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 refrigerated box trucks and three vans and has a warehouse of about 10,000 square feet and roughly 20 staff.

Myers said the grant-funded software is already in use and will let the company add more growers and manage multiple pricing tiers for different markets. “The working lands funds are going towards the building the development of a custom software,” Myers said. “It’s already awesome, and allows us to kind of expand the number of growers we work with.”

Union Brook Farm: equipment to sell poultry parts after Act 93

Rose Thackery, co-owner of Union Brook Farm in Northfield, said a $9,000 small-farm diversification and transition grant paid for a vacuum sealer and a retail-scale scale and label printer that let the farm package and sell poultry parts after a recent change in state law.

Thackery said the passage of Act 93 (poultry parting) created a new market opportunity for farms that process poultry under the state’s agricultural-exemption tier. “It was like, too good to be true. And it was all true, and it is all happening,” she said, recounting the bill’s passage and the nearly simultaneous award of grant funds that allowed the farm to begin selling packaged parts that customers prefer to buying whole birds.

Thackery said Union Brook raises just over 2,000 birds a year, processes about 200 birds per processing day and last season parted about 25 percent of its total birds into retail cuts. She said the farm’s new part-CSA option accounted for roughly 40 percent of CSA members this winter. Thackery emphasized that the farm operates under the state’s tiered inspection system and that labels and other requirements remain subject to review by inspectors.

Goodridge Lumber: three-phase line extension replaces diesel generators

Mark Goodridge, part owner of Goodridge Lumber in Albany, Vermont, said his supply-chain infrastructure grant paid to extend three-phase electric service about 1.3 miles to the sawmill and tie it into the utility system. The project replaced diesel generators the mill had been using, cut annual diesel consumption by approximately 13,000 gallons and lowered operating costs, he said.

Goodridge said the utility required an upfront payment for line construction of roughly $300,000, and the grant’s ability to provide 90 percent of funds up front was critical. “Being able to receive that much money upfront was certainly a help for us,” he said. The extension also creates capacity for additional, electricity-dependent value-added operations on the site.

Program context, demand and timing

Elizabeth Sippel explained that board priorities and eligibility vary by grant opportunity: supply-chain infrastructure grants target distribution and processing needs; business enhancement grants and small-farm diversification grants have distinct eligibility criteria. She said the board focuses on timing when prioritizing awards, for example making sure poultry processors could enter the market after Act 93 and that mills facing expiring diesel generators could complete time-sensitive upgrades.

Sippel said the program is flexible about payment timing for equipment-heavy projects and that some grantees can receive 90 percent of award funds up front with the remainder paid after final reporting. She told the committee the program’s demand exceeded available funds: this year the initiative had about $1,000,000 in base funding and saw demand of a little over $5,000,000; the prior year demand was about $16,000,000 when special appropriations and larger-dollar opportunities were available.

Why it matters

Committee members and grantees framed the grants as investments in local supply chains that can expand market access for farms, create markets for local loggers and truckers, and help small processors and distributors meet retail and institutional demand. The projects described illustrate different parts of the food and forestry systems where state grants are being used to address specific, time-sensitive needs.

What the committee heard next

Committee members asked about inspection tiers, interstate sales and operational scale. Grantees and staff described the state’s tiered processing system for poultry and the limits on non–state-inspected products moving through distribution channels (for example, meat that is not state- or USDA-inspected cannot be sold through some distributors). Sippel and grantees offered to return with additional details and noted the board’s willingness to answer follow-up questions.

The Working Lands Enterprise Initiative remains a core source of state-level support for small producers and processors; the program’s board and staff told the committee they will continue to prioritize projects in which timing or matching funds make an immediate difference.