Montana Co-op opens for business
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A pet mini-Nubian goat, a rocking cow for a child to ride, fresh milk and cheese, gluten-free Mama’s Almond Blend Flour, garden seeds and many more items are all listed for sale on Montana Co-op’s website at www.montanacoop.com. For a one-time fee of $20, a person becomes a co-op member and an equal owner in the online co-op, allowing him or her to purchase food and sell items.
The Montana Food Co-op is up and running, and they’ve done their first test of the co-op, according to Jason Moore, one of the co-op’s founders. They sold products from more than 20 producers and filled more than 25 orders. The co-op sells animals, art, body, food, health, gardening, house, outdoors and trade items.
Moore and the board of directors for Montana Co-op have spent two or three years and many hours working on setting up the co-op.
The Montana Co-op allows customers to order online or via the phone until Monday noon and pick up their order at the food hub in Ronan or Polson by Thursday. That gives growers and producers two and a half days to deliver their product – produce, soap, wood or chickens – to the food hub.
The Polson food hub is at Glacier Brewery, Six 10th Ave. E., Polson, and the Ronan food hub is the Mission Mountain Food Enterprises Center, 407 Main Street, Ronan.
The goal is to give the customer the freshest food possible, especially since food is pre-ordered.
“The milk is from the Kalispell Kreamery. It’s bottled on Wednesday and delivered on Thursday,” Jason Moore said.
Since it’s not the spring growing season yet, fresh vegetables are hard to come by now, but Moore said Mountain View Garden, a large aquaponics farm near Bigfork, will grow lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers year round and may be adding peppers.
The Montana Co-op will sell everything all 45 farms of the Western Montana Growers Co-op sells but in smaller quantities, Moore said.
The Place of Gathering permaculture farm in Dayton will also be a big produce contributor.
The Montana Food Co-op was modeled after the Oklahoma Food Co-op, which began 11 years ago. Now the co-operative sells more than 4,467 products made in Oklahoma. The Montana Co-op differs in several ways since it offers weekly shopping and the Oklahoma co-op has monthly shopping. Also, the Oklahoma Co-op delivers products to community drop points, while Moore and the Montana Co-op like the food hub system.
Besides being a place where customers purchase their orders, members can decide what else they might want, such as a retail store, a community kitchen, a clearinghouse for information or building rental information. Also no license is required for a food hub, so a church, a home or a community center can be a food hub since customer orders are delivered in coolers.
The Montana Co-op also has a Kid’s Co-op for young people up to the age of 23 or even new college graduates.
“It has huge, huge potential,” Moore said.
The Kids Co-op will specialize in food, recycled products and services that benefit the public, such as garden word, weeding and watering, etc.
Moore said the Kid’s Co-op came out of the Polson Heart and Soul project “in a roundabout way.” Moore had been involved with a group whose goal was to empower youth with meaningful opportunities. After meeting several time, the group collaborated with the Boys and Girls Club of the Flathead Reservation and Lake County.
Michael Billington will be teaching the kids about permaculture, native trees and species and soil as well as other subject.
One of the Boys and Girls Club students’ first projects will be growing tomatoes and peppers for homemade salsa bottled with their own label. Rick Morena, owner of The Sonora Grill, will mentor the children, bringing them into his restaurant and giving them his salsa recipe. The salsa will be made at Mission Mountain Food Enterprises and marketed through the co-op.
With all these projects, Montana Co-op is growing according to Moore, and the board of directors has goals and plans for feeding the whole state. The Oklahoma Co-op has 55 drop points, and the Montana Co-op wants to grow, connecting people in multiple communities, such as Eureka, Havre and the Bitterroot with fresh, local, healthy food and Montana-made products.
