New York is a dairy rich state with more than 4,000 dairy farms supporting the industry. However, even with the prevalence of dairy farms and producers, there are 2.6 million New York state residents who do not have sufficient access to dairy and other food items to maintain a balanced and wholesome diet. Our focus is to increase dairy access while reducing barriers for populations most affected. By conducting a study in September 2020, we learned that the primary barrier for individuals and families facing food insecurity is access. For all ten food bank regions, access barriers include lack of distribution points, lack of refrigerated vehicles, walking distance to pantries, or lack of ability to store dairy items. This data was the foundation in which we developed pilots that we believed could address how to move more dairy into underserved areas. Through our collaborative approach, the team of five food banks, the state association and dairy industry partners, focused on the development of a statewide dairy sourcing and distribution strategy. The initial approach was to pilot different models for optimizing dairy distribution throughout our network. Through each food bank partner, we were able to identify member programs that represented rural areas, underserved populations, and maintained the mindset for capacity building. Our three pilots were: Direct Dairy Delivery: With a processor or farm directly delivering to the food bank member agency, the dairy product is never physically handled by any food bank. This reduces or eliminates the need for members to have additional cold storage and reduces turn over time.

Just In Time

Providing Just In Time delivery to food bank member agencies to provide dairy items for immediate distribution, eliminating the need for onsite storage.

PACT

The Pantry Annex Cold Trailers (PACT) have been developed to extend the distribution capabilities of participating programs and to take advantage of more perishable products. 

We achieved outstanding results in the 8-week pilot testing period: 242,850 pounds of dairy distributed through the three pilots. The partners are committed to expanding this work and have individually invested food bank funds toward our statewide dairy distribution program.