HELENA — It can be a struggle for parents to get healthy foods into their kid's growing bodies.
However, St. Peter's Health's Harvest of the Month Program aims to make eating fruits and vegetables fun, and it will soon be expanding as it is receiving one of four nationwide grants.
"This month, we are celebrating carrots, and we got our carrots from Wolf Creek, Montana, so not too far from Helena," said Kim Lloyd, St. Peter's Harvest of the Month Community Coordinator.
Once a month, the program is brought into fourth-grade classrooms at all of Helena Public Schools, eleven elementary schools.
The United States Department of Agriculture is awarding the St. Peter's Health Foundation $239,000 for its community-coordinated Harvest of the Month Program.
According to St. Peter's, the program promotes "hands-on food, garden, and nutrition education while strengthening connections between local farms and schools."
Fourth and fifth-grade Montessori teacher at Broadwater Elementary, Jodi Delaney, said, "There's no reason living in the state of Montana that our kids shouldn't be eating really great locally grown, locally produced foods and learning more about that."
The program is a collaboration with St. Peter's, Helena Public Schools, Carroll College, Kids Nutrition Coalition, Helena Food Share, and Montana State University.
"Besides providing the nutrition and physical health benefits for our community, we're also talking about the mental health benefits when we get to gardening, and we can bring in all components of the school system. We talk about science, math, history, the Montana economy, and the environment. It's really all tied into food. We all eat food. It's something we do every day," said Lloyd
The funding will allow the program to expand to neighboring school districts like East Helena and Townsend.
It will also support a Harvest of the Month AgCorps service member in partnership with the Montana Department of Agriculture, allowing the program to be assessed externally by surveying students, parents, and teachers.
