By Tom Grace
Cooperstown News Bureau
Fresh food lovers in Otsego County may soon be rejoicing.
Homemade, locally produced, farm-fresh food may soon be delivered to their doors through an initiative from Sustainable Otsego.
In recent weeks, its members have been talking about starting a local food-buying club.
``People want to eat better and help local farmers,'' group co-founder Adrian Kuzminiski said.
Although Sustainable Otsego is known for its opposition to natural-gas drilling, that's not its only mission, Kuzminiski said.
``The whole idea is to encourage a more sustainable, healthy lifestyle for individuals and the area," he said. "And buying local food is at the heart of that.''
When a flurry of e-mails showed that many county residents wanted to buy local food, Erik Miller _ executive director of the Otsego County Conservation Association and Oneonta Third Ward alderman _ stepped in to help.
``There's no need to reinvent the wheel,'' Miller said Wednesday. ``We can deliver local food to people in this county; they're already doing it in Chenango County.''
In 2007, the Chenango County Agriculture Development Council set up Chenango Bounty, a program to deliver food from farmers to other residents once a week.
With milk from Evans Farm, a creamery in Norwich and other small- to medium-sized farms on board, the program grew. In 2008, Madison County joined in, and the farmers-market-on-wheels is known as CNY _ standing for Central New York _ Bounty.
``We're averaging about 100 orders a week now,'' CNY Bounty project coordinator Steven Holzbauer said. Customers are able to choose from as many as 1,000 products _ ``probably 600 to 700 this time of year,'' Holzbauer said _ by logging onto www.cnybounty.com.
CNY Bounty operates with a 23 percent profit margin, which covers the cost of delivery, he said.
To qualify for home delivery, customers' orders must total at least $35. Bounty also delivers smaller quantities of food to drop-off sites, including one in Onondaga County, he said.
Expanding to Otsego County and enrolling more Otsego County farmers and producers will take work and some money but is definitely possible, he said.
Holzbauer also works for the Center for Agriculture Development & Entrepreneurship Inc. of Oneonta. Together with CADE's Executive Director Chris Harmon, he said he plans to attend a meeting of interested Otsego County producers and consumers, probably next week.
Harmon noted the program is a boon to farmers, supplying much-needed cash, and said he is looking into funding possibilities.
Miller said OCCA has offered its offices on Pioneer Alley in Cooperstown for organizers to host a meeting.
More information about CNY Bounty is available at its website.
More information about the pending expansion into Otsego County will be posted at www.sustainableotsego.org, Kuzminski said.
