Grow Montana Coalition Receives National Award
(9/24/07) The Grow Montana project has been selected as the winner of the 2007 Glynwood Good Neighbor Harvest Award by the Glynwood Center in Cold Spring, New York. The award will be given to representatives of Grow Montana at a ceremony in New York City next month.
Grow Montana is a broad-based coalition that promotes Montana-owned food production, processing, and distribution as a sustainable economic development strategy for the state.
“As Montana food and agricultural producers increase their capacity to meet more of the state’s food needs, the value that’s added to our farm and ranch products increasingly stays in the pockets of Montanans. At the same time, healthy, Montana-produced food becomes more available to all our citizens and the miles our food travels is substantially reduced,” according to Nancy Matheson, director of Grow Montana for the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) in Butte, which administers the program.
By forging a coalition among many diverse groups and people, Grow Montana has helped catalyze significant change in only two and a half years, including:
- conducting nationally recognized research on Montana agriculture’s potential to meet more of the state’s food needs;
- working with Governor Schweitzer’s administration to host a statewide summit on food and agriculture;
- increasing Montana food producers’ access to the state’s wholesale food markets by updating the state’s procurement and meat inspection laws; and
- launching the nation’s first Food Corps, a team of full-time AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers creating “farm-to-cafeteria” programs in public educational institutions across the state.
The Harvest Awards were created by Glynwood Center in 2003 to highlight the creative work by individuals and organizations from across the country that do an exceptional job of supporting local and regional agriculture and increase access to fresh, healthy food.
Past winners have included Niman Ranch for its success in nurturing and marketing a national network of family-scale meat producers; the executive director of Farm Aid; the Culinary Institute of America, and large corporate organizations like Kaiser Permanente, for its program to increase access to healthier food for patients, employees and visitors at its health care facilities.
“It is a testament to the growth of the sustainable agriculture movement that Glynwood Center received over 60 nominations from more than 20 states to consider for our fifth annual Harvest Awards,” said Judith LaBelle, president of Glynwood Center .
Glynwood Center, a not-for-profit organization whose mission to support community stewardship is advanced through educational and community-based agricultural initiatives, will honor the winners of its 2007 Harvest Awards with a ceremony at the Beacon Restaurant in New York City on October 22.
Grow Montana is led by NCAT program specialist Nancy Matheson and coordinator Crissie McMullan. In addition to NCAT, steering committee members include AERO, Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center, Montana Farmers Union, Stranie Ventures, LLC, the University of Montana, UM Farm to College Program, Artemis Common Ground, and Dawson County Farm to Table. Allies include many other organizations, agencies and businesses.
For more information about the Glynwood Center and the Harvest Awards visit www.glynwood.org.