Reston, Virginia – Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association (MDVA) has earned the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy’s 2022 Sustainability Award for Outstanding Community Impact. The award recognizes dairy community efforts that improve lives and communities through positive impacts on health and wellness, hunger relief, workforce development, community volunteering and investment, and/or environmental stewardship. Successful nominations demonstrate instances where farms, cooperatives, processors, or other dairy community stakeholders develop practical and effective solutions to shared challenges and goals of the communities in which they live and work.
“MDVA knows it takes our entire community to work towards a more sustainable future and to position dairy as a climate solution,” Jay Bryant, CEO of MDVA said. “Our cooperative takes pride in being a part of a strong community and looks for opportunities to strengthen the ties between our members and their neighbors through environmental stewardship, philanthropy and positive connections.”
MDVA’s nomination for Outstanding Community Impact centered around our three clean water partnership programs: Maola Clean Water Partnership, the Giant Clean Water Partnership, and the Turkey Hill Clean Water Partnership. The work completed by these partnerships involved community giving campaigns at Giant grocery stores and volunteer engagement in a variety of sustainability efforts from trash pick-ups in urban areas to tree plantings on farms.
“The full sustainability package that MDVA has built through our clean water partnerships is unmatched on a national scale,” Lindsay Reames, Executive Vice President of Sustainability & External Relations for MDVA said. “Our collaborative approach demonstrates our commitment to our farmers and brings attention to the needed resources for our dairy farms to invest in sustainable solutions. Our partnerships can and should be replicated by other sectors in agriculture.”
MDVA’s portfolio of sustainability work is funded through outside grants and donations – not through member fees. Through partnerships over $19 Million dollars has been raised to invest in the sustainability of our member farms. Due to the support of our supply chain partners, MDVA members can simultaneously achieve financial and environmental sustainability, oftentimes with extra time to give to animal care and their own families.
In addition to MDVA’s award for Outstanding Community Impact, MDVA Member Grayhouse Farms in Stony Point, N.C. earned recognition for 2022 Outstanding Dairy Farm Sustainability.
This isn’t the first time MDVA has been recognized for innovation. MDVA, alongside our partners at the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay and Turkey Hill Dairy, was awarded the 2020 Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy Outstanding Supply Chain Collaboration Award for our shared Turkey Hill Clean Water Partnership. Learn more about our sustainability commitment at www.mdvamilk.com/sustainability.
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Contact: Lindsay Reames at 804-370-4324.
