Anderson School’s food service director, Kate Huston, is a current board member of the Montana School Nutrition Association along with being a peer educator with Montana Team Nutrition Program helping rural school districts with getting started on whole food programs in their schools along with meeting Federal Standards for school lunch nutrition. Additionally, Ms. Huston is on the advisory board for Harvest of the Month, a program created to bring awareness of locally produced Montana based products in our school lunch program.

This year (2023-24), Anderson was able to bring back the Harvest of the Month Program where we highlight a locally grown produce each month and incorporate that ingredient into the daily lunch. We also have been working with a farm to school program in which we will be adding more local produce and getting to know the people who produce our food. Anderson School District has now joined the Montana Beef Program in which our beef will be coming directly from the Todd Family Ranch based out of Big Timber. We have recently partnered with Last Chance Farms, a local producer within five miles from school to supply us with local in season produce for our school lunch program. We have also become the pilot school for the Montana Marinara program in which we use this amazing product made here in Montana using regional produce such as squash, onions, carrots in combination with tomatoes to create a versatile meal for all sorts of items on our lunch menus.

Lastly, in sping 2024, Anderson School District will begin implementing a new garden program. With generous grants from Western Montana Farmers Union and Gallatin Valley Garden Club we have been able to build 8 raised garden beds for educational purposes along with community outreach gardens supplying produce for the Food Bank and Senior Citizen Center Kitchen. Each grade will have the opportunity to learn the cycles of growing produce along with Native Plant studies and pollinator gardens. The kids will also be growing produce for our school lunches.