Photo by William Campbell
Programs
We aim to give Park County children a strong, healthy start at school and in life. We work within local schools to provide early exposure to nutritious foods and a blueprint for healthy eating that can last a lifetime.
Farm Fresh Friday
As part of our overarching School Meal Redesign program in Livingston Public Schools, Farm Fresh Fridays is a weekly meal program consisting of scratch-made meals that feature Montana-grown foods. Chef Carole Sullivan is teaming with the Livingston Lunch Ladies to develop a new portfolio of menus and recipes that can be made on-time and on-budget.
Summer Lunch in the Park
Healthy Foods, Summer Sun and Lots of Fun!
When the school year ends, children who depend on school meals can be left facing a nutrition gap, without easy access to balanced, nutritious meals.
We have teamed up with the Livingston School District, City of Livingston and Food Resource Center to improve accessibility and meal quality across to give kids year-round access to fresh healthy foods (aka Farm to Summer!)
School Based Education
Research shows that at least 10 hours of food and nutrition education are necessary to positively change children’s eating behaviors and attitudes about foods. For that reason, we engage all Livingston elementary students in 15+ hours of in-depth food and garden education per school year.
Healthy School Food Fund
As part of our School Meal Redesign program, Farm to School of Park County established a special RESTRICTED FUND ACCOUNT to help schools offset fresh food costs as they move away from serving ultra-processed unhealthy foods to local, scratch cooking menus.
This is a triple win for schools, kids and the local economy.
Farms and Gardens
Each of our growing spaces is designed to ultimately benefit local school children through hands on education and nutrition.
We have established and currently manage a network of 47 garden beds and 2 greenhouses across 5 schools in Livingston.
We also created and manage a 1/8 acre downtown Farm at the historic Lincoln School, located in the heart of Livingston at 215 East Lewis Street. The Farm is the hub of F2SPC’s summertime outdoor education, urban agriculture, and community gathering.
County-wide Expansion
It just makes sense for Montana kids to be learning about Montana’s agricultural sector while eating Montana foods. This funding makes that happen for more children in Park County and help us realize a community-supported model of food procurement that has a high probability of being replicated in other rural schools in Montana.
While there are many grant programs for school gardens and education efforts, little to no additional funding outside of the USDA Office of Community Food Systems exists for supporting purchasing and incorporation of local foods. We are grateful for USDA’s seed funding for this area of work and seek additional funding to continue.