APRIL 16, 2007

2006-2007 FOODCORPS PROGRESS AND PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

Starting July 2006, FoodCorps placed AmeriCorps/VISTA volunteers at four institutional market sites to establish and grow Farm to Cafeteria programs. In July 2007, FoodCorps will continue working at each of the current sites, and add an additional volunteer at The University of Montana in Missoula.

Working as a Team. In FoodCorps, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. When one University buys local food, it sparks interest. When five public institutions buy Montana-food, we’re starting a viable movement. Regular interaction among the FoodCorps volunteers reminds them in a tangible way that they are part of this larger movement, which in turn fuels their work.

To achieve this sense of cohesion, Grow Montana has convened four face-to-face trainings so far, as well as organized monthly conference calls. The team learns from Grow Montana staffer Crissie McMullan’s knowledge of having initiated The University of Montana’s Farm to College program. In addition, the FoodCorps team learns from each other. On every conference call, volunteers question each other, such as, “Does anybody know of a Montana producer who sells sliced ham?” Or, “So, once you recruit student volunteers, what do you have them do?” Always, another FoodCorps member has a helpful idea or suggestion.

The FoodCorps is not only connected to one another and to activists working throughout Montana, but also to the others working around the country to create similar grassroots changes. Grow Montana sent all of the volunteers to the Community Food Security Coalition’s annual conference held in Vancouver, BC, in autumn 2006. That proved to be highly beneficial because they not only learned concrete skills and gained new resources, but the experience also engendered a sense of connection to the wider movement for community-based food systems occurring around North America.

Salish Kootenai College (SKC). This is a tribal community college located on the Flathead Reservation, which has a small cafeteria/restaurant. Under the leadership of FoodCorps volunteer, Lauren Caldwell, the local foods purchasing has risen from 0% of the food budget to 10% in this short time frame. The products are mainly beef patties, eggs, and bread, plus seven other items on the regular menu are now local. All of these are new vendors added! Over 50 times this year they have offered specials, where the meal is entirely made from Montana. Lauren has also organized numerous presentations to faculty, staff, students, and local media.

During the campaign for US Senate last year, Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, Senator Max Baucus, and Senator Jon Tester visited SKC. The College took the chance to feature the SKC Farm to College Program, serving fresh, homemade, all-local beef stew (beef from Ronan, veggies from Arlee) and fry-bread (flour from Polson) to a hungry group of 200 community members, including the delighted state officials. What’s more, all the food came from within the Flathead Indian Reservation – one of the unique goals to make this particular program fit into the greater tribal environment of which Salish Kootenai College is a part.

Plans for the future: Next year’s FoodCorps volunteer at SKC will further expand the Farm to College program, and build on the current staff and faculty support by developing more local food education opportunities.

Montana State University (MSU). MSU is the state’s land-grant (agricultural) college. Their Farm to College program translates into 10% of their food budget with food procured from 14 local vendors. They have set a goal to incorporate Montana burgers and more wheat into their bakery by July of 2007.

The FoodCorps volunteer, Mecca Lowe, has focused much attention on building and demonstrating broad campus support for the FTC program. Thus, Mecca helped to launch a student group called Friends of Local Foods. This group has focused on starting a student farm that will sell Community Supported Agriculture shares to community members and provide food for the Bozeman food bank. The farm will break ground this spring. The group also helped organize the first Montana Local Food Bazaar & Symposium. Panel discussions and the local foods bazaar drew over 200 people tasting, and about 25 local vendors, chefs, campus and community organizations, and MSU researchers.

Most recently, Mecca and her on-site supervisor, Nutrition Professor Alison Harmon, developed and administered an on-line survey about local food on campus. Some 1,500 people responded. The results indicated that 63% of the respondents think that it is “very important” that MSU support local agriculture by serving more Montana foods.

Plans for the future: Next year’s FoodCorps volunteer in Bozeman will split time between further developing MSU’s local food purchasing and working with the local K-12 schools on Farm to School.

The University of Montana – Western (UMW). A small public college in southwestern Montana, UMW’s Dining Services now buys Farm to College products from 27 vendors from 19 locations throughout Montana. As part of that total, 17 new items have been added from six new vendors in the last six months. Local beef products have been a primary target in UMW’s program, and since October of 2006 they have purchased over 3,000 pounds from Montana Range Brand beef company. In addition, they have recently secured a relationship with the Montana Branded Beef Association (MBBA), which resulted in the purchase of 900 pounds of locally-raised prime rib to be used in special events catering. The interest of UMW has a county commissioner and beef producers talking about setting up a beef processing plant in the region.

The FoodCorps volunteers’ workplan asks them to measure their success by monitoring the increase in their institution’s local food purchases. However, developing a consistent way to measure this increase has become a goal in itself because most of the institutions’ databases are not currently equipped to do this easily. Kevin Moore, the FoodCorps volunteer at UMW, has taken the most comprehensive approach to this challenge. Currently, when Kevin wants to know the number of MT vendors they are using or the dollars spent on MT foods, he must ask an administrator, and the results often take days to get back to him. Accordingly, Kevin has worked over the past six months to help UMW find, test, and purchase a computerized inventory system that will change the way the institution tracks all of their food purchases, and will make tracking, and in some cases even ordering, their local products a simple click of a few buttons. (Although Kevin’s is the most extensive approach, all FoodCorps volunteers are working to find appropriate tools for their unique institution. One of our goals in the next year will be to evaluate and as appropriate share the approach taken at UMW with other sites.)

Plans for the future: Next year’s UM Western’s FoodCorps volunteer will split time between expanding their food purchasing, developing student outreach programs, and assisting Grow Montana on state-wide local food initiatives.

Missoula County Public Schools (MCPS). Under the leadership of Ariel Bleth and in partnership with two local organizations, MCPS has the only Farm to School program (K-12) in the state of Montana. It has become a model and a strong success. Since September 2006, MCPS has purchased 13,525 pounds of Montana-grown food. This includes peaches, apples, cantaloupe, carrots, cucumbers, potatoes and zucchini. The program has a strong educational component for the school children. Some 630 K-12 students learned about local food and nutrition through tours of the school system’s central kitchen and/or in-class activities. In addition, community outreach efforts have reached over 200 people directly, as well many more through the webpage at: https://www.umt.edu/cfa/farmtoschool.htm . Outreach activities included two major public events that featured Ann Cooper of the Berkeley Unified School District and author of the influential new book, Lunch Lessons. Cooper spoke to 40 people who are working in food service, the schools or other community agencies involved in child health and nutrition. These events, as well as other milestones, have been covered in four feature articles in area newspapers.

Missoula’s Farm to School program has become a model for other schools in the state. For example, Ariel Bleth and Neva Hassanein spoke on a panel in Bozeman to over 60 people, mostly mothers from the area schools, about the project. As a result, Hawthorne School is now highly energized by the idea. Our plan in year two is to incorporate that school into FoodCorps, as discussed below. And, just recently, Ariel presented to a national audience on successes and lessons learned at Community Food Security Coalition’s Farm to School meeting in Baltimore.

Plans for the future: Next year’s Farm to School coordinator will continue to explore how to expand Missoula’s food purchasing program, and work closely with a pilot school to integrate school gardens and nutrition curriculum with the school meal program.

New site at The University of Montana—Missoula!
The UM Dining Services, our state’s leader in Farm to Cafeteria, has decided to increase their local/regional purchasing from 13% of the food budget to 20% in the next year! The FoodCorps volunteer will help them achieve this goal, and increase education and outreach opportunities for students.

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