MT Crunch Time 2024

[Eric Tilleman]

Hello Montana Farm to School and Farm to ECE partners!

 

If we haven’t met, my name is Haley Scott and I work in the Montana Team Nutrition program at Montana State University to support nutritious and positive mealtimes within school meal programs. 

 

I'm reaching out to gather input from Farm to School partners across the state on the upcoming 11^th annual Montana Crunch Time [montana.edu]. If you are not familiar, Crunch Time is a statewide event held in October to celebrate National Farm to School Month [farmtoschool.org], local producers, and nutritious foods by crunching into Montana grown or raised foods. Last year 23,933 Montanans across the state Crunched! The annual Crunch is a great opportunity for Montanans to try a local food for the first time and hopefully find the food is fresher, lower cost in season, and may even get to know a new community contact.

 

There is friendly competition between states in the Mountain Plains region to see who tracks the most Crunches per capita, all to build momentum for farm to school efforts. This event wouldn’t be possible without combining our efforts and networks to spread the word about the Crunch into every corner of our state.

 

Historically, the Montana Farm to School Leadership Team (F2SLT) comprised of state and local agencies, non-profits, educators, producers, etc. has advised on MT F2S projects such as Crunch Time, beef to school efforts, the MT Harvest of the Month program, and more. The team has decreased meeting times over the last year but with the Crunch around the corner in October, I’m hoping partners from the past F2SLT and new MT F2S partners can join to make this the loudest Crunch yet! 

 

If you or someone from your organization would like to join a virtual meeting to discuss logistics and promotional strategies for this year’s Crunch, please complete this doodle poll [doodle.com] by end of day Monday, July 15. You are more than welcome to share this email with others who may be interested in providing input on the Crunch.

 

We will plan to talk through the following points when we meet virtually. I would love to hear additional thoughts and questions around the Crunch.

1. Date and time of Crunch- October 8, 2024
2. Set goal number of Crunches
3. Increase number of little Crunchers under 5 years old.
4. Review plan for promoting the Crunch
5. Other goals?

 

Thank you for all you do!

Haley

 

Haley Scott, MPH

Team Nutrition Program Lead | Montana Team Nutrition Program

Montana State University

325 Reid Hall, PO Box 173370

Bozeman, MT 59717

(406)-994-5641

montana.edu/teamnutrition/ [montana.edu]