MALONE — A fresh-produce project launched by ComLinks is now a pilot program that could help nonprofit groups statewide become more self sufficient.
Four large-scale customers and 40 food pantries will buy fresh vegetables from the agency's Gleaning Program, said Program Director Dick LaVigne.
Part of the idea is to make up for the loss of state and federal funding that slashed the Gleaning Program's budget from $323,000 to $200,000 in a year.
FREEDOM TO SELL
"To make our program work, we needed to make up that $123,000," LaVigne said, adding that he has tried to run the program as if it were a business.
"We've got to change how not-for-profits are seen by the state and federal government because the money is just not there any more. We need more freedom because the grant funding will never be the way it was."
The idea has some legs with Lewis Clark, director of the New York State Department of Health Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program.
"When Lewis heard about what we were doing, he said, 'You've really hit on something. You can be the pilot project for the state of New York.' We'll be the test case," LaVigne said.
GREENHOUSE TRANSFER
ComLinks had already had some cooperation from the state when its Office of General Services agreed to let the Town of Malone have a 1,400-square-foot greenhouse that was once used at Camp Gabriels Correctional Facility in Brighton. The prison closed in 2009.
The town leases the greenhouse building to ComLinks for $1 a year, and it was placed in the grounds at Citizens Advocates (North Star Behavioral Services) on Creighton Road in Malone.
That agency donated the $15,000 needed for the concrete slab on which the greenhouse sits, and two of its clients will be hired and trained to work with Greenhouse Supervisor Andy Bonesteel.
GARDEN EXPANDING
The greenhouse was used in 2010 to start crops that were later transplanted to a 9-acre patch that ComLinks owns on Porter Road, which produced broccoli, cauliflower, peas, beans, cucumbers, turnip and corn for food pantries.
Corn on the cob was also sold to the Malone School District "that kids are eating right now," LaVigne said.
The Gleaning Program garden will be expanded to 12 acres this year to include a huge section for two varieties of tomatoes, which will be sold in local stores.
"Allowing a not-for-profit agency to sell a portion of the products they grow to help sustain their programs is new to New York state and possibly the nation," LaVigne told a crowd that recently gathered for the opening ceremony.
"We'll never become totally self sufficient. However, we can go a long way toward that goal."
Email Denise A. Raymo at: draymo@pressrepublican.com
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