Local food for local families, an innovative network organized by hopa mountain, mission west community development partners, local food marketplace, livingston food resource center, community food…

Local food for local families, an innovative network organized by hopa mountain, mission west community development partners, local food marketplace, livingston food resource center, community food and agriculture coalition (CFAC), western montana growers cooperative, great northern development corporation (GNDC), and the montana food bank network, will support the development, coordination, and expansion of rural and tribal food hubs to increase access to montana produced agricultural products. Project partners will provide training and support to producers, cooperatives, and food hubs to utilize a new business-to-business interconnected local food marketplace software, offering these local food businesses expanded real-time options to sell food to one another and to grocers, food pantries, and institutions. This initiative builds upon lessons learned from our individual organizations covid-19 response efforts as each entity worked to meet the needs of montana producers, processors, and food pantries. Partners will focus on increasing the marketing capacity of rural farmers and ranchers along with the development of food hubs with shared-use kitchens in underserved communities. Hopa mountain, mission west, GNDC and CFAC will coordinate peer-to-peer producer and cooperative training to share successful local marketing efforts. Existing food hubs and cooperatives, such as the livingston food resource center and the western montana growers cooperative, will provide technical assistance to support the expansion of new food hubs and cooperatives. By working together, the local food for local families initiative will invest in food businesses and local economies while realizing a distributed food system that benefits local producers, businesses, food hubs and families.