Partners & Related Organizations:
National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT)
A Montana-based organization that helps people by championing small-scale, local, and sustainable solutions to reduce poverty, promote healthy communities, and protect natural resources.
Website: www.ncat.org/
Alternative Energy Resources Organization (AERO)
AERO is a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to solutions that promote resource conservation and local economic vitality. AERO nurtures individual and community self reliance through programs that support sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, and environmental quality.
Website: www.aeromt.org
Grow Montana
Grow Montana is a broad-based coalition promoting 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.
Website: www.growmontana.ncat.org/index.php
The Missoula County Community Food & Agriculture Coalition (CFAC)
A multi-stakeholder coalition that addresses community needs related to food and agriculture in a comprehensive and creative way and aims to develop and strengthen Missoula County’s food system, promoting sustainable agriculture, building regional self-reliance, and assuring all citizens equal access to healthy, affordable and culturally appropriate food.
Website: www.missoulacfac.org/
Montana Food Bank Network
The Montana Food Bank Network (MFBN) is Montana’s statewide hunger fighting organization.
Website: http://www.mfbn.org/
Office of Public Instruction (OPI)
The OPI Child Nutrition Programs and Montana Team Nutrition support Farm to School efforts throughout Montana. Farm to School programs and activities serve to help connect children to the sources of their food.
Website: www.opi.mt.gov/Programs/SchoolPrograms/School_Nutrition/index.html#gpm1_3
Eat Right Montana
Eat Right Montana (ERM) is a diverse group of individuals and organizations who have come together with the common goal of providing consistent, science-based nutrition and physical activity messages to all Montanans.
Website: www.eatrightmontana.org/
Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center
Lake County Community Development’s Mission Mountain Food and Agriculture Center, Cooperative Development Center and Food Processing Center are 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.
Website: http://www.mmfec.org/
Montana Farmers Union
The Montana Farmers Union is a statewide grassroots organization working for family farmers, ranchers and rural communities through conferences, scholarships and other educational opportunities as well as legislative representation and support for producer-owned co-ops.
Website: http://www.montanafarmersunion.com
Western Sustainability Exchange
WSE advances sound stewardship practices which create a healthy environment, culture and economy for the rural West. Through education, the creation of economic incentives and by fostering partnerships we accomplish this mission. The shared philosophies below unite our organization. They ground us, inspire us, focus our programs and mission and guide our organizational practices.
Website: http://www.westernsustainabilityexchange.org/
Northern Plains Research Council
Northern Plains is a grassroots conservation and family agriculture group that organizes Montana citizens to protect our water quality, family farms and ranches, and unique quality of life.
Website: http://www.northernplains.org
Sustainable Living Systems
Sustainable Living Systems is a non-profit organization that was formed to demonstrate and teach a way of living where our impact (or footprint) on the Earth’s ecosystems is minimized. Our understanding of the forces of corporate globalization has led us to focus on the most pertinent action that we can take to counter those forces….thus, our primary focus is to build a Local Food System here where we live.
Website: http://www.sustainablelivingsystems.org/
Garden City Harvest
Missoula non-profit that grows and distributes healthy food to low-income people, offers education and training in ecologically conscious food production and uses its sites for the personal restoration of youth and adults.
Website: www.gardencityharvest.org
The Montana Poultry Growers Cooperative
The cooperative was organized to provide poultry producers a way to collaborate in meeting their processing and marketing needs.
Website: www.chicken.coop/
The Growing Community Project
The Growing Community Project is a diverse group of individuals and organizations that are working together to develop community gardens within walking distance of every neighborhood in Helena, Montana.
Website: www. helenagcp.wikidot.com/
Nourish the Flathead (NTF)
Locally based nonprofit founded by farmers, community organizers, business leaders and food system planners from around the Flathead Valley of northwest Montana with the mission is to reconnect people to the sources of their food and to those who produce it through education, outreach, and market support.
Website: www.nourishtheflathead.org
PROJECTS:
Montana FoodCorps
Part of a program with Grow Montana helps members create and develop farm to cafeteria programs in local schools and colleges.
The University of Montana’s Farm to College Program
UM Farm-to-College Program is dedicated to buying more food locally to feed the campus community. The Youth Harvest Project is a therapeutic, service-oriented, employment program for “at-risk” teens at the Missoula PEAS farm and the Tom Roy Youth Home where the North Avenue Youth Farm is located.
Website: www.umt.edu/greeningum/operations/Food/Farm%20to%20College.aspx
Townes Harvest Garden
Montana State University’s student farm and CSA, a project of the Friends of Local Foods, a student group that raises awareness about the value of locally grown food.
Website: www.townesharvest.montana.edu/
The GCH/EVST PEAS Farm:
The Program in Ecological Agriculture and Society works closely with the University of Montana’s environmental studies program, the Missoula Food Bank and Garden City Harvest combining traditional academics with hands-on work at an urban, organic farm, which produces tens of thousands of pounds of fruits and vegetables each season for low-income Missoulians
Missoula Community Gardens:
Seven community gardens throughout Missoula are part of a project with Garden City Harvest.
Website: http://www.gardencityharvest.org/programs/gardens.html
Local Co-ops & Market Support
The Western Montana Growers Cooperative (WMGC)
A coalition of growers in the Flathead, Jocko, Mission and Bitterroot Valleys whose goal is to provide the market in our region with fresh, quality products from our farms.
Website: www.wmgcoop.com
Bozeman Montana Community Food Co-op
The Community Food Co-op is a community-owned natural food store in downtown Bozeman, Montana that provides food and goods, promote sustainable practices and follow the co-op principles.
Website: http://www.bozo.coop/
Good Earth Market Co-op, Billings
Good Earth Market integrates local and sustainable food systems, cooperative values and environmental stewardship in a lively community marketplace.
Website: www.goodearthmontana.com
Missoula Community Food Co-op
The co-op is a member-run food cooperative that provides and promotes affordable access to local and healthful food while creating a vibrant forum for broadening community awareness and fostering collective creativity.
Website: www.missoulafoodcoop.com/Home
NATIONAL PROGRAMS:
- Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program
- SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program)