Crowley Foods was founded in 1904 by grocery clerk James K. "J.K." Crowley when he purchased a fledgling dairy business for $500.00 in Poughkeepsie, New York.^[7] His company assets began with a horse and wagon, ice house, barn, some cans and bottles as well as a milk delivery route serving local customers.^[8] In 1915, Crowley moved and expanded his business at Binghamton as the location was closer to numerous dairy farms in upstate New York.^[1][9] Originally known as Crowley's Dairy Company, manufacturing and distribution of dairy products began at the facility on Conklin Avenue and would continue there for almost 100 years. A second plant opened at Newburgh, New York in 1921. Retail outlets and other production facilities soon followed.^[10] At its peak, Crowley's Dairy Company sold their products throughout much of the northeastern United States.

Crowley's Dairy Company would sponsor a set of 18 baseball cards featuring players from the Binghamton Triplets, who won the Eastern League championship in 1940.^[11] The team was a minor league affiliate of the New York Yankees during that time.^[8]

For many years Crowley milk cartons proclaimed their motto, "Crowley's Milk As Good as Any Better'n Some".

Crowley Foods was sold to Dutch company NV Wessanen Koninklijke Fabrieken (now Royal Wessanen) in 1983 for $16.4 million. National Dairy Holdings would purchase Crowley Foods from Royal Wessanen in 2001 for $400 million, only to be acquired by HP Hood three years later in a deal that also included Kemps of St. Paul, Minnesota.^[12]

The company has competed in and won many dairy competitions over the years. In recent times, Crowley Foods broke their own record by winning five gold medals and seven silver medals in a competition of prestigious dairy foods at the 2005 Great New York State Fair in Syracuse, New York. Crowley Foods won a total of ten medals at the same event a year earlier