The United Dairy Industry of Michigan says the checkoff was able to maintain its mission of connecting with consumers and building trust during 2020 while adapting quickly throughout the pandemic.
Jolene Griffin tells Brownfield helping connect food banks to a constant supply of dairy products and securing refrigeration equipment in turn created a pilot grant program for farmers to nominate local food banks for coolers.
“In March we saw a couple of our farmers using their dairy producer grants to purchase milk to take to food panties and we thought what else can we do?”
The organization donated $375,000 to food banks across the state to help with food distribution, connected local processors to food banks, and created several grants to keep milk flowing to those in need.
