A new company in Pilot Mountain is helping small and mid-size farms by providing a market for their local produce.
Pilot Mountain Pride is set up as an LLC (limited liability company) owned by the nonprofit Surry County Economic Development Foundation. It consists of a distribution center in the former Amos and Smith Hosiery Mill building in Pilot Mountain.
About 52 farms, ranging from ¼ acre to 40 acres, are starting to supply produce to the center to be washed, graded, boxed and shipped to local markets. Pilot Mountain Pride also finds buyers for the produce.
"Farmers love to grow produce. They don't necessarily love to sell produce," said Bryan Cave, the director of the Surry County office of the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service.
Cave and Chris Knopf, the assistant manager of Surry County, have been working on the idea for about seven years. Both were interested in ways of supporting agriculture, which makes up 25 percent of the county's economy. The idea really started to take shape in 2007 when the two men were involved with N.C. STEP, a statewide revitalization program for small towns.
"We had two things in mind," Cave said. "One was diversifying agriculture. Tobacco growing is tailing off. We were looking for a way to diversify farms. The other thing was getting young people back into agriculture."
Pilot Mountain Pride gives 80 percent of its revenue back to farmers. The other 20 percent goes to supplies, labor and other costs.
The company has four employees. All the farmers receive free food-safety training, and the company keeps detailed records so that all the produce can be traced.
Charles Boles, the director, said that gross revenue is up to $8,000 a week. "And it's increasing every week," he said. "About 60 acres of corn is going to be harvested in a few weeks."
Boles helps farmers find buyers, and he helps farmers learn to grow new crops and extend their growing season. Farmers growing squash, for instance, are encouraged to plant broccoli in the fall. The company hopes to be in operation about 10 months of the year. And Boles said that it is on target to reach $250,000 in gross sales in the first year.
Knopf and Cave were able to get significant grants and other help to get the project started. Surry County loaned the town of Pilot Mountain money to buy the building used for the center. The town in turned leased it to Pilot Mountain Pride free for the first three years. Part of the building is a satellite campus for Surry County Community College. Wake Forest University School of Law provided legal services.
The Golden Leaf Foundation provided $100,000 to renovate the building and $90,000 for equipment. The N.C. Department of Agriculture provided $28,000 for marketing and supplies.
The company got $75,000 from the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund and $75,000 from N.C. Rural Center to pay for a cooling system and other needs. And the Surry County Farm Bureau board provided about $33,000 for a truck, wash line, ice machine and scales.
Boles said that the company may need some more grant money, but his goal is to make it self-sustaining by about this time next year.
For buyers, Boles has been approaching restaurants, hospitals and retail stores. He was fortunate to get interest from Lowes Foods, which has been buying almost all of Pilot Mountain Pride's produce to date. Lowes displays the produce in Winston-Salem and other area stores along with the Pilot Mountain Pride logo so consumers will know that they are getting local produce.
On July 10 from noon to 4 p.m., Pilot Mountain Pride will hold a farmers market outside of the Lowes Foods on Robinhood Road.
The company also has sold produce to restaurants and Surry County schools. It trucks food to a market at the Surry County Government Center and Farm Bureau office in Dobson on Thursdays, and Pilot Mountain Pride holds a farmers market at its own location for the public on Fridays.
The company has provided welcome relief to Darren Slate. He mainly grows tobacco, but the declining market has him worried about being able to pass the farm to his sons, 19-year-old Isaac and 23-year-old Zach.
"I want to keep my sons on the farm, but you've got to make some money," he said.
Slate has sold the company cabbage and will soon have corn and sweet potatoes. The company not only allows him to diversify and have a guaranteed buyer, but it also gives him a good price. "I'd probably be getting $4.50 a (50-pound) box from a broker, but they're paying me $7.95," he said. "The market is what we've needed for years."
Michael Hastings
The Winston-Salem Journal
July 7, 2010
