To assist community members in need during the COVID-19 pandemic, dairy farmers in Vermont banded together to give away thousands of gallons of milk. Elle Purrier, American record-holder in the indoor mile, Seven Days Vermont.
Originally reported by Seven Days Vermont, the Vermont Dairy Cares initiative was a collaboration between sponsors and dairy farmers in St. Albans.
The donation was made to address the need for food assistance—which has increased by at least 60 percent since the coronavirus outbreak, according to John Sayles, CEO of the Vermont food bank—and raise awareness for dairy farmers who are being forced to dump surplus milk in response to restaurant and market closures. In total, they donated 4,000 gallons of milk.
More From Runner's World
“The main goal was to recognize that dairy farmers are struggling and everybody in the community is struggling,” Purrier told Runner’s World. “But we're all in this together. We're here and we care for you. And we're a community that's in it together.”
On Friday, May 8, Purrier and fellow dairy farmers set up drive-through events at two locations, where local families were given 1-2 gallons each. Wearing a mask and gloves, Purrier handed out cartons with her future in-laws, the St. Pierres, who have a farm in Berkshire, Vermont.
“All of the people that showed up, you could tell that they were really in need,” Purrier said. “Some people were emotional about it. They can't really pay for some of the things that they'd get at the grocery store right now.”
Several families informed Purrier that without the donation, their kids wouldn’t have milk that week.
Purrier, 25, Health & Injuries in Montgomery, Vermont, a few miles from the Canadian border, where she milked cows in the morning before school. In 2018, she graduated from the University of New Hampshire as the NCAA indoor champion in the mile; she turned professional that spring and joined Mark Coogan’s New Balance Boston team.
Before the 2020 season was postponed, Purrier set a new American record in the mile at the Millrose Games on February 8. After a race down the homestretch between Purrier and Konstanze Klosterhalfen, Purrier broke the tape in 4:16.85 at The Armory in New York City.
Since late March, Purrier—who has been living with her fiancé, Jamie, in Berkshire—spends her days supporting her family on their farm in Montgomery and training in preparation to make Team USA headed to the Tokyo Olympic Games, which were postponed to next summer. While Purrier waits for competitions to return, she is focusing on what she can control.
“I just try to think about how what I'm doing right now will help me in the future,” she said. “Whether I have a race coming soon or whether I don't, I feel like this training will help me for next year so that's what I've been having in the back of my head and thinking about when it's tough.”
For Purrier, one silver lining of shelter-in-place restrictions has been working on her family’s farm. Her daily chores—milking the cows, throwing hay bales, tending to the pigs, shoveling out the barn—are contributing to the property that has been in her family since 1904. Now more than ever, she’s appreciating the opportunity to support them in these difficult times.
“Farmers are kind of struggling right now to get paychecks so being able to be here with my family during that. ... I wouldn't really want to be anywhere else,” she said.
Taylor Dutch is a sports and fitness writer living in Chicago; a former NCAA track athlete, Taylor specializes in health, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. Her work has appeared in SELF, Runner’s World, Bicycling, Outside, and Podium Runner. When she’s not writing, Taylor volunteers as a coach to up-and-coming runners in the Chicago area.
