Hello and happy spring, folks! After an incredibly long winter, it’s so nice to have the sunshine and see people coming out and about. I want to take this month’s note to share some context within which we are operating. First, I will talk about how we’ve altered operations due to the ongoing pandemic, and then, describe a bit about how funding drives what programs we are offering. In March 2020, the Extension Education Center closed its doors to public walk-ins and in person group activities. We continue to provide assistance to the public by appointment, through web-based mediums, and in field visits. Per NYS guidelines, we will continue operating this way until further notice, including continuing to observe all standing safety protocols around masking, distancing, and sanitization. Indoor group activities are still prohibited, for all programs including 4-H. We’ve received lots of inquiries for group workshops, both in person and by Zoom. As we move towards warmer days we’re looking forward to offering some outdoor education and service opportunities, and rolling out more nutrition and food related content online. Keep your eyes peeled on our facebook and web events pages for listings! On a related note, we often receive inquiries from the community asking if we are offering a program in a particular interest area – let’s say, home composting or foraging, for example. While both these subjects fall within one of our five program areas, the current funding model does not support these activities. You see, at any given time, we are funded by 30-40 different local, state, and federal contracts. Each of these contracts have very specific activities and deliverables, and all of them are “reimbursable”. This means CCE Sullivan needs to expend money for staffing and program expenses, report our activities to the funder, then await reimbursement once the funder deems our activities and deliverables sufficient under the contract. For folks who have been involved with Extension for several decades, this is definitely different than it was, even just in the 1990s, when Extension’s primary funding sources were not restricted to specific activities, so long as the work fell within our mission. This left Extension staff with a lot of room to be flexible in planning and delivering programs. These days, the majority of our program budget is driven by time limited, competitive grants and contracts. The good news is that we use local data and input from our local municipalities, community partners, program participants, board, and committees to inform what we write into our competitive applications. This way, we’re still being responsive to community needs. The downside is that once awarded, our energies must be committed to those contracts, limiting our ability to be creative with our resources. Further, when the pandemic hit, we redirected any bit of unrestricted funds we had to ensuring our local residents had access to food. With no new funding thus far, we are committed to continuing this work. We have invested more than $350,000 in the past year alone to support the Catskills Food Hub in its transition from primarily wholesale sales to retail sales, the expansion of the Sullivan Fresh Market on the Move to six sites across the county, and the creation and sustainability of the Sullivan Fresh Community Cupboard, a mobile food pantry and soup kitchen that delivers more than 1600 meals four days a week, ensuring that our once invisible neighbors, most in need, don’t have to worry where their next meal comes from.
Extension Connection
April 2021
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