CHENANGO COUNTY — Chenango Food Alliance (CFA) is a community-driven initiative connecting local farms, processors, and food pantries to provide locally raised, high-protein meat to families in Chenango County.

Launching its first Community Access Survey, on July 31 to August 29, CFA hopes to understand the community’s food purchasing barriers such as price, location, product type, package size, and preferred access methods.

“What we’re looking to do is gain information from the community about what makes it difficult for them to purchase locally grown meat, eggs, and dairy, whether it’s price, location or something else,” said CFA Co-Founder and Chair, and Berry Brae Farm Owner Sarah Jensen.

“Once we have that information, we will use a community pricing access model to keep retailers and farmers whole, while CFA would step in with additional funds for support,” Jensen said.

Although they haven’t announced the program yet, Jensen said they look forward to receiving data from the community to see if their idea for this program is actually what would help them bring people to their markets and farm stores.

She noted the survey consists of questions regarding how many people are in the household, what food items are most useful, purchasing challenges, costs, where foods are purchased now, and more.

To take the survey, the link can be found at https://sites.google.com/chenangofoodalliance.org/communityaccesssurvey/home or paper copies can be found at Roots and Wings, Bainbridge Free Library, Care and Share Food Pantry, Earlville Food Cupboard, and Norwich Copies Plus.

Flyers with a QR survey code can be found at Guernsey Memorial Library, Bainbridge Free Library, Moore Memorial Library, Roots and Wings, Greene Area Churches Food Pantry, Afton Inter-Church Food Pantry, Earlville Food Cupboard - Thuvia Stopford, Care and Share Food Pantry - Melanie Simmons, Unadilla Valley Food Pantry, Community Cupboard of Edmeston, and Norwich Copies Plus.

Jensen said that being a producer, she attends local farmers’ markets and doesn’t see as many people at the markets as she would like.

She cited some people are purchasing from the markets, but some community members notice small producers prices look a little higher than they do in grocery stores and this could be slowing down their decision to buy.

The plan to reduce pricing would include CFA stepping in to offset the marginal fee, Jensen explained.

“Say a farmer has 100 pounds of meat and sold it to the local retailer; normally the retailer has marked it up to protect their margin, but what if CFA offers $300 on that 100 pounds of meat, it would help bring costs down,” she said.

“We want to take the time to listen to the community to understand what their barriers are, before we start designing access pricing models,” Jensen continued. “Also, we want to know what would be the most comfortable way for people to make their purchases.”

“Would it be getting a coupon, identifying themselves, possibly pick up directly from the producer, we want to know what resonates the most,” she added.

Jensen gave thanks to the volunteers that help in manning tables at the Oxford Market and chipping in during Open Farm Day, sitting at the CFA table, adding, “We are always looking for volunteers if anyone is interested in this type of work, we would love to hear from you.”

CFA was founded in August 2025 and is a project of Catskills Agrarian Alliance (CAA), a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit that receives and administers donations and continues to develop new ways for local households to access local meat, eggs, and dairy.

For more information, to volunteer, or to donate to CFA, visit their website at www.chenangofoodalliance.org.