Working Lands grants fund regional distributor software, poultry processing and sawmill power upgrade

Three Vermont businesses told the Agriculture, Food Resiliency, & Forestry committee that grants from the Working Lands Enterprise Initiative allowed them to add distribution capacity, begin retail poultry parting and replace diesel generators at a small sawmill.

The presentations came during a program briefing in which Elizabeth Sippel, program manager of the Working Lands Enterprise Initiative, described the board’s approach to targeting “supply chain infrastructure” and other priorities and said the initiative made 65 awards in fiscal year 2024.

The matters the grantees described are examples of how the board is using targeted grants to address gaps in distribution, meat processing and local lumber markets, Sippel said. “Fiscal year 2024, we were able to make 65 awards, to a whole diversity of businesses and projects,” she told the committee.

Myers Produce: custom software to manage a regional food hub

Annie Myers, owner of Myers Produce of Albany, New York, said her company received a $90,000 supply-chain infrastructure grant to build custom software to manage orders, routing and pricing across multiple markets. Myers described a regional distribution operation that in 2024 sold just under $5,000,000 of product sourced from more than 175 regional farmers and producers, more than 75 of them in Vermont.

“Myers Produce” operates refrigerated transportation, cold storage and cross-docking hubs that serve independent retailers, institutions and food-service customers across New England and the Hudson Valley, Myers said. The business runs five 26-foot…