KINGSTON, N.Y. – While the NoVo Foundation, which has poured tens of millions into the community in recent years, has achieved accomplishments, change is slowed by bureaucracy and polarization, according to Peter Buffet, who is a co-founder of the charitable organization and son of multi-billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
In a 2022 “Letter to Kingston” published on Thursday on the website Medium, Buffet points out several NoVo project accomplishments, part of the multi-million dollar grant outlay by the philanthropic group to Kingston efforts and other endeavors in the region.
The foundation is controlled by Buffett and his wife, Jennifer.
In the letter, Buffett writes that, “despite all of these major investments, we recognize that many things in our daily lives will probably not get better in the near term.
“It seems polarization has become a pastime. A wedge is being driven deep and wide and the anxiety that creates just continues the cycle.”
“People fight for change while real lives are being affected every day a law doesn’t get passed or another one is repealed,” Buffet wrote. “Bureaucracy of all kinds is numb to the needs of what in philanthropy is often referred to as “people on the ground” — people that rarely have agency or voice.”
Oftentimes, Buffet wrote, the foundation has found itself stymied by the system.
“Too often, even “on the ground,” the loudest voices or the most compelling stories receive funding,” Buffett said. “And too often NoVo has found itself entrapped in a system that doesn’t allow for real change to happen at the pace necessary — now more than ever. We will continually strive to break through old patterns of behavior, both internally and externally.”
In 2020, NoVo doled out more than $24 million to Ulster County and regional non-profit organizations, schools, activist groups, farm programs, food pantries, and colleges, according to tax documents.
NoVo had already donated at least $116 million to charitable groups, activists, and governments between 2017 and 2019, tax records indicate.
In his Letter to Kingston, Buffett pointed out there are many NoVo highlights.
“NoVo is committed to bringing the resources it can to help the community continue to prepare for the future,” said Buffett, who lives in Lomontville.
One of the projects is NoVo’s Hudson Valley Farm Hub, now in its eighth year of operation since transitioning from a conventional farm operation to a non-profit agricultural center and organic farm.
“The farm’s rotation includes small grains, dry beans, vegetables, cover crops, soy and corn,” Buffett said. “Last year the Farm Hub donated 300,000 pounds of produce into the emergency feeding system and produced well over a million pounds of grains that were distributed into regional markets.”
In addition to food production, the Farm Hub is supporting the development of a localized food system through on-farm research and demonstration, farmer training, and a range of mission-aligned programming, Buffett said.
The local food system will benefit from another NoVo-funded resource currently under development: the Kingston Food Co-op.
“The design and building process is well on the way now that members have selected an architecture firm to help bring the vision of a community-owned grocery store to life, where local residents have access to high quality and affordable food grown and produced right here in the Kingston area,” Buffett wrote.
Buffett pointed out that Radio Kingston, WKNY, will be celebrating its fifth year as a non-commercial, community station with more than 50 locally produced weekly and daily programs.
“In addition to serving as a platform for the diverse voices of Kingston to come together, Radio Kingston has become a core resource for other organizations and local government to share vital information through their technical support, both on-air and through social media via live video,” Buffett wrote.
Most recently, the NoVo Foundation opened up the Broadway Bubble, an affordable laundromat operated by Kingston Midtown Rising. In addition to offering low-cost laundry services, the Broadway Bubble and adjacent Community Hub space, opening in fall 2022, will host children’s programming, educational and career services, financial literacy, housing counseling, and other free community programs and services.
Buffett said that outlines are taking shape at The Institute for Family Health’s new Pine Street Family Health Center, with construction to be completed on the affordable health clinic later this year for an opening in early 2023.
Buffet said the Metro, a 70,000-square-foot Greenkill Avenue building, is set to be converted into a fabrication center, makerspace, and community hub, particularly for youth and young adults to “explore meaningful careers through training, mentoring and other hands-on learning and employment opportunities,” Buffett said.
The NoVo Foundation bought the 70,000-square-foot facility for $2 million from affordable-housing agency RUPCO, a NoVo official said in April.
Buffett said that NoVo’s work is hardly done.
“We hope that we can help support a shared orientation — not a strategy or dogma — to the new normal we must create together and continue to be the “risk capital” (as well as the dependable support) on ideas and activities whenever possible,” Buffett wrote. “It is my sincere hope that we can move from the ideology of “necessary struggle” to a shared commitment — first and foremost to the children of Kingston.”