ALBANY — In January 2016, the New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health (NYCAMH) created the John May Farm Safety Fund for New York farmers needing financial assistance to improve safety on their farms. As you all know, farmers struggle every day to make any kind of profit at all. Often, safety repairs are put on the back burner, as other drains on a farmer’s finances, time and talents take priority. That’s where the John May Farm Safety Fund comes in.
Named in honor of NYCAMH’s co-founder, Dr. John May, the John May Farm Safety Fund received seed money of $25,000 per year for four years from the C.J. Heilig Foundation and NYCAMH successfully solicited individual contributions and grants in 2016 to exceed the goal of matching the foundation’s generosity. In addition, Friends of Bassett Healthcare Network designated funds raised from their inaugural Valentine Soirée on February 11, 2017, to the John May Farm Safety Fund, which provided an additional $150,000.
With these funds, we have gotten a lot done. To date, 46 projects from livestock and crop farmers have been approved for funding, from 27 counties in NYS.
After all of this, here’s how our funds look today:
We are pleased with the number of folks who have reached out to us so far, and hope to continue helping more farmers improve safety practices on their farms.
We ask that you help us spread the word about the Fund, and consider making a donation so we can reach our goal of helping 30 farms per year.
Donating to the John May Farm Safety Fund can help keep our farmers safe. NYCAMH absorbs all administrative costs. Every dollar donated ends up going out to farms, but only after an on-site inspection of the proposed project and then careful consideration by a panel of safety professionals.
Here are testimonials from two satisfied JMFSF recipients:
For more information, please visit us at:
http://www.nycamh.org/programs/john-may-farm-safety-fund/
Please help by spreading the word about applying to the program or consider making a donation to this worthy cause. Call (607) 547-3928 or use this link: https://donate.bassett.org/donate-now?_ga=1.37173667.2052352339.1457364504
—New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health
For more articles out of New York, click here.