About this Event
Hosted in partnership with Ulster BOCES, this Mini-Summit will bring together our County's leading food and beverage producers, agricultural companies, and educational partners to identify key priorities for accelerating the sector through innovation, creating more production capacity, and sustaining agriculture in our County.
Together, we will:
- Discuss strengths, constraints, and opportunities for growth
- Support a more connected ecosystem within the business community, our educational institutions, and other partners
- Elevate a wide range of voices in the conversation, from students to workers to business owners
- Learn about existing educational programs that align with this sector, from culinary to advanced manufacturing to agriculture.
Agenda
🕑: 02:00 PM - 02:40 PM
Welcome
Host: Jonah Schenker
Info: Opening remarks from County Executive Jen Metzger and Ulster BOCES Superintendent Jonah Schenker. Emcees Leslie Wellington, Director of Economic Development, and Sharon Williams, Director of the Office of Employment & Training, will provide a framing and program overview.
🕑: 02:40 PM - 03:55 PM
Panel: Growing It Here, Making It Here
Host: Kyle Jaster (Community Food Works)
Info: This panel brings together leaders of three Hudson Valley food businesses that each started with a single product and grew by different routes — a pasture-based dairy that processes everything on-site, a solar-powered popcorn company that turned a roller rink into a food factory, and a certified-organic bakery operating at scale with carbon-neutral production — joined by the County’s Agricultural Services Administrator. Moderated by Kyle Jaster of Community Food Works, the conversation asks what it takes for a food business to grow here, what the sector is becoming, and who it will need.
🕑: 03:55 PM - 04:25 PM
Demonstration Project: Advanced Manufacturing Meets the Mill
Info: Ulster BOCES Assistant Superintendent for Learning and Design of Career Pathways Peter V. Harris, together with students, will showcase a design‑for‑manufacturing collaboration with the Community Food Works Mill.
🕑: 04:25 PM - 05:00 PM
Ecosystem Offerings
Host: Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County
Info: Short presentations from Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County, Rondout Valley Growers Association, SUNY Ulster, and Hudson Valley AgriBusiness Development Corp. Each partner will share one valuable offering and one key need for strengthening the sector.
🕑: 05:00 PM - 06:00 PM
Closing & Ulster BOCES Career Academies Tour
Info: Final priorities will be shared, which will inform Countywide economic planning. Attendees are invited to tour the Ulster BOCES Career Academies and see design thinking, LEAN principles, and project-based learning in action — with students, staff, and administrators sharing career-connected learning across agriculture, culinary arts, and advanced manufacturing.
Event venue & nearby stays
Ulster BOCES Career Academies at iPark 87, 300 Enterprise Drive, Kingston, United States
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.