HELENA — On Friday, representatives with the U.S. Department of Agriculture were in Helena, getting a firsthand look at an effort bringing together federal, state and local partners to make sure children are getting meals through the summer months.
They visited Memorial Park and the Lewis and Clark Library, two sites where Helena’s summer meal program hands out free meal bags to any families with children. Each child received six meals to take home for Friday and the weekend.
It’s part of the national “SUN Meals to Go” program, one of three summer nutrition programs the USDA is highlighting.
“The piece that’s most impressive, and what we see in places like Montana, is how incredibly adaptable the programs are when you have these big geographic expanses and a lot of varied need, the programs finding ways to operate very creatively,” said Mario Ramos, acting regional administrator for the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service.
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The SUN Meals program serves meals at neighborhood locations like parks, schools and community centers. They’re free to all children under age 18, who eat on site. The Meals to Go program is available in some rural areas and allows for pickups and deliveries – ideas that developed out of the changes made to meal programs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jonathon Ambarian
Representatives with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service visted Helena’s Memorial Park, a distribution site for the local “Meals to Go” summer nutrition program.
Helena Public Schools and Sodexo sponsor the program in Helena. Robert Worthy, the school district’s food service director, says the area narrowly qualifies as rural because of its population, allowing them to use a “to go” option. He says that’s made a huge difference for them.
“Having the multi-meals allowed people to come, and it was worth their time, and all of a sudden people started showing up,” he said. “We were doubling the numbers.”
Worthy says they handed out 64,000 meals in Helena alone last summer, and they’ve already provided more than 20,000 this year.
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“It’s really good when people show up with their families – even though you don’t have to have the kids with you present, a lot of them do come to help carry the food off, and to see the kids’ faces when they pick up the meals,” he said.
Overall, the Montana Office of Public Instruction says summer meal programs served more than 950,000 meals statewide last year – up by 27% from 2022 – at more than 250 sites. You can find a site near you on the USDA website.
Worthy says they’ll sign people up for the program at meal sites on distribution days, but he encourages families to sign up in advance. That lets them get the meals ready before they’re picked up and prepare if kids have any specific dietary needs.
Jonathon Ambarian
Representatives with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service visted Helena’s Memorial Park, a distribution site for the local “Meals to Go” summer nutrition program.
Montana is also one of 30 states participating in “SUN Bucks,” the new summer EBT program that provides $120 per eligible child for families to buy groceries. It evolved out of the P-EBT program that provided similar benefits during the pandemic.
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SUN Bucks will be automatically available to families enrolled in programs like SNAP and TANF, as well as those eligible for free and reduced-price school meals. Other families can apply directly if they meet income limits and other requirements. You can find more information on the program here.
State leaders estimate about 70,000 children in Montana will be eligible for the summer EBT program this year.
Montana’s participation in P-EBT was uncertain the last two years. State leaders originally opted out in 2022 before getting back in when the federal government provided more flexibility. They then opted out again in 2023, citing administrative hurdles.
Ramos said USDA is working to support state partners as they introduce SUN Bucks.
“I think part of what really makes us a little bit more administratively manageable is knowing that this isn’t specific to pandemic-era benefits, but this is something that we’re committed to long-term in support of food security through the summer months – and in turn being able to build longer-term infrastructure and administrative apparatus to help support program implementation,” he said.
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The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services says families will receive their allotments in late summer or early fall. A spokesperson said they had to switch from one EBT vendor to another, but they were committed to getting the program launched in 2024 as planned.
On June 27, 2024, a federal court halted an illegal logging project on federal public lands in the Little Belt Mountains of Montana.
The Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council filed their lawsuit to stop the Horsefly project in the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest in April 2021. The project called for cutting and burning trees on 10,343 acres, which is more than 16 square miles. To enable the logging, the agency planned on bulldozing a stunning 40.7 miles of new logging roads in the Little Belt Mountains north of White Sulphur Springs, Montana.
The scope of the massive Horsefly landscape-altering proposal is alarming and because the project violated federal law, it had to be enjoined.
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The Forest Service used a number of euphemisms in a transparent attempt to disguise what used to be more honestly called logging. For instance, the agency called 3,278 acres of commercial logging ‘intermediate treatment,’ 1,049 acres of clearcutting ‘regeneration harvest,’ 409 acres of clearcutting and possible burning ‘meadow restoration,’ and 465 acres of non-commercial logging ‘rearrangement of fuels’. They’re ‘rearranging’ them alright: from forest ecosystems to stump fields.
This is an ecosystem, not a private tree farm, and so we have to maintain the habitat for sensitive wildlife species. One of those species is the northern goshawk, which has been declining in population, and which the forest plan lists as an old-growth forest management indicator species. Due to the importance of this species, the law requires 100% of goshawk nets to be monitored annually.
In 2018, the entire Forest was surveyed for goshawks and the Forest Service found an alarming 47% decline in active goshawk nests, which the agency failed to disclose to the public in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Forest Management Act. The agency also ignored its own Forest Plan requirement to issue an evaluation report if active nests decline by 10%.”
The Court’s ruling was very straightforward on the failure of the Forest Service to follow the law. As the Order reads: “The Court agrees with Alliance that the Forest Service’s failure to disclose and evaluate the decline in active goshawk nesting territories violated both NFMA and NEPA. . . . Federal Defendants all but concede that the Forest Service’s failure to disclose the decrease in active goshawk nesting territories to the public in the EA and failure to comply with the Forest Plan requirement to conduct an evaluation report if active nests decline by 10% amounts to a violation of NFMA.” Yet the Forest Service continues to log the last remaining mature and old growth forests and goshawks are in trouble.
The Court’s order remanded the project authorization to the agency, and enjoined the project pending compliance with federal law. We follow the law every day, and the Forest Service must also follow the law. When a government agency violates the law, it must be held accountable in court. It’s not easy to fight the federal government, which has far more resources than we do, but nonetheless we are committed to making the government follow its own laws to protect our native wildlife and public land ecosystems. Despite attacks by politicians, intimidation tactics, and misinformation campaigns, we won’t be stopped. We are determined to continue with this critical work.
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Please consider helping us continue to fight to protect old growth forests and make the Forest Service follow the law.
Montana — After another successful season for Los Blancos, Carlo Ancelotti is spending some time in The Treasure State.
Over the past few days, Real Madrid Coach Carlo Ancelotti has shared some photos from a vacation with his spouse, Mariann Barrena McClay, in Montana. They have spent some time horseback riding and checking out the Sawmill Saloon in Darby.
This vacation follows a trophy-filled season at Real Madrid, during which they won La Liga, the Champions League, and the Spanish Super Cup. They probably feel alright about their chances next season, considering that Mbappe is joining the squad.
The small town of Darby, situated on Montana Highway 93, recorded a population of 783 in the 2020 census. The town is home to logging and rodeo events, along with a farmer’s market. In July, they host a Bluegrass and Strawberry Festivals. The closest ski area to Darby is Lost Trail Powder Mountain, which is in Idaho and Montana.
Image Credits: Carlo Ancelotti, Visit Darby (Image above)
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