Local food is often discussed in terms of freshness, flavor, environmental benefits, or economic benefits.
These are important and impactful factors to consider, but the impact of local food runs even deeper, and the benefits can be even more personal.
Local food can restore health, create roots in unfamiliar ground, reconnect generations, and revive traditions that were at risk of being lost. When food is grown close to home, it carries more than nutrients; it carries story, identity, and relationship.
Local food isn’t just about what’s on the plate. It’s about what becomes possible because of it. Below are three stories of the life-changing impacts of Montana Local Food.
Local Food Improves Health
Crystal Manuel never expected cabbage to transform her life, but when she was diagnosed with Graves’ Disease, she turned to food as medicine. Crystal discovered that cabbage, which she already had intense cravings for, could support thyroid health, and she began eating as much as she could. This choice started her on a transformational journey. Not only did she shift her eating habits, but as she researched the impact of nutritious food, she learned about the importance of growing practices and soil health, which transformed her family’s farm and ranch operations.
“The soil is only going to be as healthy as the growing practices that it’s subject to,” says Crystal. “And the food is only ever going to be as healthy as the soil in which it’s grown.” As Crystal’s knowledge grew and her whole family’s health improved, she started teaching others in her community how to cook and eat healthily. In 2023, the Manuels launched Gruff Ancient Grain Grits to share the nutrient-dense food grown on their farm with the world.
Learn more about Crystal’s story HERE.
Photo Courtesy of Crystal Manuel
Local Food Gives You Roots
Moving away from home is, by nature, a destabilizing event. But moving to an entirely new country, where even language is a barrier, makes finding familiarity again that much more difficult. In Missoula, refugees and immigrants can put down roots by growing their own food.
Soft Landing Missoula, a community-based nonprofit, partners with Garden City Harvest, Tower Gardens Community Garden at FARM, Seedlings 4 Solidarity, and the Community Food and Agriculture Coalition to facilitate the supply of sponsored garden plots to refugee and immigrant growers. This program allows them to preserve a connection to their homeland through farming while putting down roots in their new country and increasing their confidence and autonomy.
Emily Kern Swaffer, Community Gardens Director at Garden City Harvest, says the benefits of growing food reach even further, “I think just having that piece of land to tend, care for, visit, and get you out of the house has immense positive impacts on people’s overall quality of life, but especially mental [and] emotional health, and physical activity.”
Find Out More About Soft Landing HERE
Photo by Athena Photography | Meadow Hill Community Garden | Missoula
Local Food Connects You to Family
Keshawna Yazzie-Wolftail grew up amidst diet-related health problems. Wanting a different story for her son, she signed up for FAST Blackfeet’s Growing Health Program, a two-year course in which participants learn from Indigenous elders and cultural knowledge keepers the basics of growing, wild harvesting, and processing their own food. She saw firsthand the power food has to connect generations. The Growing Health Program gave her the opportunity to pass on knowledge to her son as they planted and watered the garden together.
Following the course, she applied for a position with FAST Blackfeet as their Nutrition Education Manager. Now, she’s involved with orchestrating other opportunities for elders to pass on their knowledge to the next generations. Cooking classes teach children and parents alike meal preparation skills that can be easily implemented at home. During another program, Soup and Stories, a meal is prepared using culturally significant ingredients, some of which were grown by Growing Health participants, and then enjoyed while elders pass on their knowledge and traditional stories.
“It’s a really special thing to have both elders and kids in the same space because they’re two separate energies, but they complement each other really well,” says Keshawna.
Read more about Keshawna’s story HERE
Photo Courtesy of FAST Blackfeet | Browning