Two gifts from charitable trusts benefitting micro-creamery project

U.S. Bank Wealth Management, representing two charitable trusts, recently awarded a total of $25,000 to Northwest Missouri State University and the Northwest Foundation to support the University’s micro-creamery expansion.

The Foundation received $20,000 from the Gary G. Taylor Trust and $5,000 from the Harry and Helena Messick Charitable Trust. Both trusts are managed by U.S. Bank Wealth Management.

Northwest is adding a micro-creamery to the Agricultural Learning Center at the University's R.T. Wright Farm. (Photo by Lilly Cook/Northwest Missouri State University)

Northwest's 29,500-square-foot multipurpose Agricultural Learning Center opened in 2021 to enhance the School of Agricultural Sciences and its curriculum while meeting infrastructure needs at the 448-acre Wright Farm. (Photo by Lauren Adams/Northwest Missouri State University)

Northwest’s Board of Regents approved plans in 2023 for the micro-creamery, which is on schedule to be completed this spring inside Northwest’s Agricultural Learning Center.

“U.S. Bank, on behalf of the Taylor and Messick charitable trusts, is proud to award these funds for the micro-creamery expansion,” Courtney Jimenez, assistant vice president and trust officer for U.S. Bank Private Wealth Management, said. “The grantors of these trusts both came from agricultural backgrounds. Gary G. Taylor spent his lifetime farming in Holt and Nodaway counties. Harry and Helena Messick were lifetime farmers in Andrew County and were once awarded the Centennial Farm Award by the Missouri Committee for Agriculture. The micro-creamery expansion at the Agricultural Learning Center is a wonderful project to continue educating the next generation of farmers.”

Located at the University’s R.T. Wright Farm, the Agricultural Learning Center, which was completed in 2021, and the micro-creamery give the School of Agricultural Sciences an opportunity to enhance profession-based learning for its students and the potential to offer milk and other dairy products to consumers.

Northwest maintains a dairy herd of approximately 70 cattle at the R.T. Wright Farm, which is located north of the Maryville campus and used to teach agriculture students about dairy health, management and collection. A lack of processing facilities at Northwest, however, means students’ profession-based learning ends after the collected milk leaves the farm.

The proposed project will remedy that gap, allowing students and regional producers to experience the entire lifecycle of dairy production, from herd management and collection through processing, food production, safety testing and potentially even the marketing and retail of fluid milk, ice cream, butter, cheeses or other dairy products.

Additionally, the University wants to help improve the state’s dairy industry by offering expanded education and training opportunities for regional producers and agriculture students. To assist with purchasing equipment for the micro-creamery, Northwest received $250,000 from the Missouri Agricultural and Small Business Development Authority (MASBDA) through the Show-Me Entrepreneurial Grants for Agriculture (SEGA) program.

To make a gift to support the University, including the micro-creamery, contact the Northwest Foundation at 660.562.1248 or visit www.nwmissouri.edu/GiveOnline.