Grant helps Lewis County creamery rise to the top

LYONS FALLS, N.Y. (WWNY) - In Lewis County, it means more jobs and processing power for north country farms. A local creamery will be able to expand its business.

Black River Valley Natural Creamery in Lyons Falls will be getting a larger cooler and a freezer to store their milk products. The creamery is getting $99,000 from a USDA Rural Business Development Grant.

“This is going to be huge for us. By coupling this grant with two other awards we received this year we will be able to significantly expand our production capabilities and capacity,” said James Munn, Black River Valley Natural Creamery manager.

The creamery processes and bottles milk from five north country farms.

Munn buys some of that milk for his own products too. He says with the expansion he’ll be able to process 3 times more milk a week.

The grant will also help create 7 additional jobs, but Munn says it will also help the farmers who have their milk processed there.

With more processing, the farms will have more of their milk to sell.

“They will also be able to keep the jobs they already have and hopefully add more people to support the sales of their products at their own farm stores and things like that so we hope there will be a ripple effect,” said Munn.

Munn says he will have to pay back some of the money he has received, but since it goes through Lewis County, it could be loaned out to another small business down the road.

Copyright 2020 WWNY. All rights reserved.