Good Deeds

As Ken DeVries and his wife, Sherrie, owners of Hinkley Dairy in Hinkley, Calif., drove hours through the winding roads of the San Bernardino Mountains in southern California, they carried precious — and familiar — cargo: Milk. But, this was no ordinary day for the pair, who milk 1,200 cows on their family dairy farm, and no ordinary milk. Loaded up in a borrowed refrigerated truck, the 726 gallons of donated milk were bound for two area food banks — and wouldn’t have made it to these particular food banks if it weren’t for the DeVries and a lot of serendipity.

This journey started with a conversation the day before. During an hour and a half roundtrip drive (long drives are a common occurrence for the couple) hauling their calves, they talked about the unprecedented time in the world due to COVID-19 and the people hurting from its effects.

“We knew some really good food banks that were just exploding right now because many people who had a paycheck coming in, who had a job, were laid off because of COVID-19,” Ken says. “These people needed help right away. Right now.”

The DeVries wanted to assist but weren’t sure how. Ken started by calling an acquaintance at Alta Dena Dairy, a dairy processor in City of Industry, Calif., who he works with to get half pint cartons of chocolate milk donated for his milk demonstration at the county fair every year.

He learned a tanker load of raw milk had just come in, donated by Dairy Farmers of America (DFA). Alta Dena Dairy planned to process the milk, paying for the bottling and processing costs, but hadn’t identified food banks to receive it.

“I said I know of three of them right off the bat that would gladly take it. But I don’t know the logistics,” Ken says. He didn’t know if the food banks could store it. The other caveat: Alta Dena Dairy wasn’t able to deliver it.

Beg, borrow and … ask

The logistics of delivering donated milk is complicated. Not all food banks are setup to store milk, which is both bulky and perishable. Plus, many food banks don’t have the transportation needed to pick up milk donations themselves, as milk has to be refrigerated from start to finish.

Ken coordinated with two food banks he knew. Both wanted the milk — if someone could get it to them. After another few phone calls, a local butcher shop and wholesaler, Morgan Meat Co., agreed to let Ken borrow and drive one of their trucks — thanks to the commercial driver’s license he still had. It was a homecoming of sorts for Ken, who drove trucks before he began dairying.

“It was like God kept opening doors for us,” he says. “I normally wouldn’t call on people who are running their own businesses to ask for help, but I thought, ‘You know what, everyone is involved with this COVID-19. I’m just going to ask.’”

Across the country in Masontown, Pa., another dairy farmer, Louie Diamond, owner of Diamond Farms, also discovered the power of asking. He coordinated a donation of 4,860 gallons of milk to local residents in need. “When I called up to see if there was anything available, I never guessed that we were going to get a tractor-trailer of milk,” Louie says. “If you don’t ask, you’re never going to get it. You’re not going to get a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’.”

It started weeks before with a drive-thru style food distribution event put on by Fayette County Community Action Agency and Salvation Army. “They had traffic backed up way into town, with people waiting to get boxes of food,” Louie says. He asked one of the recipients what they received in their box. Dried food. Fresh vegetables. No dairy. That stuck with him and he called a representative at Salvation Army to see if they would take dairy. “She said, ‘We would love to have dairy. We just can’t get it’,” he says of the call. “And I said, ‘Well let me see what I can do’.”

Many phone calls later, Louie had put all the pieces together to ensure those precious half gallons of whole and 2% milk reached his local Salvation Army — from finding the milk to ensuring there was a place to unload and store it so it could be provided in food distribution drives across Fayette County in the coming days.

In the humble way of the dairy farmer, he says, “A lot of people think I donated the milk. All I did was link it up.

The fourth-generation farmer and second-generation dairyman milks 130 cows in partnership with his brother, Paul, and says, as a dairy farmer, if the milk couldn’t be sold, he wanted it to go to people who need it. “On a personal point, there are people that are in need right now, and as a Christian I just feel like the thing to do is to help other people,” Louie says.

Making a difference

Where able, dairy farmers from coast to coast are giving back through cash donations or by purchasing dairy products to go to food banks lacking those staples.

One such dairy farmer, Adrian Diepersloot, owner of Wolf Creek Dairy in Severance, Colo., donated $10,000 worth of cheese (that’s 3,325 pounds) from The Creamery, a retail store in Beaver, Utah, to his local food bank in Greeley, Colo. He, several employees and his family — wife, Jaclyn, and his kids, Brooklyn, Cade, Mina and Tyce — spent Good Friday loading and unloading the family-size blocks of baby cheddar at their local food bank, hauled using their own pickups.

After seeing businesses shut down and friends struggling, the family decided they wanted to help in some way. Originally, they thought about giving back to first responders, but saw a real need from food banks.

“The food banks were short of food, and at a time that is critical for food banks (given that people were all of a sudden unemployed) they were having a hard time getting food,” Adrian says. “People were hoarding food at the same time, so it was kind of a double whammy for them.”

Why cheese? “Cheese was the first thing we thought of because most of our milk goes to making cheese,” he says. “It made it really special for us, and for my kids especially. They spend a lot of time on the dairy; they don’t know the logistics of it, but they know our milk gets made into cheese.” While the Diepersloots didn’t hand out the cheese directly to recipients, clad in face masks and rubber gloves, they unloaded and loaded each block, ensuring the cheese made it to the food bank — and they did it as a family.

“This is something that is near and dear to our hearts and we were so glad to be able to help people with it,” Adrian says.

Doing essential work

Across the nation, family dairy farms continue to show up and work hard to ensure we all have access to fresh, wholesome, dairy products to feed our families. Whether they make a donation or not, dairy farmers are there for their communities during times of need.

At the same time, as COVID-19 makes accessing reliable, nutritious food more challenging for many people, family dairy farms are struggling too. Consumers stocked up on goods at grocery stores in preparation for stay-at-home orders and demand for staples like milk surged But, that demand quickly plummeted as restaurants, hotels and schools closed. Some dairy farmers had to do the unthinkable — dispose of excess raw milk on their farms.

No dairy farmer wants to see their livelihood on the ground. “You see all over the internet people saying, ‘Well, why don’t the farmers just give this to food banks?’” Louie says. “The problem is: Who’s going to pay for the processing, the pasteurization, the transportation? That costs a lot.” Raw milk has to be processed before it can be donated, and processing plants were at capacity. But, both hardworking dairy farmers and the industry pulled together to ensure as much milk as possible was being processed, whether for sale or donation.

“I feel like dairymen in general have a big heart for people and for society,” Adrian says. “We’re not just making a product to sell; we believe in the cause behind what we’re making. I know it’s a hard time for many to be giving. We all can only do what we can. We just have to remember, we’re all in this together.”

Leave it to fate

Ken and Sherrie delivered their truckload of milk to two area food banks that day, and even helped hand it out to people who needed it.

“It was really just a blessing from the Lord just how everything came together,” Sherrie says. “Everything clicked and we got the milk there, and we were able to keep it cold the whole time.”

Just days after their delivery, they got some surprising news. In a twist of fate, the milk they delivered had turned out to originally come from their farm. Clearly it was meant to be.