Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand today announced $46,977 in federal funding for Evans Farmhouse Creamery. The funding was allocated through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Value-Added Producer Grant (VAPG) program and will be used to revamp their marketing strategy to raise brand awareness and increase sales.
“This is exciting news for Evans Farmhouse Creamery and Chenango County,” said Senator Schumer. “By providing funding to help market Evans Farmhouse Creamery’s premium organic milk and yogurt, this grant gives one of our prized Chenango County dairy farms the opportunity to expand business and bring more quality products to consumers. This is good news for the county’s dairy industry and good news for the area economy as a whole.”
“We need our farmers to thrive if we’re going to have a strong and growing economy in New York,” said Senator Gillibrand, first New York Senator to serve on the Senate Agriculture Committee in nearly 40 years. “This is a great investment for Evans Farmhouse Creamery and will help ensure they get needed resources to bring their products to market and continue to drive economic growth in their region and across the state.”
“This grant money will be used to promote our Evans line products,” said David Evans, Fourth generation farm owner, Evans Farmhouse Creamery. “Over the last number of years we have not been able to promote the Evans brand and this will help us put the brand out there. The brand includes Greek yogurt and, for the first time, organic Greek yogurt. We will also introduce raw milk cheeses, cheddars and other hard cheeses. We are a fourth generation dairy consisting of 20-30 mixed milking cows.”
The VAPG program is designed to help boost farms’ income and productivity by increasing access to capital, providing technical assistance and developing new marketing strategies for independent producers to increase exposure and broaden their customer base.