Local food for the Hudson Valley

A man and a woman standing outside a brick building, holding packaged meat, smiling for the camera. The woman is wearing a white chef's coat and patterned pants, and a box of additional meat is on the ground in front of them.

Schools and food pantries in the Hudson Valley mostly rely on national distributors, even though farms are growing food right here. We're building the infrastructure that lets institutions source locally: processing facilities, food safety protocols, distribution logistics, and the partnerships that make regional supply chains work.

What We Do

Food Access

Our facilities and distribution systems exist to serve everyone in the community—not just customers who can pay full price. We build subsidies and donations into our business model from the start, not as charity but as core function. Schools get products at institutional prices that work in their budgets. Emergency food providers get strategic donations based on what they actually need.

Processing

Turning locally grown crops into products that meet institutional requirements means running commercial facilities with proper food safety protocols, maintaining consistent quality, and managing costs that work for both farmers and buyers. We operate Milestone Mill and Crop Shop facilities in Kingston, processing regional harvests into flour, tortillas, bread, and prepared foods.

Distribution

Getting local products into schools requires coordinating with USDA procurement rules, nutrition requirements, delivery schedules, and documentation standards that most farms can't meet on their own. Our distribution systems handle the logistics, paperwork, and quality control so institutions can rely on regional supply chains.

Our Impact

Serving Schools

Many local schools serve our whole wheat bread and tortilla chips. Kids get fresher food, schools meet nutrition requirements, and lunch dollars support local farms.

Feeding Neighbors

We deliver food every week to food pantries and emergency meal programs—the same quality products we sell to schools, because everyone deserves good food.

Supporting Local Farms

We work with farms across the region, buying their crops at fair prices and on reliable schedules. This helps farmers focus on growing instead of searching for buyers.

Creating Jobs

Every position we create—from mill operators to delivery drivers—is a stable, year-round job that helps families thrive right here in the Hudson Valley.

The Work

Building regional food infrastructure means rebuilding connections that used to exist—between local farms and the schools, hospitals, and stores that feed our communities. A generation ago, regions had their own mills, processors, and distributors. That infrastructure has largely disappeared, replaced by national supply chains that leave small farms out.

We're rebuilding it: running the facilities, managing the food safety protocols, coordinating the delivery schedules, and handling the procurement requirements that let institutions buy from Hudson Valley farms instead of national distributors.

We make decisions quickly and learn as we go. We'd rather get something working and improve it than wait for perfect. We're honest about what we don't know and we trust each other to figure it out.

If you're looking for work where you'll support local farms at institutional scale, where progress means better food access for thousands of families, and where you're building infrastructure that communities need—let's talk.

Join Our Team

We're hiring for positions in operations, finance, logistics, and production as we expand our facilities and services.

Think you’d be a good fit? Let us know:

A segregated lunch tray containing a salad with tomatoes and lettuce, a carton of Hudson Valley Fresh low-fat milk, steamed broccoli with corn, blueberries, and a slice of whole wheat bread.
Two Community Food Works team members delivering boxes of bread to a school.
A blue school lunch tray with a packet of tortilla chips, a serving of rotini pasta salad with vegetables, a pack of apple slices, a slice of whole wheat bread, and a carton of milk.
Educational poster about corn with drawings, text, and photos, including information on how corn is grown, its nutritional exchange process, and images of corn plants and a field of corn.