A Moo-tually Beneficial Partnership
June 12, 2026 | Food Access, News/Media
Multi-Service Center (MSC) and Gwerder Brothers operating out of Hy-Grass Farms recently formed a partnership to offer quality milk products through MSC’s Redondo Heights Food Bank Market. This partnership has extended to additional food banks in the area, providing food bank clients with a fresh, high-quality products while also supporting local farmers.
“I came into the food bank and said I am the last dairy farmer in Auburn and we have to move our milk,” shared Jason Gwerder.
This was the start of beautiful partnership resulting in fresh, healthy milk offerings for visitors to MSC’s food bank while also supporting and providing a sustainable income to a local dairy farm in South King County.
Jason, and his brother Mark, operate Gwerder Brothers out of Hy-Grass Farms located in the Auburn-Enumclaw plateau area. They had recently left their dairy co-op and were looking to bring their product directly to consumers instead of under the co-op label. MSC’s Redondo Heights Food Bank Market was the first food bank they approached.
MSC’s Food Bank Director Steven Curry met with Jason and they quickly agreed that this relationship would be mutually beneficial. MSC’s Redondo Heights Food Bank now gets regular deliveries, from Jason himself, of high-quality milk from Gwerder Brothers.
Most food banks purchase anywhere from 10-20% of the food they offer, which often includes dairy products, produce, and culturally relevant foods to meet the diverse needs of the communities they serve.
MSC’s Food Bank participates as a sub-agency in the Washington State legislative initiative of Farm to Food Pantry (F2FP). Food Banks receive funding to purchase local produce and dairy products from local farms. Additionally, the initiative asks food banks to build mutually beneficial partnerships with local small-scale farms. This is a win-win situation for both the food banks and the local farmers like Gwerder Brothers, as well as the community that benefits from the fresh, healthy options provided.
“The relationship we are building with Hy-Grass Farms and Gwerder Brothers is exactly what was intended by the grant and its truly mutually beneficial,’’ says Steven. “Our customers at the food bank love the milk and we love being able to support local farmers!”
Steven was also able connect them with other local food banks and the South King County Food Coalition, a network of food banks and hunger resources in South King County. Gwerder Brothers is now providing milk to several food banks throughout South King County and into South Seattle, with additional partnerships in the works.
One of only about six dairies left in South King County where once prolific farming areas have become urbanized, Hy-Grass Farms and Gwerder Brothers remains a small family-operated dairy farm where love of their craft and quality of their product shines through.
“Our family has been farming in this area, as my grandfather liked to say, since I-5 was a dirt road,” says Jason. “We really enjoy this work and being on the farm.”
Swiss tradition runs strong at the farm. Jason and Mark’s father, Dick, learned dairy farming from his father who came to the United States from Switzerland for a job milking cows on a farm in Tukwila. His grandmother also came from a Swiss dairy background, and her family operated a dairy farm in the Kent valley as early as 1911. After a few years working for others, Dick’s father was able to rent his first farm, and then other farms, building his farming business until he owned his own farm.
Dick initially joined the service after high school but found that dairy farm life was calling him back. He left the service in March of 1968 and by May of that year, had purchased Hy-Grass Farms in partnership with his father. The love of dairy farming was passed on to his sons, Jason and Mark, and their children who now help at the farm as well.
“It’s a lifestyle that’s being lost,” shares Mark. “It’s a rewarding way of life. I get to work with my kids and my family.”
“It’s a Swiss tradition,” shares Jason when asked why some of the cows wear bells. The bell also serves an important purpose. The lead cows wear the bell and it helps keep all the cows together as they are moved from pasture to pasture for feeding. The cows are called in with a yodel which roughly translates as, “Come cows, it’s time to milk.”
Allowed to roam and feed on acres of real grass during growing season and quality hay other times of the year, the cows and their offspring are well taken care of at Hy-Grass farms. The calves stay in a maternity pen area until they are about two months old and then join the herd in the pastures once they are old enough. It takes about two years until they are ready to start milking. Unlike many mass-production farms where cows live an average of five years, at Hy-Grass, they usually live for 10-12 years, with some even reaching 15 years or more. Hy-Grass cows are Holstein, Jersey, and of course Swiss Browns!
This care for the animals that provides the Gwerder’s livelihood shows in the quality of milk they produce. Gwerder Brother’s milk is fresh, unprocessed, and unhomogenized so the cream stays on top. The way milk used to be! The cows are milked twice a day for about 15 minutes each and the milk collected is sent immediately to a creamery then returned to the farm and available for food banks or to purchase within 24-48 hours.
Visitors are welcome at Hy-Grass Farms during open hours and milk is available for purchase, as well as hay and their special Super Doo for your garden!