Online Farmers Market Adds More Sites in Schoharie County

SCHOHARIE - Cobleskill NY – (July 9, 2014)- Since 2011, Schoharie Fresh has served Schoharie County as an online farmers’ market through which over 30 area producers offer a wide variety of fresh produce, meats, cheeses, baked goods and specialty items. Over two thousand residents have registered as customers on the market’s website, www.schohariefresh.com, and product sales have increased dramatically each year since its launch. 

Developed with grant funding from the NYS Department of Health’s Creating Healthy Places initiative, Schoharie Fresh has operated on SUNY Cobleskill’s campus since 2012 and is currently staffed by the college’s students. Each week, customers place orders through the site by midnight, Wednesday and pick up their orders at the campus market location (Hodder Garage, located directly off of Route 7 on the farm-side of campus) on Fridays between 3:30 and 5:30. 

Recently, faculty and staff at SUNY Cobleskill were awarded funds from The United Way of the Greater Capital Region to expand Schoharie Fresh and to enhance the market’s convenience for county residents. Specifically, grant dollars will be used to establish two new customer pick-up sites—one at Bethany Evangelical Lutheran Church in Central Bridge and the other at Schoharie United Presbyterian Church in Schoharie. Customers from outside of the immediate Cobleskill vicinity will now be able to realize the benefits and convenience of the online farmers’ market with the availability of pick-up sites closer to their homes. It is anticipated that the two new pick-up sites will be up-and-running by the end of July, 2014. 

Schoharie Fresh coordinators will also use a portion of the United Way award dollars to develop and offer “Better Food, Better Budgets” workshops starting in May, 2015 that will be open to the general public and focused on achieving healthy family food budgets using nutritious local ingredients available through Schoharie Fresh. The College will partner with the Schoharie County Community Action Program (SCCAP) to offer these workshops. 

For more information about Schoharie Fresh and the launch of its new pick-up points in the county, contact Maureen Blanchard at blanchma@cobleskill.edu or Jason Evans at evansjr@cobleskill.edu