Power Public Schools and Greenfield Elementary School each received $12,000 a year for three years in grants in collaboration with Montana Partnership to End Childhood Hunger to promote local foods and nutritional education. Overall the collaborative grant is just under $ 1 million dollars to invest in the school food system in Central Montana.
Justin Robicheau reports - watch the video here:
"It is amazing. It has opened up so many opportunities for our small rural school here. We've got, max attendance of, I think, 83 right now. So the fact that we're able to get the funds to buy this equipment and do these things for the kids has been so cool," Greenfield Elementary Food Service Director Haven Murphy said.
Lisa Lee, co-executive director of Montana Partnership to End Childhood Hunger, explained the grant's broader purpose.
"It's really putting schools at the core of the food system, allowing us to design a model that works for Montana schools, producers, distributors, nonprofits, and others to finally come together to look at increasing the amount of fresh, quality food. That's Montana grown and put that into Montana schools," Lee said.
Haven Murphy plans to use the first year's funding for kitchen renovations.
"First year we're going to do some upgrades to the kitchen equipment. Our school was built in 1938, and, much of what you see in here is the original paneling, wood paneling and everything. So we're trying to keep with some of the, that older aesthetic that we really love at Greenfield," Murphy said.
At Power Public Schools, School Nutrition Director Laura Toeckes said the grant will help with fundraising efforts to purchase more local foods, which tend to be more expensive than conventional options.
"We're going to use the funds also to help fundraise so we can purchase more local foods. Local foods tend to be more expensive. So we want to be able to supplement and provide students with as much local food as possible," Toeckes said.
"Many of the hurdles are getting a distribution system to us. Many of the items that I purchase locally, I have to go out and pick up myself. There is no once a week delivery that they come on," Toeckes said.
"We're all seeing, you know, chronic disease become much more prevalent here in Montana and across the nation. A lot of that's driven by food related health diseases, right? If we eat better, we can hopefully limit the amount of chronic diseases we're seeing, from heart disease to diabetes to, you know, obesity and allow people to lead healthier lives," Lee said.
The grant is in collaboration with Montana Partnership to End Childhood Hunger, The Producer Partnership, Vilicus Farms, Abundant Montana, and six school districts in Central Montana.
