09/30/2024“Great Falls This Week” is reported and written by Matt Hudson. Send your news and tips to [email protected] hopes to bring small producers’ food to area platesFive years in development, a cooperative aimed at connecting local food producers with area distributors and retailers is closer to launch after receiving a national grant.Last week, a Vigrinia-based community development financial institution called Capital Impact Partners announced a $20,000 grant to The Montana Food Hub, which will be a member-owned organization focused on northcentral Montana’s Golden Triangle.“We’re trying to support more people growing table food,” said Lyndsay Gutierrez, organizer for the Montana Food Hub. “Montana’s great at growing wheat and beef and exporting it all over the world, feeding the world.”But it hasn’t been as easy to circulate locally grown food from small to medium-sized producers among area grocers, restaurants and other regional buyers, Gutierrez said. As a chef and educator through her coaching outfit, Nourish, it was sometimes a search for quality local food.“I know people grow food here,” Gutierrez said. “Why can’t I find it?”The Montana Food Hub hopes to be the link between those stakeholders. Gutierrez and partners have been steadily building its membership toward the critical mass needed to have a strong food supply network. The focus on smaller food producers is meant to help those who aren’t big enough to attract large distribution deals. Gutierrez said she knows small producers who have quit because they couldn’t find a sustainable market.“We’re filling a need because there’s a gap,” she said. “They can sell direct to consumer and handle the logistics and marketing themselves. Or they can scale up enough to sell to one of the big distributors. But there’s not a ton of options here in between. It takes a lot of work to scale up your operation and sell it themselves.”The $20,000 grant comes from Capital Impact Partners, which chose organizations to receive “catalytic grant funds” in its 10th annual Co-op Innovation Awards. The program intends to help co-ops that work in areas like community housing, food supply and employment.“The Co-op Innovation Awards have provided another key tool through our continuum of capital for building generational wealth while increasing access to quality jobs, healthy foods, affordable housing and the other pillars that every community deserves in order to thrive,” said Ellis Carr, president and CEO of the Momentus Capital, a parent organization of Capital Impact Partners, in a press release.The Montana Food Hub is working through a multi-phase startup that includes formally incorporating with the state. Gutierrez said that once they are able to sign up enough members — both producers and food purchasers — they will finalize incorporation. The Montana Cooperative Development Center has been a partner in the Food Hub’s startup plan. 2J’s Fresh Market owner Michael Vetere is a founding member and will be the co-op’s first retail outlet.Gutierrez said that the grant funding will help get the co-op into a warehouse with cold storage, which is a big step toward launch. She said that it’s time the community gets better access to local food.“We’re trying to build some resilience in the food chain,” Gutierrez said.Photo Op Jill O’Moore, senior research assistant at the McLaughlin Research Institute for Biomedical Sciences, demonstrates a method for injecting pharmaceuticals into a mouse’s brain for research. The public was invited to the facility for tours and talks as part of its 70th-anniversary celebration last week.What started as a laboratory with one scientist now has as many as 45, according to McLaughlin Director Renee A Reijo Pera. It has added clinical research to its work and secured millions of dollars in grants from the National Institutes of Health.Reijo Pera said that the institute has persisted over the decades in part because of Great Falls.“It’s also endured because of the support of this community,” she said.Also part of the 70th anniversary was the announcement of the organization’s name change. It will soon be known as the Weissman-Hood Institute, named for scientists and Montanans Irving Weissman and Leroy Hood.Calling all photographers: Submit a photo for Great Falls This Week to [email protected] Things to Know in Great FallsStick-on labels will not be allowed on election ballots when casting votes for write-in candidates, according to a request from Cascade County Elections Administrator Terry Thompson. County commissioners approved the request during a meeting on Sept. 25. Thompson noted that ES&S, which services the county’s ballot machines, said that stickers on ballots will “gum up the sensors” and that the company strongly discourages the use of stickers. For write-in candidates to succeed, voters must write a name on the line that matches various spelling versions that candidates submit ahead of time, and stickers are allowed by law to help voters get the name right. As administrator, Thompson has the discretion to prohibit stickers to save potential headaches with machines on Election Day. After much discussion at the meeting, commissioners noted that ballots will still be counted by hand if they come in with stickers for a valid write-in candidate, but the official stance of the county is not to allow them. District 3 Commissioner Rae Grulkowski, who is a write-in incumbent candidate with a long last name, voted with the other two commissioners to not allow stickers. The Great Falls Historic Preservation Advisory Commission approved a plan to save the Boston and Montana barn, which is the last-standing structure from the Anaconda smelter era. The barn, which predates Anaconda operations in Great Falls, is at risk of collapse, and officials warn that it may not last through the winter. On Sept. 25, the commission voted that the barn should be saved, either partially or completely. With the help of city staff, a recommendation will be brought to the Great Falls City Commission for consideration. It’s a tough request as no funding has been identified either for demolition or restoration. City administrators and representatives of the Great Falls Public Library will return to the negotiating table to discuss the reallocation of library funding for public safety use. Each side has put forth compromise recommendations, both of which reduce the library’s funding at differing degrees. The city’s current recommendation eliminates seven mills of funding by 2027, and the library’s current recommendation maintains a funding reduction for the foreseeable future. Read about those developments here. According to a press release from the library, negotiations should restart in October. The 2025 Montana Teacher of the Year is Dawn Sievers, who teaches 7th through 12th graders in Power Schools. According to Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen, Sievers is a University of Great Falls alum and has nearly three decades of experience in teaching. “This is also one of the greatest responsibilities to be the voice of Montana teachers and students in the coming year,” Sievers said in a statement shared by the Office of Public Instruction. The media love a salacious story. The city’s Planning and Community Development office is recommending that city commissioners eliminate licensing for businesses that provide “coin-operated devices depicting sexual activities per device,” according to an agenda item for an upcoming commission meeting. Staff noted that this type of license is “obsolete” and that no business of this type exists in the city. If an enterprising business owner does seek licensure for this kind of operation, it would be recognized under a separate category as a “sexual-oriented business.” Local AngleState elections officials responded to criticism last week after reports that Kamala Harris’ name didn’t appear on some electronic ballots that are used by people who live overseas. The issue was limited and corrected by Sept. 23, according to Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen.Cascade County Elections Administrator Terry Thompson said that she hasn’t seen any similar issues on ballots for overseas voters registered in the county. The county has sent 154 electronic ballots, approved through the Uniformed and Overseas Citizen Absentee Voting Act, according to Thompson. Many are active-duty military members. Thompson said she and staff will be checking those ballots as they are returned.With just over a month until Election Day, here are some early voting dates to keep in mind: Regular voter registration closes on Oct. 7. Late voter registration begins on Oct. 8, which means registration would need to be done at the Cascade County elections office. Thompson encouraged people to call the office (406-454-6803) if they need to check their registration status. The state also has an online tool to check registration status.A voter information pamphlet will be mailed to every voter household on the week of Oct. 7.Absentee ballots will be sent starting Oct. 11.UpcomingOct. 1: City commission work session (5:30 p.m.) and regular meeting (7 p.m.); 2 Park Dr. S.Oct. 2: City-County board of health meeting (11:30 a.m.); 325 2nd Ave. N.Oct. 2: Cascade County Commission work session (2 p.m.); 325 2nd Ave. N.The post Grant brings area food hub closer to reality appeared first on Montana Free Press.