If you like cheese and cocktails, you’re in luck — two local farms recently received federal grants to expand their businesses, hire more employees, and sell their goods at more venues across the state.
The grantees — Fantello Creamery outside Enumclaw and Simple Goodness Sisters, whose owners run a farm in Buckley and a soda/cocktail shop in Wilkeson — received the money last summer, but were visited by Rep. Kim Schrier (WA-08) and U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Xochitl Torres Small on April 4. Schrier serves in the Agriculture Committee in the House and has advocated for federal funds to come to the Plateau to aid local farmers.
Fantello Creamery received a $250,000, though in order to get the money, they also had to pony up a matching amount. Simple Goodness Sisters had to do the same for its $50,000 grant.
According to Paul Fantello, who takes care of the cows that makes the cheeses, most of the money is going toward hiring new employees to both help make cheese — specifically the creamery’s famous Filomena cheese, named after Fantello’s grandmother and which won second place in the national American Cheese Society competition (raclette division) — and help sell products at various markets around the state.
“We’re doing a lot more markets than we have in the past,” Fantello said in a recent interview, adding that the grant will be used to hire two new part-time employees. “Every hand helps.”
Some grant money will also be used to cut down on production costs.
The grant only lasts for two years, so Fantello is hoping that by the time the federal funds run out, the creamery will be making enough money to keep those employees on, or even hire more help.
Down south, the Simple Goodness Sisters will be using their grant money to delve deeper into seasonal simple syrups, which are often used in cocktails but have myriad other uses.
This is the second time Simple Goodness Sisters has received the grant, said co-owner Venise Cunningham.
The first time around, federal funds were used to make sure her business model — making simple syrups and using them as a base product in the store — would have a successful start.
Now, Cunningham is looking to use this grant money to produce seasonal syrups, specifically an apple pie flavor.
Simple Goodness Sisters already tested out the product with a select few people who signed up for a subscription box.
It was a popular item, Cunningham said (they stocked it in their store and it sold out in two days), so this grant will be used to make the syrup available to the general public. While some money will be used to create two season full-time and part-time jobs, Cunningham said it will also be used to successfully market a seasonal product
“It can be expensive to learn all of that, and that’s where the grant comes in handy,” she added.
If the apple pie simple syrup is successful, Cunningham hopes to be able to delve into other seasonal products as well.
GRANT FUNDING COULD BE CUT
The grants awarded to Fantello Creamery and the Simple Goodness Sisters are part of what’s known as the Farm Bill, which was enacted into federal law in 2018 but expires in 2023.
Though slated to be renewed, Republicans in Congress have advocated to making cuts to the program, which mostly funds the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is more commonly referred to as food stamps.
If cuts are made to these grants, that could put small farms like Fantello Creamery and other dairies at risk; according to the Seattle Times, dairy farms in Washington have been decimated, going from about 1,600 in 1998 to only about 300 today.
