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News from the FaHN Team 
 
Summer meal programs are in full swing this week around the region and we are very excited to announce the release of a regional assessment of the Summer Food Service Program. You can read the full announcement below.

This report would not have been possible without the skill and dedication of our AmeriCorps VISTA member, Maggie Reeger. After a year of service with FaHN, Maggie's term will be ending later this month. We are incredibly lucky that Maggie chose to spend a year of service sharing her many talents with FaHN and our partners, and are so grateful for all she has done. Following her service year, Maggie will moving back home to western Pennsylvania to help manage the annual fall festival on her family's farm.  
New Report: Nearly 8,500 Children Receive Free Summer Meals Across South Central NY

The number of children participating in the Summer Food Service Program, which provides free summer meals to students 18 and under, increased by 34 percent from 2013 to 2015 in South Central NY. This data comes from a newly released report by FaHN, “Closing the Gap on Childhood Food Insecurity”.
 
Working with hunger task forces and community partners throughout the region, FaHN conducted the assessment to identify the barriers that prevent children from accessing free summer meals, and develop a collaborative strategy to increase capacity in 2016 and beyond. Summer meal sponsors and site supervisors are developing innovative ways to boost participation in the program. The Taren Family Fund and the Dick and Marion Meltzer Fund of the Community Foundation for South Central New York provided support for the assessment. 

Participation in summer meals grew from 6,330 in 2013 to 8,500 in 2015 across the FaHN region. Along with an increase in participation, there was a 25 percent increase in the number of summer meal sites from 2013 to 2015, with 120 sites available last summer for children to receive nutritious meals. Although the capacity to feed hungry kids has increased, there is still more work to be done, as only 26 percent of children eating free and reduced price lunches during the school year benefited from summer meals in 2015. Call 2-1-1 to find summer meal site times and locations near you, or view a map of locations here.
 

 
This summer, we're getting an inside look at some of the farms and food businesses that help our regional food system thrive. (Photo: Main Street Farms)
Want your photo to be featured? Email us or tag your photo with #FaHNFarmFriday.
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Touring the Milky Way in Delaware County

Who knew the Milky Way was so close? To celebrate National Dairy Month, FaHN AmeriCorps members Maggie and Olivia participated in Catskills Family Creameries’ 4th Annual Milky Way Tour. For one day, six farmstead creameries in the Catskills opened their doors to the public to taste cheese, pet cows and talk to farmers and cheesemakers.  We chose three farms and spent the morning enjoying delicious Delaware County cheeses.

Bovina Valley Farms
Our first stop was Bovina Valley Farms in Delhi. Farmer and owner Dan Finn gave us a crash course in cheese making and showed us his cheese “cave,” where lots of Alderney, a French-style raw-milk Tomme cheese, was aging. In addition to the delicious cheese, Bovina Valley Farms also produces Moonshine Maple, a small-batch, wood-fired maple syrup, and premium cuts of beef and pork.

You can find Bovina Valley Farms products at the farm store, open every day from 8 to 6, as well as in a variety of retail stores and restaurants in the Catskills and New York City. If that’s too far of a drive, you’re in luck! You can also shop on the farm’s website and have delicious food shipped right to your door.

Betty Acres Farm
We headed down the road to Betty Acres Farm, home to Modern Milkmaid cheeses and Bear Mountain Maple. All of the cheese is handmade in the farm’s microcreamery using milk from “the girls,” what farmer and owner Aissa O’Neil lovingly calls her cows. Some of Betty Acres’ cheeses, including a Spanish-inspired “Delchego” and a take on camembert called “Cremembert,” are aged in a hillside cheese cave. The rest of the milk is used to make a fresh, spreadable cheese with mix-ins like pesto and lavender. And it really is fresh: milk goes from cow to cheese within three days.

You can find Betty Acres’ products at farmers markets and retail stores in Delaware County, including Freshtown, Good Cheap Food and Delaware Bounty.

Byebrook Farm
Our last stop was Byebrook Farm in Bloomville, a 45-cow dairy operation that produces grass-fed raw milk and several varieties of raw-milk Gouda. We started in the farm stand, which is small but packed with lots of goodies from Byebrook and other surrounding farms, including eggs, bread, pies, cheeses and yogurt. We tasted three varieties of cheese: a young Gouda, an aged variety that’s washed in hard cider, and a smoked Gouda. And for dessert, there were some fresh baked cookies and milk.You can visit the Byebrook Farmstand in Bloomville, or find Byebrook Gouda at local stores, the Delhi Farmers’ Market or on the menu at Brewery Ommegang.

Read the full article here.
Upcoming Events
July 21st
Friday, 1:00pm
Leadership Development Webinar: Incubator Farms & Community Food Projects
Food Solutions New England 
Learn more here.
July 25th
Monday, 6:00-9pm
Stocker Cattle Summit
CADE &  Cornell University Beef Extension Program
Learn more here.
July 26th
Tuesday, 6:30-8pm
Farmer Veteran Ice Cream Social
Broome County Cornell Cooperative Extension
Learn more here.
July 29th
Friday, 11:00am-1:00pm
Dream Funding for Dream Farms: Kiva’s Interest-free Microloans for Farmers
CADE 
Learn more here.
July 30th
Saturday, 12:30-1:30pm
Compost with Confidence
Tompkins County Cornell Cooperative Extension
Learn more here.
August 6th
Saturday, 10am-4pm
Open Days Garden Tours
Tompkins County Beautification Program &
The Garden Conservancy
Learn more here.
August 10th
Wednesday, 10:30-11:30am
Nutrition Exploration at Waverly
Family Resource Center
Tioga County Cornell Cooperative Extension
Learn more here.
Save the date!
NESAWG It Takes a Region Conference
November 10-12, 2016
Hartford, CT

2017 NOFA-NY Winter Conference
January 20-22, 2017
Saratoga Springs, NY
Grants
 

Chef Ann Foundation
Project Produce: Fruit & Veggie Grants for Schools. No application deadline. Learn more here.

Southern Tier Agricultural Industry Enhancement Program (STAIEP) Grant
Application Period 2: July 11-September 19, 2016. Learn more here.

Community Foundation of South Central NY: Small Grants Program
Applications due July 15, 2016. Learn more here.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Healthy Eating Research
Round 10 Grants: Concept papers due August 3, 2016. Learn more here.

Gannett Foundation Community Action Grants
Applications due August 29, 2016. Learn more here.

Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education
Partnership Grant deadline: October 25
Farmer Grants deadline: November 29
Learn more here.
 

Job & Volunteer Opportunities

Community Education Coordinator VISTA, Food Bank of the Southern Tier 
Learn more here. 

Cornell Cooperative Extension of Delaware County
Nutrition Subject Educator: Teach workshops and deliver nutrition education in the Eat Smart NY/Federal Snap-Ed Regional Program. Click here for more info.

Shared Roots Farm, McGraw, NY 
Shared Roots Farm is looking for more team members, 15-40 hrs/week helping in the packing shed and/or in the field. If you or anyone you know is interested, reach out to us at sharedrootsfarm@gmail.com

AmeriCorps positions promoting Food Access & Health! 
Positions available with a range of organizations.
View positions and apply: Rural Health Service Corps website. 
Sponsor Spotlight:  Building a Strong Food Community
 
Our FaHN sponsor feature this month is Regional Access, based in Ithaca, NY. Asa Redmond, Vice President of Operations, shared information about the company his father started and its commitment to distributing great food and strengthening the regional food system.


About Regional Access “Regional Access was built on a vision of inspiring grassroots, regional foods connections. For founder Gary Redmond that meant connecting consumers to products they couldn’t source anywhere else, and introducing them to products he loved that they hadn’t even heard of yet. Above all else Regional Access brought great food to market across the state. Gary was part of the first wave of food focused entrepreneurs; before Whole Foods opened their second store, before big box stores jumped on the organic bandwagon, and before dozens of startups promised to somehow connect you to the food system using only some new software platform and FedEx. Regional Access better connects consumers to their food by being the single bond between responsibly produced high quality food, and the stores, restaurants, and communities across the state that demand it.”

Where does it all start? “Regional Access takes special pride in the variety of farm partners and smaller scale producers throughout NYS and the Northeast that supply us. We understand the complexities of balancing the budget against what are often perceived to be higher priced local items. However, we feel strongly that by promoting and supporting these regional producers we are helping educate consumers about the triple bottom line type calculations that make our offerings better for the communities we serve, and more cost effective in the long run.

Above all else Regional Access strives to provide better and more unique options than the multi-billion dollar conglomerates that dominate the food distribution system and limit choice among their customers.”

Read the full article here.

 
Join us in 2016 as a FaHN member or sponsor! You can help us and our partners:
  • Ensure that children have access to fresh, healthy and local food
  • Combat chronic disease by making healthy food more accessible
  • Promote local agriculture
  • Advocate for policy change
  • Use data to strengthen our regional food system
Organizational Members

Broome County Health Department
Broome-Tioga BOCES Food Service
Cayuga Lake Food Buyers
Center for Agricultural Development and Entrepreneurship (CADE) 
Chenango County Health Department
Cornell Cooperative Extension Broome County
Cornell Cooperative Extension Tioga County
Delaware Opportunities Inc.
Family Enrichment Network
Food Bank of the Southern Tier
Hatherleigh Foundation
Healthy Lifestyles Coalition (United Way)
Rural Health Network of South Central New York
Seven Valleys Health Coalition
The Owego Kitchen
Tioga County Hunger Coalition 
Tioga Opportunities
Tompkins County Food Distribution Network
United Health Services (UHS)
VINES: Volunteers Improving Neighborhood Environments
Individual Members

Susan Adair
Diane Albrecht
Richard Andrus
Donna Bates
Mark Bordeau
Christina Boyd
Ray Denniston
Nancy Eckstrom
Matthew Griffin
Kathleen Horner
Sonia Janiszewski
Kevin Millar
Ann Moring
Peaceful by Nature Farm
Jeffrey Piestrak
Tony Preus
Amy Shapiro
Lauren Tonti
Rose Zonetti
Sponsors

Diane & Jerry Albrecht
Greg Albrecht & Victoria Zeppelin
Connie Barnes
Susan Beaudoin
Elizabeth Bossong
Care Manage for All
Chenango County United Way
Closer to the Heart Farms 
Creekside Acres Farm/The Creekside Cook
Diane Crews
Ray Denniston
Nancy Eckstrom
Engelbert Farms
Excellus BlueCross BlueShield
Fidelis Care 
Galaxy Brewing Company
Johan Jelsma
 
The Kitchen Store, Inc.
Larry & Denise Moore
Lourdes Hospital
Glenda Neff
Old Barn Hollow Farm Market
Peaceful by Nature Farm
Jeffrey Piestrak
Charles & Mary Place
Janice Parker
John & Linda Roush
Regional Access
Jack Salo
Linda Seeger
Slope Farms
Doris Summerlee
Lauren Tonti
United Health Care
United Health Services (UHS)
Shawn Yetter
Website
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Food and Health Network of South Central New York · 2663 Main Street · Whitney Point, NY 13862 · USA

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