Eating ice cream every day can actually make the world a better a place with the new dairy brand, MILK NOT JAILS.
The Big Idea:
Rural New York is home to 90% of the state’s prisons, which provide jobs in a depressed rural economy. Meanwhile the majority of people in prison come from New York City’s communities of color and their families are forced to make long trips to visit them. The guards union and their elected officials oppose major reforms to the prison system because they fear it will destroy jobs in their community. As a result, New York’s prison system is racist, ineffective, and too expensive. This is not going to change unless we can develop a new economic relationship between urban and rural areas. MILK NOT JAILS looks to the state’s dairy industry – which comprises 80% of New York’s agricultural sales – for a delicious solution to this conundrum. Join us in saying, “If rural New York’s economic survival depends on us, we’d rather drink their milk than go to their prison.”
What we are doing:
Over the past year, MILK NOT JAILS has been touring New York State educating people about prison industry economics and asking farmers to join our cooperative. We host ice cream socials in urban areas to reach out to communities impacted by incarceration, to conduct market research,, and to dialogue about our project. We have elicited feedback from over 250 dairy farmers and identified a niche market that we can develop. Over 35 criminal justice organizations endorse MILK NOT JAILS.
Our dairy cooperative has quickly grown from a conversation to a pilot business. We recently started a milk share program in Brooklyn, where people purchase a milk subscription from one of our partner farms. We are undertaking a massive outreach campaign to coffee shops, daycares and CSAs to sell milk contracts to these local establishments. We are analyzing over a year’s worth of market research to identify neighborhoods and retailers to sell to. Our farmers have cheese, butter, yogurt and ice cream ready to sell once we have our distribution system established!
What we need:
We need two things to turn our business plan into a reality. First, we need a truck to deliver products throughout New York City (and eventually other cities). Our farmers will drop off their products at one location within New York City, but we need a way to get this milk to all of the cafes, CSAs, and stores we have established contracts with. We need a refrigerated delivery truck that can safely transport dairy products. This truck will also be used as a county fair float and a mobile popular education tool.
Second, we need to print marketing materials – stickers, labels and tags – so that consumers can identify our products on the store shelf. We have created a buzz in urban centers across the state, and people are anxious to start building an economic relationship with our politically allied dairy farmers. Help us make this happen.
