To tell the story of Sweet Grass Dairy, we have to start
a couple generations back.
My mom and dad were very forward thinking in understanding
that in order to preserve the farms for future generations,
there had to be a value-added product.
Cheese was our vehicle of telling the story of this really
high quality milk and unique farming style.
We are cheese manufacturers, located in South Georgia.
The Sweet Grass Dairy difference is that commitment to
maintaining the raw ingredient.
We get milk several times a week so that we are always
working with the freshest milk that we can.
Comes directly from their farms to us.
And we also do a lot of data analysis to try to create
benchmarks and standards that correlate to a really great finished product.
When you taste a Sweet Grass Dairy cheese,
you can taste that really high-quality grass-based milk.
In this rotational-grazing style, the cows are actually able to
sequester carbon back into the soil, which mitigates the
effects of climate change.
Not only are the cows healthier, the land is healthier,
it offers a more sustainable lifestyle for the farm workers
and the family.
We have roughly sixty employees total.
Which is spread between our cheese production and
manufacturing facility. We have a full-service restaurant
and retail cheese shop in downtown Thomasville.
And then we also have a separate e-commerce shipping area.
Our mission at Sweet Grass Dairy is to try to change
the way people view the American food system through our cheeses.
We are trying to reach national distribution through
food service and retail channels.
I really had a hard time breaking
into more retail markets because they have much higher
standards of food safety and traceability.
We knew that we needed to reach out and ask for some help
and Georgia MEP made sure that we are all in compliance
in our new production facility.
I'm Wendy White, I'm the Industry Manager for Food and Beverage at the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership
which is part of the larger MEP National Network.
My relationship with Sweet Grass Dairy started about two years ago.
When COVID hit, we lost about 78% of our sales
because Sweet Grass Dairy was built n selling through the food service channels .
At the same time, our e-commerce business soared
and we grew like 400% in 2020.
But it made us realize that end consumers really do want to
support small family farms.
They want to know where their food comes from, they were just having a hard time getting it.
Georgia MEP was able to help Sweet Grass Dairy on
many different projects.
Initially several food safety projects, satisfying customer audits,
food safety trainings, and this evolved into marketing projects.
Helping as they pivoted to an e-commerce platform.
We make a pasteurized product, we package product on site,
and we then we also make something that would be considered to be a more high risk food product.
Georgia MEP it really does feel like they're in our corner
and they want to see us succeed.
One of the founding principles of Sweet Grass Dairy
is that everybody deserves great food and everybody deserves to know where their food comes from.
And if we were only selling to the highest end restaurants,
we're not reaching a lot of people.
By connecting the end consumers with producers,
it's your best opportunity to really understand what you are eating and where your food comes from.
Small and medium manufacturers like Sweet Grass Dairy are
an essential part not only of their community,
but also the food manufacturing industry.
What we do does make a difference, even though we're small.
When you add up all the food manufacturers together,
it's a pretty powerful group and really important to our country.