It was a perfect storm of events for dairy providers across B.C.
An order came through the B.C. Milk Board to dump supply when floods and landslides cut off the supply chain across the province. Thousands of litres of milk from producers in Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Agassiz-Harrison and the interior had to be dumped into manure pits since road washouts and mudslides made it impossible to transport product.
The cutoffs triggered panic shopping, which created a shortage on dairy products.
That’s where Creekside Dairy in Agassiz comes in.
RELATED: B.C. FLOODS: Fraser Valley dairy farmers dumping 1000s of litres of milk every day
The Treur family operation was in a unique position – they were able to pasteurize product right on the farm. Julaine, with her husband Johannes worked through the night to process as much milk as they could to serve the hundreds of customers flocking to the Agassiz dairy.
“My husband worked pretty much the night to process as much milk as we could,” Treur said. “We only ended up needing to dump about a day’s worth of production. The rest we were able to salvage by processing that into milk and into cheese.”
Normally, the processing day begins at 4 a.m., but a few days last week saw Johannes, who processes most of the milk himself, clock in an hour early, working well into the night. The dairy could process about 500 litres of milk per four hours, and they would need as much as they could get. Customers from across the area lined up to get their milk; at the peak of the rush on dairy, Creekside sold 1,400 litres in a single day, at cost.
“We’d been serving families, churches that house evacuees, some care homes and the food banks,” Treur recalled.
She said there was even one woman from Chilliwack who had dozens of milk jugs in her van for her neighbours, each labeled with a name and a phone number , in an impromptu milk delivery operation.
RELATED: VIDEO: Agassiz’s Creekside Dairy puts in overtime to serve flood-ridden community
Amid the gratitude and relief Creekside was able to offer, Treur said their thoughts often turned to the farmers who lost thousands of animals due to the devastating flood.
“As farmers, knowing that our fellow farmers are facing such a dilemma on the Sumas Prairie and that they have to leave their cows behind and that the cows are in such dire circumstances, we feel what they’re going through,” she said, her eyes tearing up. “Emotions are really high for all dairy farmers in the province right now.”
Treur said she was able to enlist the help of her sister, sister-in-law, her daughter and her daughter’s friend to help serve the community; normally it’s Treur herself and another employee who take care of the storefront. They filled food-safe pails, jugs and bottles with fresh milk for customers from Agassiz, Harrison and beyond.
“It was really crazy busy,” Treur recalled.”But when you see a mother break down because she’s so happy she has milk for her child, it’s pretty rewarding.”
– With files from The Canadian Press