MMFEC’s Farm to Institution Program is a result of the 2008 Flathead Indian Reservation Food and Fitness Project. Increasingly schools and other institutional settings are being asked to provide more and more of our youth’s dietary needs. A recommendation that emerged from the initial two-year community assessment was that increasing health education and access to nutritious fresh foods in the schools is an important and necessary next-step in improving the health of our community members.
In 2011- 2012, MMFEC began developing the Farm to Institution program. MMFEC worked with the Western Montana Growers Cooperative (WMGC), a regional marketing and producer cooperative, and Kalispell, Ronan, St. Ignatius, and Polson School Districts on the pre-planning, production, and processing of five fruit and vegetable products. The project focused on purchasing second standard fruits and vegetables. MMFEC cut carrots and wedged apples for the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program (FFVP), pitted and froze sweet cherries, wedged and froze apples and blanched and froze squash cubes for the school breakfast and lunch programs. During this time MMFEC evaluated production needs and purchased equipment for peeling, dicing, slicing and packaging produce in order to develop efficiencies in processing. MMFEC also collaborated with the Oregon State University Food Innovation Center on the development of the Montana Lentil Burger.
MMFEC’s Farm to Institution program connects schools, colleges, hospitals and other food service establishments to Montana producers and processors to expand market opportunities for Montana businesses. MMFEC works to increase access to healthy, local food by processing local fruits and vegetables and developing value-added products that make it easier for institutions to serve local foods. The Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center provides a USDA/FDA fully inspected food processing facility that helps meet the processing needs of food service programs. We offer value-added products sourced from local growers in partnership with the Western Montana Growers Cooperative.
