Montana Involved Groups and Organizations
The following organizations have resources and information to help with your local Farm to School program.
Alternative Energy Resources Organization
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Garden City Harvest
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The partners in the Garden City Harvest project believe that we need to revive our regional tradition of producing our own food for our community, including the 20% of Missoulians who live in poverty.
Grow Montana
Grow Montana is a broad-based coalition whose COMMON PURPOSE is to promote community economic development policies that support sustainable Montana-owned food production, processing, and distribution, and that improve all of our citizens' access to Montana foods.
Missoula County Public School District
Missoula Food Bank
At Missoula Food Bank, our mission is to respond to the emergency food needs of the hungry and work to reduce the incidence of hunger and its effects on individuals, families and the community. Each year we distribute more than 250 tons of food - canned goods, fresh produce, bakery items, cereal, baby food, formula and more - to Missoula area residents. That's enough to serve roughly 1,000 households a month.
National Center for Appropriate Technology
Since 1976 the National Center for Appropriate Technology has been serving economically disadvantaged people by providing information and access to appropriate technologies that can help improve their lives. During the organization's rich and varied history, NCAT projects have ranged from low-tech to high-tech, addressing complex issues of housing, economics, and environmental quality. Weatherizing houses, training farmers, monitoring energy use, demonstrating renewable energy technology, testing new products and providing information on building construction are just a few of the many ways that NCAT has contributed to fostering healthy communities and a better quality of life for everyone.
University of Montana, Missoula - Department of Environmental Studies
The Environmental Studies Program (EVST) seeks to provide students with the literacy, skills, and commitment needed to foster a healthy natural environment and to create a more sustainable, equitable, and peaceful world. To these ends, the EVST Program educates and challenges students to become knowledgeable, motivated and engaged in environmental affairs. We want our students to acquire the skills and awareness that will enable them to promote positive social change and to improve both the environment and communities of Montana, and thereby the lives of Montanans.
Montana Campus Compact
The Montana Campus Compact (MTCC) is the largest higher education network in Montana. MTCC is a nonprofit organization committed to renewing the public purposes of higher education through community service, service-learning, volunteerism, and civic engagement programming available to students, faculty, and staff.
Farms for Families
Farms for Families is a non-profit organization that promotes independent, local food systems. Their mission is to build healthy communities by growing local food systems. In addition to helping Livingston School District source farm-fresh foods, Farms for Families has collaborated with the school district to help develop school gardens as well as a Farm to School oversight committee.
University of Montana – Missoula Environmental Studies Department
The Environmental Studies Program (EVST) seeks to provide students with the literacy, skills, and commitment needed to foster a healthy natural environment and to create a more sustainable, equitable, and peaceful world. To these ends, the EVST Program educates and challenges students to become knowledgeable, motivated and engaged in environmental affairs. We want our students to acquire the skills and awareness that will enable them to promote positive social change and to improve both the environment and communities of Montana, and thereby the lives of Montanans.
Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center
Lake County Community Development's Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center (MMFEC) is a multi-dimensional local, regional and statewide food system development resource that have influenced changes in the value chain from farm and ranch production, to food innovation processing, to distribution of local food and finally to the consumers' plates. They are proud to be at the forefront of local food system development in western Montana and throughout the state. MMFEC is filling an important gap in Montana’s food system by providing a facility and assistance in developing value added agricultural products, such as chokecherry jelly or local tomato sauce, and in addition to providing hands-on educational tours to school kids, are pursuing contracts to provide processed local products to area schools.
Montana Office of Public Instruction
Farm to School statewide. They provide numerous resources for educators and other school professionals, have developed a Farm to School mini-grant program, and have spearheaded the Montana Farm to School Fundraiser, which is a program to bring income to schools by having students sell healthy, Montana-made food products.
FoodCorps
In development: An Americorps School Garden and Farm to School Program
The vision for FoodCorps is to recruit young adults for a yearlong term of public service in school food systems. Once stationed, FoodCorps members will build Farm to School supply chains, expand food system and nutrition education programs, and build and tend school food gardens. The ultimate goal of the project is to increase the health and prosperity of vulnerable children, while investing in the next generation of farmers. Montana’s FoodCorps project is being used as a model in the 16-month planning process to develop this national program.