Rockingham County ministry provides for both dairy farmers and people in need
June 2025
Virginia is home to about 68,000 dairy cows, producing an average of 7.9 gallons of milk per day. In 2024, about 170 million gallons of milk were produced. (courtesy Eric Paulson)
by Preston Knight, Contributing Writer
Struggling dairy farmers needed a plan. Former Rockingham Cooperative’s Keith Turner offered something more. Hope.
“Hope is a powerful motivator,” he says. “We all need hope.”
In the fall of 2017, the Shenandoah Valley’s dairy industry, mirroring that of the commonwealth and the nation, was ripe for a boost of any kind. It was then that one farmer in Rockingham County, the top-producing dairy county in Virginia, invited Turner to his kitchen table; and a common tale of fear and foreclosure emerged.
And so did a new concept — The Cheese Ministry. “If we could take milk off the market and buy that cheap surplus milk and get it made into cheese,” says Turner, the feed division manager at Rockingham Cooperative at the time, “that extra demand for milk helps underpin the market, and by making cheese to give to people in need, we’re helping to feed people who normally never would be able to afford cheese.
“Helping farmers and feeding people at the same time: that’s the uniqueness of The Cheese Ministry.”
June is National Dairy Month, and no one need look any further than the positive impact of Turner’s program as a reason to celebrate it. Through donations and a corporate partner, Rockingham Cooperative, a chain of retail farm and consumer products stores based in Dayton, Va., The Cheese Ministry incurs minimal cost in supporting local dairy farmers who might be facing financial burdens.
Farmers, in turn, get to do what they do best: supply the rest of us with high-quality sustenance. “A co-op should be people helping people,” says Turner, who now works in business development at the co-op. “If you get it right, that is.”
Keith Turner, former feed division manager at Rockingham Cooperative, created The Cheese Ministry to support dairy farmers as well as help feed people in need.
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’ GOES ON
Turner calls purchasing power a “core competency” at Rockingham Cooperative to lower its members’ costs. The co-op has about 5,200 members, many overlapping as members of Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative. This purchasing concept gives The Cheese Ministry a better chance to succeed. Turner says that donated funds are used to purchase cheese in large volumes to lower the cost and multiply the benefits to people in need.
“I am a big picture thinker,” he says. “We strategically purchase cheese using excess milk to lower the cost of the cheese produced.” Cheese is sourced from Lanco-Pennland, a dairy cooperative with a cheese plant in Hancock, Md., that donates part of the production cost as a charitable contribution. Several local dairy farmers are members of Lanco-Pennland, with their milk shipped to the cheese plant.
It takes 10 pounds of milk to produce one pound of cheese. Turner says a 40,000-pound trailer load of cheese currently costs about $110,000 to deliver. Volunteer drivers and donated equipment cover virtually all expenses to get the cheese from Maryland, except for the price of diesel fuel.
The Cheese Ministry’s partnerships with farmers extend well beyond Rockingham County. One such farmer is Mercer Vu Farms, a Rappahannock Electric Cooperative member in Clarke County. Mercer Vu Farms delivers milk to Lanco, buys cow feed from Rockingham Cooperative and delivers cheese to distribute to its local food bank. “I think The Cheese Ministry is a win-win for everyone,” says Rod Hissong, one of the family operators of Mercer Vu. “It helps the farmer by moving product and helping consumers. And it helps the underprivileged by providing high-quality protein and nutrition from dairy products.”
Regardless of where the milk for the cheese originates, adding demand for cheese incrementally helps to support milk prices, Turner explains. This is not lost on those who keep watch on the industry at a broader level. “The work The Cheese Ministry has done is simply incredible,” says Eric Paulson, executive secretary of the Virginia State Dairymen’s Association, which is also based in Rockingham County. “They ensure that dairy producers receive a fair price for the milk, which helps the local dairy industry, and then uses that cheese to help support the local community.
“For dairy producers, there’s something special about seeing the milk they worked hard to produce turned into cheese, then distributed to provide a nutritious meal to someone who truly needs it.” The cheese, which is mozzarella, is natural with no additives or color agents, Turner says. The milk used to produce the cheese is full-fat whole milk, which results in a higher-fat cheese, he adds.
Food pantries tell Turner that cheese is one of their most requested foods. Cheese arrives twice a year for dispersal across area churches and food cupboards at Hope Distributed, a large nonprofit operation serving more than 34,000 people a year in Rockingham County and the surrounding area.
“We want to give the best to people in need,” Turner says. “A number of the immigrants, refugees and low-income people we deliver cheese to come from backgrounds where cheese is not part of their diet. Many of the people we have given cheese to really like the cheese. Their children love the cheese. In a small way, this creates more demand for real cheese.”
That impact is invaluable. And it can be just as meaningful to the dairy farm community.
MINISTERING HOPE
Ten years ago, 640 dairies operated in Virginia, and today, the number is down to 339, Paulson says. He calls the Shenandoah Valley the “heart of the dairy industry,” with 165 dairies in Rockingham County, 25 in Augusta County and eight in Shenandoah County. When combined, those three counties alone make up over half of Virginia’s dairies.
“One of the big challenges dairy farmers face is that they can’t control the price they receive for their milk,” Paulson says. “We often say they’re price takers, not price makers. Because milk is perishable, it gets shipped off to market right away, and the farmer won’t know what they earned for it until the milk check arrives a month later. That lag time makes planning tough and adds to the rollercoaster of milk price volatility.”
With decades of experience, Turner has endless stories of working alongside farmers, many in the Amish and Old Order Mennonite communities, to assist them in keeping their operations running. He advises the importance of running the family farm as a business and having a strategic plan.
“Milk markets are volatile, and it can be difficult for the average farmer to navigate,” Turner says. “It all can fall on one set of shoulders, especially a family farm.”
The Cheese Ministry alone does not save dairy farmers involved in the process. But it at least provides a form of relief. The ministry falls under a larger nonprofit also started by Turner, The Farm Ministry, which also distributes pork and beef. It was recently the recipient of a salary donation from Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and first lady Suzanne Youngkin.
Turner first envisioned adding cheese to the portfolio after meeting with a struggling dairy farmer in November 2017. The initial shipment arrived within weeks, and to date, cheese totaling nearly $800,000 in market value has been handed out ever since.
“I would encourage other co-ops to get involved. Co-ops are here to help people,” Turner says. “The Cheese Ministry gives farmers hope in the fact that somebody’s making an effort to try to help them, to help their financial situation. When you’re below breakeven, and you’re a dairy business, it’s a seemingly hopeless, helpless situation — one that’s very difficult. Sitting there and looking in the eyes of somebody whose family is fearful of losing the family farm, that’s where the concept came up. It was just like flipping a switch. People ready to give up and walk away found a glimmer of hope.
“We’re a ministry of hope.
For more information, visit thefarmministry.org/cheese-ministry.