Progress report for WRGR22-001
Project Information
AERO's Montana Food Economy Initiative (MFEI) strengthens the network of Montana values-based community food systems to ensure producer sustainability and resilience, and support community economic, environmental, social, and human health. MFEI emphasizes coordinating cross-sector engagement across all parts of the food system (producer, processor, distributor, consumer, recovery) to support critical producer sustainability (see MFEI Food System Graphic).
Regional assessment data from MFEI's 2017 project funded by WSARE's Producer+Professional grant identified gaps between producers and other local food system stakeholders, risking diminished producer viability. MFEI's 2020 project, funded by WSARE's "Research to Grassroots" grant, sought to fill those gaps by developing a producer-led Advisory Board to help design and mentor implementation of discrete, shovel-ready producer-led projects that enhanced on-farm resilience and cross-sector engagement, and also built producers’ collaborative leadership skills for implementing community projects. Participant surveys from this effort identified a strong interest in continued cross-sector collaborations, particularly to assess, develop, and implement strategies for maturing developing community food systems.
The 2022 MFEI project offers Community Food System Assessments (CFSAs) to Fort Belknap, Billings, and Helena communities. The assessment focuses on coalition-building, mapping community assets, crafting a logic model, and developing metrics. The CFSA, facilitated by a trained assessor, supports the community in attracting a network of stakeholders across sectors (health, education, food, business) working with producers to implement strategies that strengthen community food system priorities. The 2020 MFEI producer-led Advisory Board cohort will help with assessment design, ensuring it reflects Montana’s landscape, and will participate as sector experts during the assessment. AERO anticipates the coalition networks will coordinate and implement at least one short-term, producer-led project using the MFEI 2020 project model. A Local Food Coordinator residing in each community, will help gather and build engagement among stakeholders throughout the CFSA and project implementation.
As stated above, AERO’s MFEI works to strengthen the network of Montana values-based community food systems to ensure producer sustainability and resilience, and support community economic, environmental, social, and human health.
Specifically in the 2022 MFEI project, we seek to:
- Increase Fort Belknap, Billings, and Helena’s community awareness about what constitutes a sustainable, resilient local food system
- Support three communities (Fort Belknap, Billings, and Helena) in attracting a network of cross-sector food system stakeholders to work with producers to implement strategies that strengthen community food system priorities
- Help build diverse, cross-sector relationships and coalitions in Fort Belknap, Billings, and Helena, and connect these community food systems into a statewide network
- Increase the capacity of local communities to assess food system needs and opportunities
- Increase the capacity of local communities to implement producer-led projects that will strengthen the resilience and sustainability of their community food system
The current project focuses on supporting three Montana communities (Billings, Helena, and Fort Belknap) mature their developing community food systems with an in-depth Community Food System Assessment (CFSA). The CFSA is designed to bring together local producers and stakeholders from different community sectors (health, education, food, business), supporting them in building collaborative relationships as they deepen their understanding of their community's food system, assess its strengths and weaknesses, and explore strategies that enhance local sustainable agriculture opportunities, local food economies, and community food access, and food security.
Building a network of collaborative relationships is central to community food system success and helps develop farm-to-school, farm-to-institution (including healthcare), and business-to-business opportunities, supporting local food producers and community food access, food security, and health. It also supports moving the assessment coalition from evaluation and assessment to implementation, with sufficient momentum to keep the network engaged and expanding.
All three communities seek to identify and engage producers with community stakeholders from other community sectors. The Helena group includes members from a producer assessment conducted under AERO’s 2017-2019 WSARE Professional + Producer grant. The Fort Belknap Reservation with the A'aninin population has a burgeoning food sovereignty initiative supported by its community economic development corporation. The assessment will assist initiative implementation and engagement. The Billings Yellowstone Valley Food Hub, a producer-owned cooperative, seeks to identify and engage other community sector stakeholders.
This current MFEI project builds on prior WSARE granted projects, using elements and outcomes from those projects to inform the design and implementation of the current project. In particular, the project will use a producer-centric Advisory Board cohort developed under the 2020-2022 WSARE "Research to Grass Roots" grant funded project to help with assessment design and to participate as experts during the assessment and implementation process.
Cooperators
Education & Outreach Initiatives
Increase Fort Belknap, Billings, and Helena’s community awareness about what constitutes a sustainable, resilient local food system
AERO is offering each community coalition educational presentations and resources to build and increase their community knowledge and awareness about what constitutes a sustainable, resilient local food system. This includes a presentation during the first coalition meeting defining community food systems, community food system assessments and the process we will undertake, the five food system sectors, nine asset areas, and the primary and secondary data sources that can support comprehensive assessments. This is complete for all three coalitions (Helena, Ft Belknap, and Billings).
We also provided the coalition with three articles to build collective knowledge and awareness of best practices in supporting resilient community food systems: Determining Factors for Local Food System Success by Iowa State University; Supporting Local Food System Development in Your Community by Iowa State University; and The place of food: mapping out the ‘local’ in local food systems by Robert Feagan. Further readings will follow as we begin to assess asset areas and move into the work of project implementation. We are also gathering and sharing locally-specific resources, such as the Community Health Improvement Plan, community health data, and other research to support increased knowledge about local needs and solutions. Lastly, we will share AERO’s 10-video Video Series “Get to Know Your Montana Food System,” which highlights leaders from diverse food system sectors/asset areas across the state who have been instrumental in supporting creative solutions to advance their local and regional food systems. Seven out of ten videos are complete and ready to share with coalition members. We will promote the videos during coalition meetings and request that all members watch them on their own time. We will check in during our meetings to see what thoughts, comments, questions arise from viewing this video series.
We conducted a pre-survey at the first coalition meeting to measure current levels of knowledge, awareness, or skill/ability on a variety of topics related to community food systems. We will compare this to a post-survey at the conclusion of the CFSA to measure an increase in knowledge/skills/awareness.
A couple of notable survey takeaways. In the pre-survey, we asked Helena coalition members if they could define a community food system; 66% said yes, 11% were neutral, and 11% said no. In the post-survey results, 100% said yes to this question. Similarly, when asked on the pre-survey if participants could identify different food system sectors, 66% said yes, 14% said neutral, and 18% said no. In the post-survey, 100% said yes. This indicated that coalition members learned more about community food systems during this project.
In the WSARE survey, some notable responses were how participants were going to use what they learned. One will take data back to their farmer member base and may host an educational event specifically about food systems. One participant will use some of the facilitation and decision-making techniques that were used by the CFSA assessor during coalition meetings. Several more participants said that they were going to use workshop info in an education program that they are planning and as a professional development tool for peers.
Support three communities (Fort Belknap, Billings, and Helena) in attracting a network of cross-sector food system stakeholders to work with producers to implement strategies that strengthen community food system priorities
The CFSA assessor in partnership with the Local Food Coordinator leads coalition building for each community. This is complete for all three coalitions (Helena, Ft Belknap, and Billings). You can see a list of each coalitions’ members in the Collaborators section. Each coalition strives to be a cross-sector representation of the local community that includes a diversity of representation from food system sectors, diversity of representation from different business types, local producers, and participants from existing regional coalitions.
Our coalition in Helena includes 14 individuals with diverse cross-sector representation including the local college, nonprofits, county health departments and sanitarians, farmers/ranchers, the local hospital, K-12 schools, and restaurants.
The “Core Team” coalition in Fort Belknap has continued to lead the community food system assessment work for the reservation community.
In Billings, coalition building was completed in fall 2023 and now includes 14 individuals also with diverse, cross-sector affiliations. Members include representatives from MSU Extension, local food hubs, producers, restaurants, food service providers, and nonprofits.
Help build diverse, cross-sector relationships and coalitions in Fort Belknap, Billings, and Helena, and connect these community food systems into a statewide network
Coalitions in Helena, Fort Belknap, and Billings are all aware that AERO is supporting similar CFSAs in the other communities. As we move into project year 2 and 3, and project implementation, we will share contact information among the coalitions to support developing a statewide network and connect coalitions to contacts and leaders across the state who are working in sectors of interest. Similarly, AERO’s video series “Get to Know Your Montana Food System” connects the coalitions to local food system leaders across the state in support of building a network web of relationships, linking ideas and connections across the state.
Now that all three coalitions are active, the CFSA assessor will organize a virtual session for the three coalitions to meet each other, introduce themselves, discuss their coalition experiences, share insights about their food systems, and collaborate on potential areas of common interest. AERO will facilitate this session and outline where community food systems may share similarities and differences. This could also be time for the coalitions to brainstorm and problem solve together.
We will evaluate the impact and outcomes of this goal in project year 3.
Increase the capacity of local communities to assess food system needs and opportunities
Through participating in the nine-month assessment process, led by an AERO trained CFSA Assessor, the community coalitions are building their skills and capacity in assessing local needs and opportunities. In coalition meetings 2-5, we ask the coalition to evaluate the five food system sectors (production, processing, distribution, consumption/access, and resource management) and nine asset areas (community/institutional capital, economic capital, educational capital, environmental capital, equity, food culture, health and wellness capital, and policy and regulation). We provide prompts such as “What is currently happening here?”, “What is missing?”, “What are current challenges and opportunities?”, and “What is going well?”. The coalition members are active drivers in the assessment process, leading the work of identifying current community assets, needs, and solutions. These assessments ultimately support the communities in having the tools and capacity to build and enhance their own local community food system, by being able to identify/assess areas of opportunity and take action to implement projects to address these needs.
We conducted a pre-survey at the first coalition meeting to measure current levels of knowledge, awareness, or skill/ability, including their ability to participate in a CFSA. As indicated above, 100% of Helena coalition members indicated they could define a community food system and its sectors following the assessment, demonstrating an increase in knowledge and awareness.
Increase the capacity of local communities to implement producer-led projects that will strengthen the resilience and sustainability of their community food system
At the conclusion of the nine-month assessment, the coalition will identify projects that will support the needs and opportunities that have come forth through the CFSA. They will prioritize 1-2 projects to implement in the following nine months.
The Helena coalition participated in extensive data review from their coalition conversations, stakeholder interviews, and three community surveys. Then, they were asked to choose three areas of priority that they wanted to focus on in the project implementation phase. The areas chosen are: (1) increase local food production, (2) grow the regional economy, and (3) increase access to local food.
We conducted a pre-survey at the first coalition meeting to measure current levels of knowledge, awareness, or skill/ability. We will compare this to a post-survey at the conclusion of the CFSA to measure an increase in skill/capacity.
The Helena coalition has completed their assessment and has moved into project planning. Coalition members brainstormed 33 possible project ideas, which were distilled to nine. The coalition then evaluated the top nine projects on a set of criteria:
- Project Values
- Feasibility
- Cost
- Community impact
- Priorities support
Each category had a weight assigned to it based on the coalition’s thoughts on level of impact and importance. There were four projects that rated highly. Following extensive group discussion, the coalition narrowed it to their top three choices. The coalition has been meeting roughly every two weeks to better outline the possible project and assess feasibility, with the ultimate goal of choosing a project to pursue shortly.
The top three project areas are evaluating / developing a regional local food marketing campaign; how to increase local value added processing; and how to support value chain coordination for institutional procurement in the area. As of now, two projects are emerging: (1) hosting a community wide local food event in Helena that includes health, nutrition, and food system education, and (2) supporting the emerging Central Montana Food Hub in connecting with producers, buyers, and consumers in the Helena area.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation Summary:
Project Phase 1:
1.1 - Community Food System Assessment (CFSA) Workshop Development and Planning - This is complete. We convened our Advisory Board for three coworking sessions between June-September 2022 to offer feedback and workshop design support to ensure that the CFSA process considered Montana’s specific needs and agricultural landscape. The Advisory Board made adaptations to coalition education building and resources to support the CFSA being appropriate and place-based for Montana.
1.2 - Local Food Coordinator Training - We made slight adaptations to support project efficacy, including the order of the CFSAs (now: Helena first, Fort Belknap second, and Billings third) and training the Local Food Coordinators (LFC) individually at the start of their CFSA to ensure that the information is fresh for them. We realized it did not make sense to train the Billings LFC in 2022 to support their assessment beginning in 2024. We completed the Helena LFC training in fall 2022 at the start of the greater Helena area CFSA, and completed the Fort Belknap LFC training in winter 2022. We completed the Billings LFC training in fall 2023.
1.3 - MFEI Video Series Development - AERO’s “Get to Know Your Montana Food System” video series is almost complete with seven of 10 videos complete. Each video interviews a leader in our Montana food system exploring challenges and opportunities within their sector (production, processing, distribution, access, and/or resource management) and stories about how they have engaged with their community food system. See videos here: https://mtfoodsystemresources.org/toolkit_component/get-to-know-your-montana-food-system-video-series/.
Project Phase 2:
2.1 - Coalition Building - Coalition building for all three communities is complete. The CFSA Assessor and LFC in all regions supported individual consultations and outreach to potential coalition members to explain the CFSA process, answer questions, solicit feedback and ideas for other coalition members, and recruit their participation.
In collaboration with the Fort Belknap LFC and regional partners we have modified the design of the CFSA to best meet local needs. While the original plan was to support each of the four main communities on the reservation–Hays, Dodson, Lodgepole, and Agency–in building their own hyper local/community coalitions, based on capacity within the Nakoda Aniinii Economic Development Corporation’s (NAEDC) staff, we decided that community meetings of this scale would not be feasible. Instead, we were able to form a coalition of community members like we did in Helena and Billings. The coalition is the “Core Team” originally gathered to attend each of the hyper local/community coalition meetings. We are in the process of having coalition meetings to gather data about the community food system. There was a staff change at NAEDC in late 2023, and the LFC (and key participant in the coalition, Randi Fetter) left to join the Tribal Council. To date, this position has not been replaced, though the role is being assumed by Josie Cliff in the meantime. However, coalition meetings have slowed down. We anticipate being able to pick these back up shortly.
2.2 - Community Food System Assessment -
The Helena CFSA is now complete, with its final coalition meetings held in July and September to review the assessment data and move into project prioritization. The Snapshot of the Helena CFSA data is attached to this report.
The Fort Belknap CFSA is underway. We have continued to adapt the CFSA implementation to meet local needs. We have held most meetings virtually, rather than in person, to accommodate the coalition’s Core Team members schedules. During the summer of 2023, the CFSA Assessor attended two pow wows to support Food Sovereignty Survey distribution in person and helped release a virtual survey as well. There were 133 survey respondents, which was more than for the previous 2017 Food Sovereignty survey so the coalition was pleased by this outcome. We are in the process of comparing data from the 2017 survey to the 2023 survey to better understand how food sovereignty and the food system may have shifted on the reservation over the last six years. The coalition is still meeting and will finish the assessment in 2024. Key informant interviews may also happen in 2024, pending the coalition’s desires.
Lastly, the Billings CFSA began on September 18, 2023 with their first meeting. The coalition has since met three more times, for a total of four meetings. The assessment work will conclude in May 2024 and project work will occur between June 2024 - March 2025.
(All coalition meetings are represented as “study circle / focus groups” in the metric reporting.)
We have published two blogs and were recently interviewed for a podcast co-hosted by SARE and NCAT. You can see all three of these media here:
2.3 - Develop Coalition Building & Partnership Development Guide - We are documenting our work to support creating a Coalition Building & Partnership Development Guide by the conclusion of our project.
Phase 3:
Project Design and Implementation - The Helena coalition has begun the Project Design and Implementation phase of their work together. As mentioned above, the coalition is currently evaluating three project ideas: a regional local foods marketing campaign, increasing local value added processing, or supporting value chain coordination to increase institutional local food procurement. The coalition has CFSA Assessor time through May 2024. The coalition is in the process of choosing a project that we can start together. It is likely that the coalition will need to complete the project after this grant support ends in May 2024.
Learning Outcomes
Project Outcomes
Our work is on track to achieve our project outcomes. As stated above, the CFSA process is designed to bring together local producers and stakeholders from different community sectors (health, education, food, business) and support them in building collaborative relationships as they deepen their understanding of their community's food system, assess its strengths and weaknesses, and explore strategies that enhance local sustainable agriculture opportunities, local food economies, community food access, and food security. AERO’s Montana Food Economy Initiative program works to strengthen the network of Montana values-based community food systems to ensure producer sustainability and resilience, and support community economic, environmental, social, and human health.
We have received positive verbal, qualitative feedback from all coalitions that the work is achieving these goals. The Helena coalition also presented at AERO’s annual conference (“Expo”) in October 2023 to share about their work together, their current findings, and next steps, which was positively received.
In Helena and Billings, we administered the pre-survey and the WSARE survey following Coalition Meeting #1 (a “workshop”). Data in the “Learning Outcomes” reflect results from the WSARE survey. In Fort Belknap, we have not had official workshops. Food systems education has been informal and through individual conversations
With all coalitions still in progress, final outcomes and impact are not yet available.