Hunger fighting coalition gets grant
Article: http://www.ravallirepublic.com/articles/2010/01/06/news/news18.txt
by WILL MOSS - Ravalli Republic
A local organization devoted to fighting hunger has been awarded a mini-grant from the Montana Food Bank Network to pursue two projects aimed at increasing food access and education in the valley.
The Ravalli County GRASP Coalition (Growing Resources And Sustaining People) is slated to receive $1,000 from the network; funds that they will use to create and distribute a county-wide directory of food and social resources and develop an “edible schoolyard” program at Victor School.
The coalition is made up of local organizations and individuals with a shared interest in promoting proper nutrition and providing families access to food. GRASP members include: the Ravalli County Council on Aging, Sustainable Living Systems, Victor School, Ravalli Head Start, Bitterroot Food Co-operative, the Ravalli County MSU Extension office and others.
“We are mainly service agencies concerned with family welfare because poverty has a really insidious reach,” said Denelle Pappier, chairwoman of GRASP’s resource directory committee. “The most basic of needs have to be met before families can move on to other areas of importance, so [we’re trying to] put people in touch with how they can get their food needs met.”
Pappier said the coalition hopes to release the directory by this summer and will offer both digital and paper versions. The Montana Food Bank Network will host a Web site for the online version of the guide.
“We want to put links on as many Ravalli County agencies’ Web sites as possible .... So, there won’t be any confusion about where you go for information, because there will be information almost anywhere you look,” she said.
The coalition is currently seeking volunteers to assist in gathering and entering information on local agencies. Anyone interested in helping should contact Denelle Pappier at 363-1311.
The “edible schoolyard” project involves the planting of fruit trees and vegetables at Victor School and incorporating the production of food into students’ regular classroom curriculum.
“The edible schoolyard is kind of a major initiative happening in many communities around the country where the students’ regular school curriculum is taught using some hands-on material,” said Jill Davies, director of Sustainable Living Systems, who is helping implement the program. “There are a lot of curricula now using gardens to teach math, science, biology and all kinds of things. So, it makes it more of a realistic learning scenario rather than being abstract.”
Davies also noted that the program will help students become more aware of the resource issues surrounding food access.
“It also reconnects children to where their food comes from and gives them useful skills in life for growing their own food,” she said.
Teachers will be provided with manuals that instruct teachers on how to incorporate the garden into their lesson plans.
Eventually, Davies said, they’d like to expand the program through the summer and teach kids further skills like canning and pickling. They’d also like, some day, to see the food that the students harvest end up in school lunches, on family dinner tables and in local food banks.
For more information on the edible schoolyard, contact Davies at 642-3601.
According to a Montana Food Bank Network press release, the grant coincides with a recent United States Department of Agriculture report showing that hunger has increased in Montana. According to the report, 11 percent of Montanans are food insecure — struggling with hunger - and research has shown that the number of Montanans at risk of food insecurity to be much higher (as many as one in three).
GRASP is facilitated by the Montana Food bank Network, a state-wide nonprofit anti-hunger organization based in Missoula.
Log on to RavalliRepublic.com to comment on this and other stories.
Reporter Will Moss can be reached at 363-3300 or wmoss@ravallirepublic.com.