KNOX — Citizens Financial Group has contributed $20,000 to the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York to support the operation of the Patroon Land Farm.

From 2001 to 2005, the late Pauline Williman and her brother, William Salisbury, operated their family’s farm in Knox and harvested produce for the hungry. Then, in 2006, the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York took over management of the farm. 

Patroon Farm and the Regional Food Bank launched a community-supported agriculture program in 2008, allowing members who support the farm to buy shares, and pick up produce each week. 

The purpose of the CSA was to sell enough memberships so that the farm could pay for its own operations.

The property is well over 150 acres in size; however, just 30 acres are tillable farmland.

Patroon Farm can grow anywhere between 100,000 and 150,000 pounds of produce per year, the manager of farm projects for the Regional Food Bank told The Enterprise in 2019, and two-thirds of that finds its way to the food bank. The other third goes toward the CSA vegetable-share program to pay for the farm.

The Patroon Land Farm, Citizens Financial said in making the grant, has produced over a million pounds of vegetables and hosted thousands of volunteers with the goal of providing healthy, organic food to hungry people as part of its program, From Field to Fork: Fighting Hunger with Farm Fresh Produce.

Williman named the foundation she’d created for the land’s history — the farmland was once part of the original Van Rensselaer patroonship under Dutch colonial rule. 

Her mission was rooted in her family’s past. “My parents had so little when I was a kid,” she once told The Enterprise. “We ate what we raised on the farm. If people came to the house, no one went away hungry. People were welcomed and offered the best we had.”

“For millions of people in America, a daily meal isn’t a choice between different dishes. It’s often an impossible choice between food and other critical needs,” said Bruce Van Saun, chairman and chief executive officer of Citizens Financial Group in a release, announcing the grant. “Our partnership with Feeding America helps to tackle the root causes of hunger and aims to increase the scale and impact of local food banks, particularly now, as our communities continue grappling with economic instability.” 

In 2021, through the Citizens Helping Citizens Fight Hunger initiative, the bank helped provide 16.3 million meals via its partnership with Feeding America and other local hunger relief organizations, the release said; Citizens colleagues volunteered nearly 90,000 hours to help combat hunger in communities across the bank’s enterprise.

— Melissa Hale-Spencer