Episode #55: From Farm to Classroom: Montana�s Harvest of the Month in Action
Trina Filan:
Thank you for joining us for this episode of talking health in the 406 where we're one community under the Big Sky I'm Trina Filan a public health evaluator for diabetes and cardiovascular health projects today we're talking about a terrific nutrition education program called harvest of the month we have a panel of guests here. With us today Amber Lewis farm to school specialist at the Office of Public Instruction which will probably be referred to throughout this podcast as OPI just so everyone knows. Kim Lloyd the harvest of the month coordinator at Saint Peters Health Kara Snyder program director at Helena Food share and Jonathan Hockett nutrition program coordinator at Helena Food Share. I have no doubt that during our conversation today we'll bring up some very useful resources which listeners will be able to find linked in our show notes. It's no secret that having access to a broad range of nutritious foods and actively including them in our diets helps us be healthier. This access is a key social determinant of health because it directly affects people 's ability to make nutritious choices when individuals live in areas with limited act. Says to affordable nutritious and diverse foods they're more likely to rely on processed high calorie options this increases the risk of chronic diseases such as obesity type 2 diabetes heart disease and high blood pressure when we talk about access. We need a lot of different things from local farmers being able to grow and have markets for their nutritious foods like vegetables and fruits. Having those foods available for eaters to acquire being able to afford those goodies having a way to process it and cook those foods knowing how to cook them once you have them and even wanting to eat them in the first place improving these pieces of access. To nutritious foods like veggies and fruits can reduce health disparities minimize food insecurity and help to establish lifelong healthy eating habits that can lower the risk of chronic diseases later in life. In episode 46 of this podcast listeners learned about nutrition local food systems and health more broadly in this episode we're going to take a deep dive into a program that ties local produce to educating school kids about nutrition and the joys of eating vegetables and fruits. So First things first let's start with each of you just talking a little bit about your organizations and your roles like what the goals of your organizations are and the types of projects you usually tend to focus on let's start with you Kim tell us all about it.
Kim Lloyd:
Thanks Trina hi this is Kim Lloyd and I work with Saint Peters health which I think most people are familiar with as the local hospital in Helena and we have a lot of doctors and nurses that work here but we also do a lot of work outside of the hospital and when I go into classrooms I explain to students that I'm not a doctor.
Trina Filan:
Excellent.
Kim Lloyd:
Or nurse and said my job is to try and keep them out of the hospital so I coordinate the harvest of the month program here in the Helena public schools we've also. So I've been over to east Helena public schools and that includes monthly lessons with 4th grade students in their classroom setting it's either myself or I also work with Carol college and our 3 high schools in Helena to train those students on teaching the program it's very basic. Public health concepts that we're taking into the classroom. And it's kind of an empowering leadership experience for those students as well to go teach nutrition education in the schools so besides teaching myself I'm also coordinating the program we locally procure food for the taste test for kids we prepare the food beets lentils chickpeas. And then bring kids some taste tests and then I also work with Helena food share to do the Charlie cart in the schools and that's a hands on culinary education for K through 5 students in the Helena public school elementary. Schools as well.
Trina Filan:
Excellent thank you Kim. How about you Kara, Jonathan tell us all about? What you all do?
Kara Snyder:
All right this is Kara the program director at Helena food share and I've been part of Helena food share for almost 10 years I think so we're really at our core a nonprofit food. Country or what a lot of people think of as a food bank so really what we do is we provide access to food to people who say they need food and so at the end of. The day that's. The biggest thing that we do every day and then we've made this commitment to localize our purchases. To provide a more balanced and nutritious shopping experience to do more education and really to even provide some of our own product so to show people where the food comes from and diversify what that that experience that our market might. Look like and so we've really through a lot of partnerships and collaborations been able to make the traditional food bank or food pantry shopping experience look incredibly different and way more healthy and positive directions.
Jonathan Hockett:
This is Jonathan nutrition program coordinator here now in the future like I said really kind of. Focused on getting more nutritious healthy food into the food pantry and which is great because I that's my job I get to spend time out in the garden during the summer get oversee that's the skin to grow fresh vegetables bring that into the market and have that available and then to work with Kim Lloyd and the Charlie Cart,  just said little mobile kitchen on wheels and we use that going to the schools but we also use that in our food pantry where we'll host demos a lot of times we will highlight harvest of the month products on that so you know anything from beet hummus to mental. Tacos things like that just in will have a sample along with the recipe to hand out to our customers there you know we did a year ago moved into a new facility and so we now have work on community food Resource Center here which has opened up a whole lot of rules of using. Uh local products and nutritious programming we have a community where which is like a community space where we can host cooking classes so we've had a few of those we were trying to do more of those have had some crockpot classes where people came and made a meal with the crockpot I'm going to take a crock pot. We're going to have a homemade pasta making class also partnered with him again and the alternative high school to do a healthy eating healthy cooking series where students learn to cook and prepare food and actually shopped in our our market before making that mix there.
Trina Filan:
That's a lot of stuff could that's cool how about you amber tell us about what you do in your organizations role.
Amber Lewis:
Yeah thank you my name is  Amber Lewis and I am the Farm to School Specialist at Montana Office of Public Instruction and it's house underneath the school nutrition program and so underneath school nutrition programs our vision as a whole is to ensure that. Are Montana school nutrition professionals are empowered as community leaders to provide equitable access to healthy food and environments that support the success of Montana 's children? But my role as a as a farm to school specialist is more directly to connect with our food service directors and connect them with our Montana local producers so they're able to bring in local product on to serve. In the school meal programs so as a general overview that that's my goal and we go out and. We do taste tests of the. Foods with the kids and we help promote programs like harvest of the month and other farm school related projects and nutrition education or not only food service directors but teachers as well.
Trina Filan:
Excellent thank you uh there's a ton to talk about around this topic but I think it would be best to just start with a discussion of this program itself harvest of the month. Can can uh you all talk about what the program is how it started how it became embedded in our schools and why your organizations I think we got a little bit of a taste of of? Why your organizations are interested in this type of programming but maybe a deeper dive into? Why specifically you're working on harvest of the month?
Amber Lewis:
The harvest of the month program it mainly showcases Montana grown foods and they can be featured in Montana schools institutions organizations and a lot of different community settings all of our program resources are free and. Available to anyone that would like to serve or teach and learn about Montana food.
Amber Lewis:
Uh. The program is for the purpose of promoting Montana food products promoting nutrition education and supporting our local economy as well through purchasing local foods from our local producers it was originally created to help. Our food service. Directors teachers and early childcare staff. To grow their farm to school programming and introduce students to those Montana grown foods but ultimately the program can be utilized anywhere anyone has a vision for it so we've seen the materials used and lots of different settings. Farmers markets hospitals. Libraries but initially the program was designed for K through 12 and early childcare but it's been really exciting to see the program grow over the years and the different organizations that have taken the resources and materials just ran with the program and made it their own. So it's it's really exciting to see how it's grown over the years.
Kara Snyder:
I'll jump in with a little bit of our kind of food banking world perspective and I always feel like we come to the table as a bit of an outlier like we don't quite fit into a lot of the categories that some of these programs are designed for and so the harvest of the month which was I think the. When we came on was housed under the National Center for appropriate technology and so they reached out to us to see if we might be interested in being a pilot site is the first food pantry to be involved with harvest of the month and at that point very much as a just that a pilot and so to kind of gather information and to see. If this was an appropriate setting to have this programming in and then gather feedback and assess and you know the end of that pilot really determine whether or not it makes sense to continue doing? And what we found is that it really provided Helena food share with a framework to kind of build from and so we really were just trying almost anything and everything to get fresh food in the door and to try to market it in a way that would make it more accessible for our customers and so we really did. Use the harvest of the month materials all of that stuff that amber just referenced kind of as our building blocks to create programs and food distribution avenues that had nutrition and health as a lims. So yeah I we have tried like probably at this point hundreds of different projects and some of them we have kept and some of them we have left behind and I can say like Jonathan is sitting here is a testament to the ones that were super successful and so we have you know gone down the road of even trying to grow. Some of the products for harvest of the month and really getting that Charlie cart out into schools and now we have these wonderful stories coming back where you know a family might be shopping out in our market and. The one of the students that came with their parents to shop in our market just made beat pancakes that morning with Kim Lloyd one of their at 1:00 of the schools and they're asking us if we have that product and we do because it's this really cool coordinated effort kind of in Helena right now and. And so that's been really wonderful to see like I I truly do feel like there has been like we have moved the needle of health in some way when you when you see things like that and. You know we have now we've tried lentils that was another one of our harvest of the month products that we almost guarantee any month of the year now you can come in to Helena food share and get that and I'm truly another testament to at 1:00 point we were really pushing that product out the door and now it's. Very much a section that people count on and no more what to do it because of all of those efforts that happened around harvest of the month.
Amber Lewis:
Just to add to that Kara had mentioned a couple of the items that are. In harvest of the month the the beets and the lentils there are currently 17 different Montana food products that are in circulation to choose from and to promote and to name a few more of those we thought and in fruits we thought apples and cherries we do. Beef and dairy. The brains and lentils squash and carrots more recently we just added potatoes to the repertoire and we are considering adding a berry categories such as honey berries or better known as half caps here in Montana so just to kind of give an overview of some of the products that are available. In the harvest 11th program.
Trina Filan:
Thank you for clarifying that amber and I realized when I introduced this topic that I really focused on fruits and veggies but this is a very broad category. Pulses and meat and dairy so very good reminder that healthy eating is a broad topic. Kim go ahead.
Kim Lloyd:
So I have been with Saint Peters health since 2021 and I was hired to. Increased opportunities for nutrition education in our community and we saw the harvest of the month program it's just a perfect fit to. Really reach out to our community as a whole and there was already a teacher at Helena high John lake who was working on this program with her high school students and if we remember 2021 it was in the thick of COVID and they weren't able to do what we're doing now having students visit the classroom. And teach nutrition education classes so her students were actually making YouTube. Videos and bringing those to the 4th sending it out to the 4th grade teacher they're just working with 1/4 grade teacher at central Tony Napolitano and they were sending him YouTube videos and then making kits of taste tests for the food to bring into the classroom and so when I started I met. Uh what the hell in a public schools and said we'd love to expand this based off of Joan lakes model how can we expand this to more students in the. Yeah in the schools and we decided to make it a 4th grade program and to continue on using harvest of the month of course the appeal to the schools and to the coordinator myself is that it's a free program that we can just jump in and grab the materials there used to be a registration where you had to log in and. Track the number of pounds of food.
Kara Snyder:
Good.
Kim Lloyd:
That were purchased now it's just a website you can go to and you don't have to log in so it's really cool to be able to just access those resources and share them with all of our community members that we're working with and we also wanted to make it like a community wide program so that like Carol was mentioning having the student that was cooking in the school and then seeing the same foods. But Helena food share being at the hospital we started putting out table tents on our cafe that had. Information about harvest of the month foods we wanted to see people maybe go into the library and seeing a poster and having family members out in the community during the day learning about kale beets lentils and then coming back home and saying ohh I'd like to try that or did you hear this let's try and make this at home just kind of empowering. Our community members to really have that experience together and be excited about it together so I yeah I love the house in the month program I used to be. A snap educator before this position and I also worked at OPI so I've seen the harvest of the month program kind of evolve I guess or be used in more unique ways over the years and it's just a really fun of course research based information too which is I think is super important because right now there is just tons of information. About nutrition out there and it can be kind of confusing but really it just promotes like Whole Foods Montana grown foods there's a lot of benefits too. Looking at the material.
Jonathan Hockett:
I was just going to talk about. Like. The house north and just like how beautiful the resources are the posters and the artwork and the materials that are available are just pretty amazing like it's kind of a a nice focal point out in our food pantry and it's one thing to change every month so we'll always have a little poster. Big poster in the also like a little slideshow with facts and stuff like that out there for our customers just a cool educational thing for our customers and it's just so I wanted to touch on that like even in our community room I think I just some of the more things we have more often like lentils and garbanzo beans and I think carrot. I just left those posters in there all the time just because they're so nice if it's just a a a beautiful thing to look at when you're in those spaces I. Don't know I. Guess I've been around like hire some up for a while used to actually work on organic vegetable farms down Gallatin valley and work that she did when I moved to Helena we were doing they were doing the harvest of the month there which is cool. You see as well just how like how widespread it is in the state.
Trina Filan:
That's wonderful and it is so important to. Create compelling beautiful ways to communicate about food right especially food that may be unfamiliar or people might have a bad association with her or you know my my mom used to overcook the broccoli or. We used to have canned. Spinach and maybe people aren't as excited to eat some of those foods that actually are quite beautiful and tasty. Me and actually we have somebody in the office whose kid now apparently eats all kinds of things because of the harvest of the month program and and our colleague talks about it a lot that that her daughter will. Come home and say oh. Hello it's delicious we need to eat this ah here's the thing we need to eat and so she went from being a very picky eater to being an expansive and delighted eater so that may not be what happens every time but what is the process of getting kids. To go from yuck. To Yum how do you do that in the harvest of the month program.
Kim Lloyd:
It's so funny that you mentioned the kids being excited to try the foods but I have done a taste test at the hospital here too and I will say compared to providing kids taste tests adults even those that work in the hospital are a little more hesitant to try new food.
I remember doing a chickpea tasting here at the hospital and some are like Oh no I don't like chickpeas I'm not going to try that but bring it into the classroom and I never tell students that they have to try the food but I'd give everyone a sample they don't want to put it in their mouth there's other senses to use we can look at it we can smell it can touch it. If you want to doesn't make any sound? There's different senses they can use to try the foods and I think. The classroom setting is such a great spot to try new foods because they're with their peers if they see a friend trying it they may want to try it I have an 8 year old at home and I have a hard time getting her to try food so I know I'm like no magician really it's something that. Anything bring into the classroom it's a fun thing they learn about the. The nutrition of the food they learned some fun facts they do a fun activity and then they're given some food sometimes right before lunchtime and they're just willing to try it given the recipe and I asked their opinion about it too you know and if they don't like it that's fine don't have to say anything gross about it we ask students whether they loved it liked it or tried it. We're not using the words yuck or gross or I didn't like it either.
Amber Lewis:
So you echo what Kim was saying about. I am trying it with your peers I would just say doing the taste test it becomes almost a a positive peer pressure thing like if if you're if another student is enjoying it then they're more likely to try with their their friend has had another way to get kids to start or liking a new food too as we've seen foodservice directors offer that food item in multiple ways so don't offer it just as you know whether it's raw or whether it's roasted or like within a dish and then. A lot of things too they'll offer it throughout the. And in different ways as well so even if they didn't like it in say like a casserole or maybe they didn't like it raw they might like it in a different way so if it's offered in different ways then kids are more apt to try it and the more they try it then they might like it over time as well those are just some examples of how we've seen food. Service directors introduce products you know to their school menus try and try again and so a lot of times kids as they grow up to their palates change and so I know me as a kid I did not like tomatoes and you could not get me to. Try a tomato. To or anything but now they're one of my favorite. Things to eat so yeah maybe just even over the grade levels like if as a first grader if they didn't like it hopefully by the time they get to 4th grade trying and reintroducing used foods on a regular basis and seeing it and learning about it and knowing what the what. What nutrition it brings to them? To nourish their bodies as well is is extremely important.
Jonathan Hockett:
I was just going to echo that about the adults and trying things sometimes in the sleeping tree or wood a very diverse group of folks coming in here and you know some things are easier to. Encouraged chasing our beats can be approved divisive topic but like trying to in a lot of different ways has been pretty great it seems like they've been pancakes were a huge hit in the schools simple beet salad I made not so much beer chocolate cake was a little more popular so yeah try like like ampersand tried a variety of things. Kids and adults with just entertaining and and just kind of lots of different ideas on how to prepare ingredients with. Democratics and I have a 5th grader who you know last years in 4th grade I think they are 4th grade is kind of the time when harvest of the months in schools the most and she was really excited to come home like guess what the harvest of them about this you know like so that was pretty cool to see just like how excited. She was about.
Trina Filan:
It as well yeah I've heard. That 4th graders are sort of the ideal age to extort their parents to do stuff that they're they may not do. In San Diego apparently 4th grade is where they learn about fire safety and making a fire safety plan because 4th graders will go home and nag their parents that we need to do this so have you noticed that children are. But better promoters of trying stuff out compared to adults or is there any difference at all.
Kim Lloyd:
Yeah, uh, I think uh kids are at the low hanging fruit honestly like it was easy to get in to talk to a bunch of kids at once by visiting the schools the adults I think are a little harder to reach or have a little more opinions around food already and I mean that's fine we all can we all. Have a right to our opinions about food but yeah I think it's just kids are? Or I think like adding to what amber was saying about how food service directors can offer food we can give them kind of fun names too and that's something that makes it really approachable for kids to try like saying like bodacious beats or something that like has a something that they can be excited about trying or superpower. Spinach or something I don't think that's as good of a marketing scheme for adults but I'm open to ideas.
Amber Lewis:
So a lot of times when we do taste tests as well stickers stickers are like a huge incentive for kids for whatever reason so I just wanted to add as one of the resources that we have within harvest of the month we do have logos and we have templates to grant all of these things. About yourself so even if you wanted to do beats is what you're running as your harvest of the month that month then we have the template so you can print out stickers and hand out stickers for the kids and if they tried it then they get a sticker and it's a fun activity even for the kids to to have that. That we have the logos on the harvest of the month website plenty of templates to use recipe cards nutrition lesson plans and activities suggestions as well so anything that you can possibly think of on our resources page it's all there. And it's there for lots of different categories too so whether it's community oriented like able to use at Helena food share or a hospital setting school, farmers markets uh there's even some resources for producers themselves available.
Trina Filan:
It's really comprehensive it's a really well thought out well tested program that has. A ton of cool resources and. We'll make sure to put that website in the show notes so that people can just go take a gander. I am wondering how you get families involved in the program or if you if you do outside of you know being told by their kids that it is time for us to eat kale now what kind of other ways do you promote or do families. That involved with harvest of the month.
Kim Lloyd:
I think that a couple of other ideas that we have for outreach we do a. Uh. Table at the farmers market in the summer so another way I guess it's definitely kid focus and kid oriented but rather than handing out taste tests we try to do like art projects with a food and so we have like painting with beets or making seed. Tape strips to plant in their garden and things like that and typically kids are there with their adults and they the adults will engage with recipes and stuff that. We have at the booth. And it's a family a family way to get involved with harvest of the month you know we've done it's been a while but we did do some programs at the library we did some talks that were focused for adults we had some speakers come in I think we had a coal mannix from old salt come in during beef month. Do a talk about ranching and give his perspective and then we've done a few other like Wellness related talks here at the hospital and harvest of the month always comes up as a great resource for recipes and access to information about Whole Foods and we we have a harvest of month section on the Saint Pete 's website? Sometimes I find that adults maybe don't want to attend the in person thing and they just want to find the resource online or watch a video or things like that so we're working on trying to have more resources and things to access away from the community setting as well.
Kara Snyder:
You know I feel like all of our program programming really is to designed around families. And and so when we approach harvest of the month it really we try to be as encompassing as possible and and approachable and so some of the things that we've done is Jonathan mentioned earlier having the Charlie cart out in the market and so if you're shopping you will pass the Charlie cart and there will be. A really friendly fun person behind it who will kind of like call you over and engage you and and so we've had. A lot of interactions there where the whole family might be over there having a conversation and trying something and talking about it together and then after they try that thing if it's like a a lentil Stew or a carrot slaw or something they go directly to the produce cooler where they get to pick out some of the products that were in that. In that recipe and and also take a recipe card with. And and so often and especially in the summer we do have just a lot more families coming in a lot more families bringing their kids maybe childcare or school isn't an option and so people really are just bringing in their kids and a lot more intergenerational families coming in and engaging with us. And engaging in the Charlie carton in the harvest of the month programming and then the other piece that again I think Jonathan mentioned at the beginning. But we really do have our hands in the dirt now as well and so you might be able to come in not just to shop but actually to volunteer with Helena food share and you could be out in our garden tending to some some leafy green and some kind of salad mix you could be harvesting that product or you could be inside. Tagging some of that product to put out into our market and. Our first priority is always our customer base but we have these other populations that we also serve and our volunteers are certainly one of those and providing this a really rich experience for someone to engage with Helena food share that involves harvesting product planting product. Processing it in some way and then really thoughtfully putting it out for customers to peruse that's all part of harvest of the month for Helena food share as well.
Jonathan Hockett:
The garden is one place where youth can come volunteer to come volunteer out and be the market or the pantry 16 in older generally but you know the garden is a good place to get families involved in some of my volunteers last year were family you know it's always fun to see.
Trina Filan:
A program like this sounds like it really thrives around collaboration. And that it in turn helps your organizations thrive so can you talk a little bit about that mutual relationship between you all and how it relates to this harvest of the month idea.
Kim Lloyd:
I think specifically for Helena we need to mention the Lewis and Clark county kids nutrition coalition it's kind of been the backbone to nutrition education efforts. Being collaborated across our community we have a number of people who have been members for years and really focusing on kids nutrition I think we see that you know at Saint petes is like an upstream approach to healthcare so I'm trying to reduce our risk for chronic disease. Diet related chronic diseases in our community and they saw a need for more nutrition education in our community the kids nutrition colon. And dead and especially with a snapped kind of having limitations on what they can do and so that was really kind of the start for bringing the harvest of the month program into the schools and having me hired as a coordinator of the program. With Saint Peters health. But I I think it's really important to have also the harvest of the month program is kind of a a backbone program that we're all on board with and really simple you know information that we can take and don't have to do much with and I can really I guess communicate through using those. Those semi resources and I think I know working with food share so closely we've tried some things that have not worked out so well and we had people not show up to things or we've had things that more people show up to than we thought would. Uh too so it's it's really kind of a trial and error kind of program but there's definitely interest in nutrition education in our community community and agriculture education and there's really an interest in trying to increase access to fresh and local foods supporting our local farmers. And learning more about where our food comes from I think there's there's general interest in it it's just trying to make the whole system work together because it's not just food share and. The hospital we also have grocery stores and transportation and just all of these issues that have been part of the conversation for for many many years and I feel like we we are getting somewhere and it's really exciting to see continued support and interest in in our food system.
Kara Snyder:
And we'll just kind of piggyback off of that a little bit I so wouldn't Helena food share first engaged with the harvest of the month this is back in 2018 and I feel like it was more structured almost like there was kind of an offer of like this this is kind of like. He what we're thinking and this is what how you can use it and I do think that we like Kim said tried so many things and some of them worked and some of them didn't. And. It kind of getting back to that collaborative approach I think. At Helena future we've always just been so open about what we can do and then also what we can't do. And we are not dietitians we are not chefs there's just a lot that we don't know how to do and so it was just this really it was the spark I think that really pushed us to engage with people in a different way and it really helped Helena food share like pinpoint people. In town that we could collaborate with and then I think really formalize some of those projects and those are things that we have held on to and so. You know we might have the Charlie cart out in the market once a month if it's available or we might now in this new space kind of transform that idea into something a little bit bigger and so we have this community room where we can host those interactive classes where you're. You're coming in and you're maybe working with that same chef that you grabbed a sample from the Charlie cart a year prior and now they're teaching an interactive class where you're making pasta with them. And so you can uh make that product you can take it home and then you can also shop out in our market and find some of those ingredients for it and so I think we've I think kind of taken all of these little things and I think piece them together and really created a sustainable. Program here I think that's really kind of what I'm working towards here is that out of a pilot project out of like a lot of. You know small ideas came as really solid collaborative citywide community wide program that really gets referenced in a lot of different areas and it's very cool to see.
Amber Lewis:
I just wanted to touch on the collaboration point as well because the harvest of the month program in general it's it's so easy to incorporate into. A lot of different themes and so I think it makes the collaboration easy and maybe not seamless but if. Kim is operating her program and Helena boot chair is operating their program it's really easy to. See the overlap. There and be able to coordinate on several different levels so that's where the collaboration is really important I think in terms of. Nutrition education and bringing everything. Full circle if you will. And then from a broader lengths to from the get go from. They're harvested month implementation 2. As a whole. Looking at all of Montana there were lots of different organizations that came together on this project and whether it was different funding streams or different organizations being able to pick up the project to keep it going. When there's been a lot of different players over the years as well so anyone from Montana State University team nutrition Kara had mentioned earlier in cat which is the National Center for appropriate technology we Montana Farmers Union they have a lot of?
Curriculum and things that they use.
A harvest of the month for abundant Montana has also had a hand in this as well as Montana department of AG we've got Saint Pete's all in a flood chair OPI like there are a lot of different players and a lot of different organizations that have just embraced this program. And to be able to collaborate with so many different organizations and again just fully making this whole program. Come to a complete circle for everyone involved everyone from food service directors to to students to producers it's just an easy program to operate there is one thing that has been mentioned a whole bunch of times and I think that it would be great.
Trina Filan:
To explain it a little can somebody talk or everybody can you talk about the Charlie cart because that is pretty rad and I think folks need to know. More about it.
Jonathan Hockett:
Sure yeah I mean it's a nationwide program to cut based out of Berkeley California I forget how many Charlie cards are in the network off the top of my head right now but it's yeah it's a self-contained. Kitchen on wheels really it's geared towards that K through 5 predominantly yeah it's got everything you need it's got a little tiny oven like induction stove and all the cookware to you know teach lessons and things like that so. Were transported to schools we have our big box trucks that we use for grocery rescue we will put the trailer cards into the back of that and drive it to the elementary schools in town have a very long ramp and a winch take it into the elementary schools and then Kim and all the people she works with kids do the lessons in the schools? So with the K through 5 elementary students so historically we've used it kind of you know as the demo things like we've said where we will have someone preparing one of those ingredients in out in the market. And so there will be a sample a taste test and at a recipe to go with it kind of highlighting something usually most of the time it is a harvest of the month that we're however seeing on that so that's the way that we kind of use it in. Out in the food pantry but it's yeah it's rolls pretty well so it's nice and mobile so we can move it around so we move it around a few different places but it has now and a new building it has its own corner the Charlie cart corner it's dubbed has little sign there so that's where all the harvest of the month stuff is you know I think it's easy to talk about where we were. Like 2 years ago in the trailer court we. There wasn't a lot of room so we had to hide it in little plywood box where we stack things and now it kind of gets to be a little more have its own corner because it is a. Huge I think kind of. A a big part of the beginning of our nutrition programs now you know we have this community room and it's commercial kitchen with the trolley car at like really started that all just. So yeah it's an awesome partnership working with Saint Pete. Just getting to use that in different ways and their website has a lot of information and. It comes with the curriculum. That you can use as well.
Kim Lloyd:
Yeah I love teaching on the Charlie card it's such a fun tool to have it's meant to be in the classroom I mean it's a great tool to have at food share too but inside the cart there's 25 cutting boards 25 plastic knives rolling pins. Uh cheese graters or carrot graters things that kids can use they're like and their kids size too so they're meant to be for small hands and safe for them to not cut themselves and whatnot and we drop it off at the Helena food share drops it off for a week at at a school and I work with the principal. Or school counselor to coordinate all of the classes and each class comes to visit me for half an hour I bring all of the. Yeah uh food items and then my goal is to have every student in the class have some part in helping to make the recipe so harvest of the month lessons are a little bit different because we're bringing the food in already made just because we want to focus on the nutrition education component there too but with the Charlie card is meant to be hands on so we have. This month or this year for the entire school year we're making lentil nachos in all of the elementary schools so I'm having students help chop onions measure out already cooked lentils. They are measuring all there's 8 different spices in the recipe so we have some students using a mortar and pestle to grind up the spices measure out all the spaces as well I have some students creating cheese and it's basically I give the instruction they all are cooking it once and then it all comes together and we. Have time to eat? It's a very quick lesson. We only have 30 minutes so. I have to put a lot of thought in ahead of time of how we're going to do it quickly efficiently no one getting hurt keeping food safety in mind all of that I have had some teachers you know say oh some of these students don't get to smell food cooking at home and since our schools here in Helena have the satellite kitchen they don't get a smell. Food cooking really at. People either so it's really cool to have students see foods being made from scratch and where how different ingredients come together and different flavors to make one dish that everyone's enjoying together and I usually have one or 2 students who say I'm not going to try it but most students feel really proud of making something together and then eating it together and I love like seeing them sit at their tables and. Talk about the food and have comments or I say what would you change about it if you didn't like it so it's just such a fun opportunity to be out in the community and having kids make food together awesome.
Trina Filan:
I have not seen a Charlie card in action and I am bummed so I'm going to have to go to food share and take a gander hopefully hopefully enlightenment will come soon.
Jonathan Hockett:
I'm always looking for more people to do like to volunteer on the Charlie card and do demos and the food pantries. Their interest either of you or anybody else that's listening we have new volunteer web page on our website check it out. Though launch your. Application and uh and yeah sure case. Harvest of the month there anything else you'd like to prepare we're pretty open we like to highlight ingredients we have out in there but always looking for more chefs to use the trailer card when it's not in the school so it gets a little busy during the school year but you know it's here often circling back to have a more little thought about kind of collaboration and just how. Working on farm and producer or it lands a little bit and just how cool harvest of the month is that all over. The state like we. Went and picked up beats from the phone I used to work at in Gallatin valley. But those beats back and somehow Kim took something to the schools and made the bee pancakes with them which were like kids actually came in. Looking for them. At food share so just how cool it is and how far reaching it is like we have the kids packs program that had. Local beef jerky in it and we even tried some from Montana so try like just. Now the whole statewide agriculture.
Trina Filan:
This is an opportunity to showcase all the different things that are produced in Montana right there is a ton of variety throughout the state I think that we're the biggest organic rental producer in the country. Right and so this is a great chance to raise. Awareness about local agriculture as well and the diversity of local agriculture and the work that those farmers have done for. Generations so I I do have a question about the students that you work with Kim so you said that. That you bring in high school students and Carol college students right to help mentor kids during this program can you talk a little bit about how you recruit them and what their experience is when they mentor students.
Kim Lloyd:
This was something that we needed to do to be able to reach all the students we have 10 elementary schools in Helena which is about 25 classrooms a month if we wanted to prove. I'd harvest of the month to all 4th grade students and Helena that would be 25 visits for me each month talking about the same thing every single time and we also wanted to make it an early childhood program too I don't think I've mentioned that we go into a head start classrooms and then also we have a daycare through Saint Pete's Pete's place we call it and. Give them harvest of the month lessons to 4 and 5 year olds as well and I since when when I started we had at that high school team already making the videos we thought it'd be really cool to make this a bigger. Effort around you know inviting more more students to help teach and really I mean Harpers of the month really simplifies nutrition education and it's pretty straightforward so it's not really complicated things that students have to explain but the. The class at Helena high is a culinary arts class. And then we also have an AP science class at Helena high that has jumped on board to help teach as well some of these students are considering like like a pre Med track after they graduate high school and then also over at capital high they have quite a large culinary arts class as well and. Then uh Carol college said oh they actually reached out to me and wanted to participate in teaching the classes as well they have a nutrition science course and a lot of those students are pre Med as well or want to go into pharmacy school or nursing school so they're interested in health and nutrition. And then I think just 2 years ago we also had pal the project for alternative learning high school that wanted to help too so we have all 3 high schools in Helena and then Carol college students and it's a really cool I guess like service. Learning. Project for students even you know high school students are actually a little bit intimidated by elementary students and like college students are too when I go in and share what they're going to be doing over the next semester or school year they they seem a little bit nervous but 4th graders are also really approachable they are super excited. To even have me come into the classroom and they have a ton of questions. And they are really interested in what you're coming to present so I I think it's a really good audience to send high school and college students into because they're going to they're going to feel empowered they're going to feel pretty cool going in and talking about foods and kids are going to be so excited to see them I think. You know I'm a mom I'm not super exciting but if we have a Carol football player or a high school athlete or theater major or something going into to talk to kids they have that role model and someone a little bit closer in age that they can kind of look up to and be like oh they're they're eating lentils I want to try. For them too something exciting so it's it's kind of like a a win win situation we're getting 4th grade students have these really cool role models that come in and teach but then also the high school and college students are not only learning more about nutrition education and kind of helping themselves become more well-rounded public health. Officials in our community they're also getting that like public health experience and presentation experience and I've had the high school teachers say well it's really cool to see. My students become the adults in the classroom you know because they they see them as students the high school teachers do but once they go in and teach the elementary students they see Oh yeah you are an adult and you have these responsibilities and they do a really good job of being professional I've had mostly good feedback from the 4th grade teachers that the students show up and. Are prepared for the classes and it's yeah I I provide them a Lesson plan and I go in and talk about the importance and the reason why we do the program at the beginning of the school year and I drop off the supplies and the food and then they take that with them to the classroom? And they have a little bit of space to make the the lessons their own and kind of add things to it I think one of my favorite stories is our beat lesson I had written it out to go in and teach students some boxing I called it beatboxing just to get students up and moving during the nutrition. Education lesson but I had some high school students that said actually I bet that they can actually do some actual beatboxing so they went into the classroom and had students actually write songs about beets and then perform them for the class and they only had about 8 minutes to write a song but they sent me just the cutest videos of kids getting up and singing about beats in front of their classmates and so we've continued on with that and now the lesson planner on beats is to go in and tell students all the fun things about beats and then they write a song. And perform it for their class and I asked them to perform it for their parents when they get home as well.
Trina Filan: I love that.
Amber I have a couple of questions for you actually uh one when we were first talking about this podcast you mentioned a project called harvest Helena and it sounded really interesting would you like to talk about this and if it does not fall in the context of harvest of the month that's cool. But could you clarify what that is please I was referencing harvesting Helena harvesting Helen.
Amber Lewis:
Harvesting Helena yes so it was a a small conference if you. Will it was hosted? Probably close to 2 years ago now and we showcased. Harvest of the month and cats and producers come and we had different organizations that were in the Helena area and just talked about. Sourcing locally promoting local foods. Somebody had come in the in the library 's mobile book cart and was promoting harvest of the month through the library even we had a couple of guest speakers from the hospital come and talk about nutrition yeah it was just kind of a general. Overview or food service directors and other community members and organizations in the area just to promote harvest of the month and. At different things that were happening on a local food purchasing level within the Helena area so I I'm not sure if there's another event like that coming up soon Amber I also have a question for you about how.
Trina Filan:
Schools can get involved with harvest of the month since it's not just a Helena thing although we've been highlighting Helena schools and Helena organizations and their involvement this is a program that is statewide so. Can you talk a little bit about how people can have harvest of the month in their school?
Amber Lewis:
Honestly that is probably the easiest question of the day it's really easy it's really simple you can. Search for Montana harvest of the. The website is simply empty harvest of the month.org and it will take you directly to all of the resources you know it tells you what the program is all about how to get the resources there's tabs for. Each different organization whether or not you are K through 12 or early care education. If you're a food service director there's different resources if you're a farmer 's market in healthcare there's different tabs underneath the getting started resources on the web page so that would be the easiest thing the next best thing would be anybody is always welcome to reach out to myself at OPI? And I am happy to guide you through where to find the resources and where to get started or to just have a conversation more in depth about specifics of harvest of. The month if we'd like. The easiest route to go is. That good old Google Internet search Montana harvest of the month.
Trina Filan:
Is there anything that an organization a school that has not done this before and is interested in doing it aside from looking for those resources are there any considerations they should make anything that's particularly challenging that comes up regularly? Anybody they should seek to partner with to help make the effort easier do you have any suggestions or things to watch out for.
Amber Lewis:
I would just say find either a partner whether it's a partner organization or whether it's a partner within your school whether it's a teacher or the principal or somebody else that's interested in farm to school or. Harvesting a month. Even though all of the rest. Sources on the website are really accessible and easy to use it's always easier if you have a team so build your team we talked earlier on the podcast about collaboration it it's easier if you have more people involved and that can help you with with your goals and your aspirations for. This program so don't be afraid to ask it don't be afraid. To reach out and. Use your resources whether it's online or whether it's a teacher or somebody else that's within your community.
Trina Filan:
I wanted to ask if there are any final stories awesome anecdotes or any other topics folks wanted to talk about today.
Kara Snyder:
I guess want to touch on the something Jonathan brought up earlier is that all of these materials that have been created around this program are just really beautiful. And I think of the concept of connecting people with local food and high end food is being something that often a large segments of the community gets left out of it's kind of a really a sign of privilege I think in a lot of ways to be able to connect yourself to some of these products. And. I am just always so humbled and it's very cool to see the way that these collaborations have touched so many people especially in this community and. I can tell you like seeing this panel here and knowing how many people are impacted by this program it really always just heartens me to know that the one of the players at the table is Helena food share and that we really do serve you know over 10,000 people. In Helena in this greater kind of Helena area and a lot of people that you know wouldn't. Necessarily have access to this incredibly cool high end education and food and and so I feel incredibly proud that this group of people and you know a lot of other people who aren't at the table today but have really shepherded this project into something that is. Has impacted the the number of people that it has here?
Jonathan Hockett:
Yeah we we have like a little open house and they're coming to the room last spring and we invited our customers and to come see the space and try to get feedback of. Ohh we could use that to benefit them and so we did rental tacos all week we had needle kits with lentil tacos and people could taste the rental Taco and other folks came in with other things as well so multiple tacos variety of other case the soups things and and it was just kind of a fun little event and. Take one of the customers was just like well I guess I like lentils you know I just like this this I don't know I found that just kind of fun and exciting and and. It seems that the preparing an easy way and. Everybody got to. Take that and you get home to make it at home as well. With. The ingredients that's cool it's just an yeah Montana grown lentils from timeless seeds that are. Available on our. Shelves. Year round now it's really going for there's black blue lentils out there right now you know had a variety of different kinds out there at time so.
Trina Filan:
Yes thank you all you are such great examples of how. Something wonderful can happen when lots of people put their brains creativity passion and and stick-to-itiveness to a goal and I also have really appreciated learning about. But this program that I don't think a lot of people know about obviously it's touched a lot of lives. But I don't know how many people generally know that this exists and and everybody should because it is very very cool so I would like to thank everybody on this podcast so much for your time today. Thank you so much to our podcast listeners on behalf of myself and the crew behind the scenes. Our guests have shared so much of their time and expertise with us today and we are very grateful. If you would like more information on what we discussed today please visit our website at talking health in the406.mt.gov where there will be links to the information we talked about if you haven't already Please remember to rate review and subscribe to this podcast? And until next time be healthy and be well.