Albritton gets a close-up look at the plumbing
POUGHKEEPSIE – A new irrigation system has gone into operation at the Poughkeepsie Farm Project, a member-supported farm that provides organically grown food to its members and low-income families throughout the Mid-Hudson Valley. And like many of the recent capital improvements at the farm, the irrigation project was funded by a grant from the Wallace Research Foundation, which has awarded more than $200,000 to the member-supported organization over the past 12 months.
The grants are also funding the purchase of a new high-clearance cultivator and tractor and providing funds to enhance the farm’s education programs, supporting staff training and underwriting public relations and grant writing costs.
“The Poughkeepsie Farm Project has grown impressively in 16 years – from 15 members to 500 and from three acres to 15,” said Executive Director Lee Anne Albritton. “But thanks to this support from WRF, we’ve been able to reach a new level of service to our members and to the community.”
WRF Director Alex Gilchrist said the foundation began its work in 1978 following the death of Henry Wallace, who served as vice president under Franklin Delano Roosevelt and was a founder of a successful hybrid seed company in his native Iowa. Gilchrist said he was glad to have found an agency worthy of his foundation’s support so close to his home. He said he didn’t know anything about the Poughkeepsie Farm Project’s work until he spied a banner that was hanging on the property as he drove down Raymond Avenue in the Town of Poughkeepsie.
“I was looking for a way to get involved in a sustainable food project, and I saw the Poughkeepsie Farm Project sign as I was driving down the road, so I went home and looked up its website,” Gilchrist said. “I saw that it fit with our foundation’s objectives, so I contacted their board and asked if they had any projects waiting in the wings we could help them with.”
Gilchrist said he and others on the WRF board were particularly impressed
with the Poughkeepsie Farm Project’s community outreach programs.
The organization donated more than 27,000 pounds of food, worth an estimated
$75,000 to low-income families, school lunch programs and local soup kitchens
last year.
