Borderland milk distributor works to keep up production during pandemic without furloughs, financial assistance
EL PASO, Texas -- A Borderland milk distributor that serves the region said it will continue to service hundreds of thousands of consumers with milk products amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sarah Farms, the regionally-owned dairy farm and milk processing plant, serves El Paso and Midland in Texas, as well as Las Cruces and Albuquerque in New Mexico.
"We service big box doors," Sarah Farms managing director Patrick Byrne said. "Sam's, Costco, regular grocery stores, Walmart, Food King, Big 8, and also your convenient stores, like Circle K, and Walgreens. We also serve the three big school districts in El Paso and Las Cruces."
Byrne said he is seeing a steady demand in the grocery store and retail chains, but any gains are erased with schools closed.
"We are seeing less than 30 to 40 percent in the school district with what we see there," Byrne said, but continued saying, "We saw an unprecedented demand" the first week Covid-19 hit the Borderland. "Our production was almost double," he added.
"The next week, it's like someone turned off the light switch. We had milk coming in and people all over the country were dumping milk," Byrne said. "We were able to give some of the milk to the (El Pasoans Fighting Hunger) food bank, but we had to dump some, too."
Byrne told ABC-7 "dumping milk" does not mean pouring it down the drain. The managing director said they turned the milk into cream and fed the skim milk to animals on the farm.
"[Covid-19] hurt us," Byrne said. "While we have seen more sales at the local grocery stores, we have lost all of our food service from our restaurant business."
However, Byrne said Sarah Farms has not applied for loan assistance.
"We are in a USDA program where we are donating milk and getting reimbursed by USDA a little bit," Byrne explained.
"We haven't had to furlough or lay anyone off. We employ 160 in El Paso and other on the farm," Byrne said, adding, "It's been very difficult, but we feel very blessed because we have a responsibility to feed the community."
