JEFFERSON, Wis. (WMTV) -- Farming can be a tough job – add a pandemic on top, and that job gets even harder. After seeing farmers hit hard by coronavirus, a Wisconsin woman took to Facebook to see if she could help.
Rae Ann Scherr has never farmed a day in her life, but said when she heard about farmers nationwide having to dump milk and cull herds during the pandemic, she wanted to do something.
Though Scherr has never farmed, she has family that does. Scherr said her nephew is a dairy farmer, and he shared his challenges with his aunt.
“They were telling me that they were having trouble trying to make any money and actually having to take out loans sometimes to actually feed their cattle. So what they were talking about doing is selling off their dairy cows and then just going into crop farming,” she said. “Then the whole COVID thing started and my husband and I were talking, I said boy, I'd really like to help.”
Scherr said that sparked a conversation with her husband about how to go about supporting farmers. She said she was interested in buying direct from a farm, but didn’t know how to. Hoping to connect with a farmer, Scherr took to Facebook and started a group called Farm Direct Wisconsin.
“My about us page just says connecting customers with farmers to try to bridge that gap,” she said of the group she created. “I started on April 23 and we are up to over 40,000 members and over 300 vendors."
At the time this article was posted, the membership of the Facebook group was up to 46,880 members.
What started as Scherr hoping to connect interested people directly with farmers turned into an online network of tens of thousands of people – farmers posting their products, and interested customers exploring their options.
Scherr said you can find anything from meat and poultry, alpaca fleece, honey, homemade bug spray, so long as it’s made, raised, or grown in Wisconsin.
"I always knew that people in Wisconsin, people in this country, but in Wisconsin in general, will always, no matter their own situation, try to help each other out,” she said. “So I knew that this would be a good platform.”
That platform seems to make an impact, based on the messages Scherr said she’s received from people in the group.
"It’s been insane the positive that I’ve heard from both consumers and farmers,” she said. “I've got farmers that are saying you've saved my farm I didn't know what I was going to do. And I've had customers say I didn't know how to do this either and I've always thought about doing it, so thanks for giving us this way to connect directly with the farmers."
To help manage the rapidly growing Facebook page, answer questions, and monitor comments is Megan Plucinksi. Plucinski grew up farming, and currently owns D&M Family Farm in Jefferson. She said she also uses the page for herself.
Plucinski said the focus of their farm is organic milk. She said that she hasn’t been hit quite as hard by the pandemic as conventional dairy farmers, which she credits to a generally smaller market for organic milk than conventional, and therefore less oversupply.
“They're getting hit really hard right now with prices and dumping milk and all of that and we've been fortunate to not experience that yet,” Plucinski said. “My own family farm has experienced that, it's all around us.”
One place where Plucinski said they are feeling the impact, however, is trying to get their beef and pork operations off the ground. Plucinski said because some larger processing plants shut down due to coronavirus, processors are backed up, meaning she’s unable to get her meat processed for months.
“That's going to really hurt a lot of farmers especially our size, because if we have to feed those animals for a whole other year, but we can’t raise our prices to the customer, we're kind of in a pickle.”
However, Plucinski said seeing the page, and everyone who wants to support farmers, is exciting.
“I think respectful consumers coming and saying how can we learn, what can we do, how can we support you? That is our ray of sunshine.”
“The people are there, they want to see, they want to learn,” Plucinksi said. “As farmers we need to remember that, we need to remember that as much as we want people to see the farm, we need to let them see the farm. We need to let people in and say look we know how to do all of these things, let's show you, and be kind about it. Especially with how hard markets have been lately, it gets stressful."
Plucinski and Scherr both said they hope people’s interest in going straight to the farmer doesn’t change once the effects of the pandemic start to decline.
"My motivation is to just keep this going. I don't want this to quit just because we're not on lock down anymore and if the product starts to come back to the grocery store, I still want people to go right to the source,” Scherr said. “And I believe that we have a base of people now that will never go back to the grocery store for their meat."
Scherr said she also hopes that people learn something from the page.
"I'm hoping that they're coming away educated, I hope they come away with the products that they're looking for,” she said. “I hope that they realize that their neighbors are farmers that supply our food chain. I hope that they have a little more community. Realizing that we’re all in this together and we’re all neighbors and we can help each other out."
Scherr has expanded Farm Direct Wisconsin beyond the Facebook page, creating a website with the help of Plucinski, an app, and an Instagram account.
Some farmers are also getting a boost from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Coronavirus Food Assistance Program.
According to the USDA website, the program aims to provide financial assistance to farmers who’ve suffered price declines of 5% or greater or had losses due to supply chain disruptions from COVID-19.
"This is a bridge, it's not ever going to make anybody whole, when you go through these kind of traumatic economic episodes, but it will at least allow them to bridge them over to continue producing," said United States Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue.
One of the programs under that umbrella is the Farmers to Families Food Box Program. According to the USDA’s website, the program involves the USDA buying up to $3 billion in products from farmers, to be packed up in boxes and distributed to non-profits and food banks for those in need.
Alsum Farms & Produce in Friesland grows potatoes and wholesales fruits and vegetables. They are participating in the program, and were awarded a $424,113 contract.
"Our hearts have always been about giving back and doing the right thing, and we're so fortunate and blessed to be able to work in an industry that truly is essential, and I think all Americans got to see how critical that agriculture and food is to our everyday lives,” said Alsum Farms & Produce marketing manager Christine Lindner. “And choosing good, nutritious Wisconsin grown products is really important, and we’ve seen that here in this time."
There are currently seven farms and producers from Wisconsin listed as contractors in the Midwest region for the Farmers to Families Food Box Program.
Lindner said Alsum is grateful to be able to give back to the community. She said they’ve been shipping out about 5,000 produce boxes full of potatoes, onions, pears, and apples weekly.
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