Economic Futures Mini-Summit: Value‑Added Ag & Food Production

Opening remarks from Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger and Ulster BOCES Superintendent Jonah Schenker.

Leslie Wellington, Director of Economic Development, and Sharon Williams, Director of the Office of Employment & Training, will provide a framing and program overview.

Moderator: Kyle Jaster, Community Food Works

Panelists:

• Stephanie Bauman, BjornQorn
• Rick Osofsky, Ronnybrook Farm Dairy
• Nels Leader, Bread Alone Bakery
• Katherine DeWitt, Ulster County Agricultural Services Administrator
  

Ulster County’s food economy rests on two assets that reinforce each other: land that grows exceptional ingredients, and producers who turn them into brands recognized across the Northeast. What we grow matters; what we do with it matters just as much. Value-added production keeps more of every food dollar in the county, carries the harvest past the season, and creates skilled, year-round careers.

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.

Food production increasingly sits between the farm, the kitchen, and the factory floor, and Ulster County’s educational partners are building programs that span all three — agriculture, culinary arts, and advanced manufacturing. Panelists will explore how producers can harness that training capacity to accelerate growth and innovation, and how the County’s deep food-and-farm support network is evolving as the sector shifts toward more processing and manufacturing.

Attendees will leave with a clearer view of the sector’s strengths, the partnerships that would build on them, and collectively, we will identify some priorities to carry into the County’s Economic Development Strategic Framework and the spring 2027 Economic Futures Summit.

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.

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.

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.

Jen Metzger was elected Ulster County’s third County Executive in November 2022 and is the first woman elected to the office. As County Executive she has prioritized climate action, housing, mental health, and the long-term viability of the County’s farms, including the creation of the Agricultural Services Administrator position and the 2025 Agriculture and Farmland Protection Plan.

An Ulster County resident of more than two decades, Jen previously served in the New York State Senate, where she chaired the Agriculture Committee, and on the Rosendale Town Council. She lives in Rosendale.

Jonah leads Ulster BOCES, serving as its chief executive officer and as the State Education Commissioner’s representative to the eight component school districts in the Ulster BOCES region. Under his leadership BOCES has launched the Career Academies at iPark 87, a new center for career and technical education that brings together education, industry, and community partners.

A veteran educator with more than two decades in the field, Jonah has spent most of his career at Ulster BOCES, rising from teacher, coach, and assistant principal through Deputy Superintendent before his appointment as District Superintendent in 2023. He hosts the podcast Leading for Deeper Learning with Ulster BOCES and lives in New Paltz.

Leslie leads the Ulster County Department of Economic Development and is a lead organizer of the 2026 Economic Futures Summit series. An Olivebridge resident, she previously chaired the Ulster County Economic Development Alliance (UCEDA), where she guided complex redevelopment projects and helped shape lending policies for the County’s Revolving Loan Fund. Her approach centers on building a strong local economy through partnerships among government, businesses, educational institutions, workforce organizations, and community partners.

Leslie brings nearly two decades of experience in place-based community and economic development. She was the Founding Executive Director of the Urban Manufacturing Alliance, a national network advancing manufacturing as a strategy for equitable economic development and quality jobs, and earlier served as Chief of Staff in the New York City Council and in the Mayor’s Office of Industrial and Manufacturing Businesses, where she helped launch the Industrial Business Zones Program.

Sharon leads the Office of Employment & Training (OET), which connects Ulster County job seekers with the services, training, and tools they need to secure employment while ensuring local businesses have access to a skilled workforce. OET funds classroom and on-the-job training, young adult internships, and career readiness workshops across the County. She also serves as Director of the Ulster County Workforce Development Board.

Kyle leads Community Food Works (CFW), a Kingston-based nonprofit focused on making great local food accessible to everyone. CFW runs a flour mill in Hurley, co-manufactures bread, tortilla chips, and tomato sauce with local partners, and supplies schools, food pantries, and businesses including Bread Alone and Kingston City School District with regionally grown and made food. In Ulster County, he is helping convene local food processors and working with BOCES and SUNY Ulster on workforce training for the sector.

Before CFW, Kyle spent his career in technology as COO of Harvie, a farm-to-consumer software platform, CTO of Freightflow, and CPO of Noodle Education. He lives in West Shokan.

Stephanie co-owns and operates BjornQorn, a specialty popcorn company, with her husband, Bjorn Quenemoen, and co-founder Jamie O’Shea. The partners have grown the company while keeping 100% ownership and a commitment to creating quality jobs in the Hudson Valley. BjornQorn sources half its corn from Bjorn’s family farm in Minnesota and the rest from Ulster County farmers. When the business needed room to expand, the partners bought and reopened the Skate Time roller rink and built BjornQorn’s production facility into the space.

Stephanie began her career in the music industry. Through BjornQorn she has firsthand experience growing an independent food manufacturing business, expanding production capacity, sourcing agricultural ingredients, and operating in Ulster County.

In 1994, Rick and his two brothers founded Ronnybrook Farm Dairy by converting a small portion of their family’s free-stall barn and milk house in Pine Plains into a processing facility. The dairy now fills what was a 150-cow barn, and capacity has grown from 8,000 to 30,000 pounds of milk per day. Ronnybrook still milks its own herd of 90 cows, supplements with milk from other local family farms, and sells to retail, foodservice, and educational institutions across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, including the New York City Greenmarkets.

Rick grew up on the family farm, trained as a certified diesel engine technician in high school, and went on to Wesleyan University and NYU Law School. After working in Washington as a legislative aide and speechwriter, he returned to the Hudson Valley in 1970 and practiced law for 25 years while helping on the farm whenever needed.

Nels leads Bread Alone, a second-generation, family-led business with employee ownership, founded in the Catskills in 1983. Under his leadership it has grown into one of the country’s largest sourdough bakeries while staying rooted in the Hudson Valley through its cafés and New York City farmers’ markets. His work has focused on growing the business while building lasting competitive advantage through a commitment to people and planet.

Nels holds a BA in Economics from Colby College and an MBA from NYU Stern.

Katherine leads the development and implementation of programs that support Ulster County’s diverse farms and expand value-added production, working in close coordination with the farming community. Appointed in October 2026, she focuses on implementing the County’s 2025 Agriculture and Farmland Protection Plan to support long-term farm viability and a strong, diverse agricultural sector. Raised on a dairy farm in Accord, she is a lifelong farmer and manages her family’s multi-generational farm alongside her father, overseeing finances, livestock, crop production, and partnerships with regional agricultural organizations.

Before joining the County, Katherine spent seven years with DairyNZ in New Zealand, rising to Senior Solutions & Development Specialist, where she translated agricultural science and policy into practical tools for farmers, designed workshops and guidelines used across the dairy sector, and led farmer-centered design initiatives. She holds a Master of Management in Agricultural Systems (First Class Honours) and a Bachelor of Agriculture from Lincoln University in New Zealand, after beginning her studies at Cornell University.

Peter leads Ulster BOCES’s approaches to career and technical education, workforce development, and work-based learning, and has played a key role in shaping the vision and implementation of the Career Academies at iPark 87. The Academies bring together education, industry, and community partners to create career-connected pathways for young scholars and adult learners through authentic work-based learning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and industry-recognized credentials.

Peter brings 15 years of classroom teaching, more than 15 years in educational leadership, and 30 years of coaching youth, high school, and college athletes. He serves as President and Executive Director of the New York State Association for Career and Technical Education (NYSACTE) and as an ACTE National Policy Member.