Campus & Community

CNY Bounty opens delivery site on Syracuse’s South Side

Monday, June 28, 2010, By Kelly Homan Rodoski

Looking for locally grown, farm-fresh food? This produce can now be found at the South Side Innovation Center (SSIC) on Syracuse’s South Side.

On June 24, Central New York (CNY) Bounty opened a new delivery site for its online farmers’ market at SSIC. Interested consumers can order food over the weekend for pickup on Thursday. Conveniently located only minutes from the Syracuse University campus, this new drop site delivers fresh, local, organic foods to a part of Syracuse in need of alternative food options.

The Environmental Finance Center (EFC) at Syracuse University is collaborating with CNY Bounty and the SSIC to bring this market to a neighborhood that is essentially a “food desert,” where residents must travel long distances to supermarkets in order to get non-local, non-organic food.

“This collaboration is going to connect families all over Syracuse with small-scale, local farmers and producers,” says Marty Butts, SSIC’s director of marketing. “We’re excited about the opportunity to bring this project to Syracuse’s South Side.”

With the new CNY Bounty site, supporting the local economy, eating healthy and commuting less is now convenient and inexpensive. Through the organization’s website, one can order produce, dairy, eggs, pasta, meat, herbs and already prepared foods like coffee, cacao, muffins, pastries and salad dressing. Most food is sourced from 90 farms in Madison and Chenango Counties early in the week; processed foods may come from elsewhere. CNY Bounty’s headquarters is in Norwich, serving its local food community and currently expanding to meet consumer demand locally in Syracuse.

“Part of the mission of the Environmental Finance Center is to foster sustainable communities,” says Melissa Young, EFC program manager. “Connecting consumers to local farmers is one way we do this: it supports the local agricultural economy and reduces the amount of miles food travels to our plates.”

CNY Bounty, whose mission is to make it more efficient and affordable for local farms to bring their foods to market, has multiple drop sites in the area in addition to the new site in Syracuse, including Norwich, Oneida, Bainbridge, Whitney Point, Morrisville, Nelson, Fayetteville and Liverpool.

“CNY Bounty staff and producers are very excited about the addition of the South Side Innovation Center as a Bounty drop site. SSIC is asserting itself as a leader in the area for providing easy access to local, farm fresh items on a weekly basis,” says Jody Horsman, marketing manager of CNY Bounty.