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FeedThe Definition of Classic
There’s a reason Feby’s Fishery has stayed in business for 35 years: It doesn’t swim against the tide.
(page 5 of 5)
Hy Praise
A local dairy celebrates a milestone.
Hy-Point Dairy has spent the past 90 years becoming such a big part of Delaware’s fabric, the name is as recognizable as the company’s trucks.
But as the Wilmington dairy reaches a milestone, it’s business as usual down on the farm, where 41 yellow trucks (plus one painted red, white and blue) load up daily to deliver milk across Delaware and into Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
If you attended a Delaware school any time during the past 50 years, there’s a good chance you’ve drunk Hy-Point milk, which has been offered in school cafeterias (in cardboard cartons, then plastic pouches and now plastic cartons) for decades. Hy-Point is contracted by the state to supply state buildings, plus hospitals, penitentiaries and police departments. Many restaurants, mom-and-pop shops, and all of the state’s Happy Harry’s locations carry Hy-Point products, which include cream, juices and its delicious chocolate milk.
Hy-Point has outlasted almost all of the 164 dairies that existed in Delaware when it opened in 1919. Today it’s one of only two independently owned dairies in the state. Operations began on John A. Meany’s farm with about a dozen cows producing two or three cases of milk daily, which were delivered in glass bottles to customers’ doorsteps.
Today there are no cows at the Beaver Valley Road farm, but the facility, run by John’s grandson Jay Meany, brings in raw milk daily to produce anywhere from 30,000 to 33,000 gallons of store-ready milk a day, which goes out to 3,600 customers.
Hy-Point is especially well-known among local Little Leagues, sponsoring four Naamans teams, plus one in Brandywine Little League and one in Midway Little League. Hy-Point is a fixture with local non-profits and charities, and staff regularly scoops out ice cream at community events.
Family and community are big at Hy-Point, says Meany, and that’s been the key to its success and longevity.
“I think our secret is a deeply felt interest in something other than money,” Meany says. “It’s in making the product and making the name last.” —Matt Amis
