan to “Promote
human health through the promotion of healthy food choices and the
creation of a healthy food system for our patients, our staff and
our visitors reflecting practices that are ecologically sound,
economically viable and socially responsible.”
KP’s program is being undertaken with the
leadership of Lynne Garske, Manager of Environmental Stewardship,
and the Food Group Project Team. Their work is a key part of KP’s
multi-year strategy to increase access to healthier foods in the
communities it serves. Their approach is comprehensive and
ambitious:
“We
will achieve this purpose through our purchasing and contracting
relationships, through linkage to farm stands and farmers markets at
KP facilities, and by aligning with nutritional services, employee
wellness and patient education programs. We will provide tools and
assistance in the education of staff, visitors and patients
regarding healthy sustainable food choices for cafeterias, coffee
carts, vending and catering. We will provide mechanisms for the
reduction of waste associated with food preparation and service. We
will support the development of local food systems that promote
sustainable agriculture. We will work with national suppliers to
influence practices around food sources and transportation. We will
encourage our vendors to supply us with food that is, among other
attributes, free of pesticides and unnecessary antibiotics and offer
foods with healthier fats, carbohydrates and proteins. We will
accomplish this without prohibitive cost premiums or decreased food
quality.”
One
of KP’s early efforts began in 2003, when Dr. Preston Maring, a
physician at KP’s Oakland Medical Center, helped launch a farmers’
market to provide access to fresh, healthy food that would be more
consistent with the hospital’s mission. Since then KP has started
more than two dozen other markets and farm stands at its facilities
in California, Oregon and Hawaii, areas with climates that allow
them to be operated year round. KP has also developed a “Farmers’
Market Resource Guide” to help others create farmers’ markets in
their own communities.
Garske and other members of the Food Group have
created guidelines for sourcing sustainable foods, including changes
to contract guidelines. The Food Group has recommended that
purchasing preference be made for local, non-pesticide and
antibiotic/hormone-free foods. As a result, the first local
tomatoes arrived on patients’ dinner trays at 19 hospitals in
Northern California last year. They were followed by other
fruits and vegetables from ten small farms, mainly run by
immigrants.
Through
its “Healthy Picks” program, KP has begun to change the snack
selection available through the vending machines in its facilities.
More than 600 vending machines have already been revamped so that at
least 50 percent of the foods and beverages available, such as
fruit, nuts and low-far yogurt, meet new criteria for lower fat,
calories, sodium and sugar.
Recently KP has partnered with a natural foods
grocer to create a food market designed to teach people healthier
ways of shopping. The “Food Farm’acy” is owned and operated by Food
Mill, an Oakland grocery. All of the products sold have been
approved by Thomas McDonald, KP’s physician-in-chief in Oakland, and
director of a weight-management program there, as the “best and
healthiest” food in each category. While the Food Farm’acy is still
in its early stages, it is another example of the creativity that KP
brings to this issue.
Changing institutional purchasing on the scale
intended by Kaiser Permanente is not without its challenges.
Sourcing the amount and quality of food required will help improve
the viability of many small farmers, but adjusting long-standing
procurement relationships and distribution systems takes time.
Because Kaiser Permanente serves so many
patients, its leadership is already making a difference in the lives
of thousands, if not millions, of people. In addition, approaches
and practices developed by Kaiser Permanente will help pave the way
for other health care providers and institutions to source local
foods and thereby protect farmland and the environment and improve
public health on a broad scale.
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Glynwood Harvest Connecting Communities,
Farmers and Food Award
Granted to recognize outstanding work that
transcends these categories.
New Entry Sustainable Farming Project
Hugh Joseph, Director
The New Entry Sustainable Farming Project
has developed effective programs to help immigrants and refugees
with agrarian backgrounds start successful agriculture careers.
Immigrant and refugee farmers appear to be the only expanding
category of farmers in the county, but they cannot succeed without
the type of outreach, training and technical assistance programs
provided by New Entry and the other programs that have been modeled
after it.
The New Entry Sustainable Farming Project (New
Entry) helps immigrants and refugees with agricultural backgrounds
start commercial farm enterprises in central and eastern
Massachusetts and encourages similar programs in other states.
Across the nation, many farmers are approaching retirement age and
too often there is no one to take over the farm. In New England, on
average, farmers are between 55 and 60 years old. Immigrant and
refugee farmers are proving to be a counter-trend; according to data
extrapolated from the 2002 U.S. Census of Agriculture, immigrant and
refugee farmers are the only expanding category of farmers in the
country.
However, immigrants face many barriers to
entering farming here, including language and cultural differences,
access to land, understanding of market opportunities, knowledge of
regulations, access to financial resources and drastically different
climatic conditions from those in their homelands. New Entry saw
these challenges as an opportunity. It also recognized that a major
trend for new farming in Massachusetts includes small farms near
urban areas that produce high value-added products. This represents
an ideal model for immigrant farmers. Working with a range of
partners, New Entry helps immigrants and refugees – primarily
Southeast Asians and Africans – to use their farming backgrounds to
re-activate idle farmland in Massachusetts, thereby ensuring that
the farmland remains in production while helping the producers
become more economically self-sufficient.
New Entry is non-profit organization
administered by the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and
Policy at Tufts University and by Community Teamwork, Inc.
However, the project works with over fifty public and private
partners including Farm Service Agency (USDA), MA Department of
Agricultural Resources, Risk Management Agency (USDA), immigrant and
refugee service providers, community and immigrant organizations,
local businesses, and local farmers. These agencies and
organizations provide technical assistance, volunteers, farmland,
tools, financial planning, and other vital resources for New Entry’s
work.
New Entry employs a comprehensive strategy to
address the multiple needs of beginning immigrant farmers – finding
farmland, providing training and technical assistance, and promoting
market-driven production strategies for small-scale producers.
After three years, farmers with sufficient experience move to larger
acreage and more independent operations as part of the program’s new
Transitioning Farmer Program. NESFP partners provide technical
assistance, education, small loans, materials, equipment, and
marketing links. Growers produce mainly vegetables and herbs which
they sell at farmers’ markets, local ethnic groceries and through
other outlets to residents in their neighborhoods, whose nutritional
needs are often underserved. In addition, NESFP has help farmers
develop a cooperative marketing initiative call World Peas that
includes a CSA and sells to other local retail and wholesale
venues.
Founded in 1998, New Entry now has four farm
training sites in Massachusetts encompassing over forty acres, and
has on-going relationships with more than forty immigrant farmers.
New Entry works with growers to run a new marketing cooperative, the
World Peas Coop, which sells on behalf of more than a dozen
producers to a variety of retail and wholesale outlets.
Through its programs and with its partners, New
Entry:
- Promotes sustainable farming practices and
economically viable whole farm planning, beginning with an
18-workshop training program.
- Develops culturally sensitive technical
assistance techniques and training materials, with a focus on
hands-on demonstrations and production of written materials that
are suitable to the literacy levels of immigrants and refugees;
- Trains farmers in organic production
methods;
- Assists new producers with accessing
farmland by inventorying farms and identifying farmable open
space for lease or purchase.
New Entry has helped other similar projects get
underway in other states, and has organized an immigrant farming
programs network in the Northeast. The Director worked closely with
Heifer Project to create the National Immigrant Farming Initiative.
Through its creative work, New Entry is developing ways to overcome
the challenges immigrants face in becoming successful farmers here.
This includes finding good markets for their products and designing
a collective distribution system to get products to new markets
while maintaining their freshness and high quality.
Overall, New Entry’s work exemplifies an
effective, whole-community effort. It has been able to involve and
organize diverse groups and people to help farmers, immigrant
communities, and the land.
In nominating New Entry, August Schumacher Jr.,
former Massachusetts Commissioner of Food and Agriculture and senior
official at the USDA, wrote that New Entry: “…represents an
excellent model for replication in other states, and initiatives in
Maine, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and elsewhere have
already been modeled on their work. It is innovative; it has strong
local, regional and national support; and it is stimulating a rapid
expansion of new immigrant farming initiatives across the region and
the country.”
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Glynwood Harvest Award for The Wave of the
Future
Awarded to a young person, or organization
involving young people, helping to create the next generation of
consumers who will understand the importance of nutritious food and
will help forge stronger connections between city consumers and rural
farmers.
The Strolling of the
Heifers
Orly Munzing, Executive Director
Brattleboro, Vermont
Pamplona may have the Running of the Bulls,
but thanks to Orly Munzing, Brattleboro, Vermont has the Strolling
of the Heifers. Accompanied by 4-H Club members and other young
people, 100 flower-bedecked heifers stroll down Main Street to kick
off an annual four-day celebration designed to promote awareness of
the importance of agriculture in our daily lives and help strengthen
agriculture in southeastern Vermont. SOTH uses funds generated
through the event to support educational projects that link farmers
and students in hands-on learning.
Making farming enticing to youth is critical to
ensuring farming continues into the future. Key to attracting youth
is making farming exciting. The Strolling of the Heifers (SOTH),
created and run by Orly Munzing, with assistance from her Board of
Directors and committee of volunteers, does just that. SOTH
organizes a yearly festival in Brattleboro, Vermont that features a
parade of cows down Main Street. The heifers, more than 100 of them
in 2006, with names like Millie, Petunia and Delilah, sport flower
garlands and are led by 4Hers and students. The event embodies a
quirky, entertaining spirit that makes sustainable agriculture
engaging for the next generation. At the same time, the parade
helps fulfill SOTH’s mission and helps fund educational programs
throughout the year. [strollingoftheheifers.com]
Orly, a southern Vermont resident who greatly
values agriculture, created the idea of having cows parade on Main
Street after seeing the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain.
She subsequently formed a committee of local residents, raised
$70,000 and, a year later, in 2002, the first heifers were
strolling down Main Street.
The parade is part of a four-day festival that
features local food, educational events, music, and art and even
milking and moo-ing contests. In addition, every year the festival
has a public lecture and panel discussion on pressing agricultural
issues. The festival embodies the creative culture of Vermont while
honoring farmers and engaging residents and tourists alike. The
parade and festival grow in popularity each year and recently
attracted 50,000 attendees. The Vermont Chamber of Commerce has
recognized the festival as one of the state’s Top Ten Summer Events
for the past four years, and the festival has received national and
international attention.
The purpose of the festival is to build
interest and support for sustainable agriculture and to raise money
to fund agricultural programs for youth. Over the last five years,
SOTH has raised over $100,000 to support hands-on, agriculture
education programs for school age youth. This year, SOTH awarded
funding to educational projects ranging from soil conservation
programs to studies about maple syrup production and marketing. All
of the projects the organization funds link farmers and students in
hands-on learning experiences.
In addition to funding independent projects,
SOTH has begun to coordinate its own education efforts. In 2006,
SOTH brought several heifers to area elementary schools to teach
children about the importance of the dairy industry, where their
food comes from, and nutrition. As a result, over 1,700 children
met the cows and learned about the links between agriculture, the
landscape, and their health.
SOTH has also initiated a project to link
Vermont high school students with area farmers for summer
apprenticeships. The project will be based around a summer
apprentice program that will match farmers with 15 to 21 year old
students who are interested in learning the management skills
necessary to run an agricultural operation. Students will be
awarded school credit for their work experience and farmers get help
during the busiest time of year. The program’s goal is to encourage
students to seek employment opportunities in agriculture once they
complete high school.
SOTH also provides scholarships for farmers to
allow them to take advantage of continuing education opportunities.
SOTH is about to launch a Buy Local Challenge
Campaign to educate consumers and food businesses about the benefits
of increasing the percentage of locally produced foods that they
buy.
SOTH celebrates Vermont’s resources and finds
exciting ways to involve youth. In addition, they also support
on-going projects to educate youth about the importance of
agriculture and provide opportunities for youth to engage in
hands-on projects and gain real-world experience.
In support of this nomination, State Senator
Jeanette White wrote: “When first conceived, it seemed a bit
silly. Whoever would think that a bunch of heifers would have any
meaning, would attract people and could be done in a humane way?
But it happened….this has truly become a community event and it has
managed to keep its focus rather than just become a ‘day of parades
and fun’.”
Congressman Bernard Sanders wrote: “Each year
this 4-day event has grown in stature and effectiveness through
tremendous partnerships and collaborations with businesses and
organizations throughout the southern Vermont area. Farm families
have gained unique opportunities to promote their diversified farm
enterprises, citizens have been engaged in meaningful conversations
about everything from global trade and federal farm polity to
sustainable methods and local food systems, and the area has reaped
the rewards of increased exposure for the tourism industry…..Orly
Munzing is certainly a shining light that has beamed down on
Brattleboro. Strolling of the Heifers has proven to be the beacon
that calls friends and farmers, neighbors and tourists to join in
the celebration of the best that Vermont has to offer.”
SOTH’s creative approach is a great example of
an innovative project that can help forge a positive and exciting
environment for the future of farming.
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