By Jen Clancey STAFF WRITER
By the March 11 deadline, Jill Holder, food and nutrition director with Human Resource Development Council, made her final purchases of local food through a U.S. Department of Agriculture program. Some of the items on the final grocery list: eggs, beets, carrots and root vegetables, all from nearby farms in Gallatin and Madison County.
The HRDC learned on March 7 that remaining funds from the USDA Local Food Purchase Assistance program—totaling to $35,000 for the Gallatin Valley nonprofit—were reopened for the next four days before the program’s abrupt closure. Between 2023 and 2025, the LFPA provided $108,000 to HRDC and about $1.4 million total to nine Montana organizations, allowing federal money to flow from organizations in the state to local networks of farmers and ranchers.
“ Right now we kind of need the freedom of all of our funds to just stay afloat,” Holder said. She described LFPA as a popular program and “a really important grant that has helped a lot of people.”
Sarah Gaither, operations manager at the Big Sky Community Food Bank, which is operated by HRDC, noted that LFPA often helped the smaller food bank access healthy, nutritious foods.
“ I rarely have eggs, to be honest with you,” Gaither told EBS. “And so I rely on being able to get that stuff from the Gallatin Valley Food Bank.” When orders came in, Gaither and Headwaters Food Bank in Three Forks could collect what their communities needed off the piles bought by HRDC.
One of the farms Holder purchased from was Good Mama Farm in Harrison. Located in Madison County below the Tobacco Root Range, the farm sells vegetables, dairy products, poultry and meat from Triple F Pigs.
Shauna Stephenson and her husband, owners of Good Mama Farm, have been growing produce for five years, offering the nearby communities of Pony and Harrison fresh goods since 2020.
”We opened up the farm with that intent of kind of being a resource to our very rural community,” Stephenson said. HRDC first got in touch with Good Mama Farm in 2023, and anytime the Gallatin Valley organization placed an order, Stephenson would bring the food to Headwaters Food Bank in Three Forks.
Stephenson expressed her confusion about the closure of LFPA. “ To eliminate a program that has, you know, a triplicate benefit where you’re helping a small business like ours … helping a food bank, and helping people who need it most in communities who are experiencing record levels of that need— why would you pull the rug out from them?”
In total, HRDC purchased somewhere between $7,000 and $8,000 of goods from Good Mama Farm, Stephenson told EBS. She said farms are challenged to diversify incomes for a lasting financial foundation.
“ While the income from our partnership with the food bank isn’t huge, it’s still a really important part of that because we’re getting hit in multiple places,” Stephenson said.
Small sums from federal grants contribute meaningfully to yearly incomes, Stephenson said, and losses due to a poor yield or federal decisions can impact her small business’ viability in the next year. “ The line is already really thin. It’s already really thin every single year.”
Holder said that some Gallatin Valley residents and donors have discussed keeping the effort of local purchasing alive by creating a designated pool of donated money.
Both Gaither and Holder are relieved that another chunk of federal money, The Emergency Food Assistance Program, will continue through September 2025. In January, HRDC’s distributor Montana Food Bank Network, learned that TEFAP’s $500 million dollars, which goes to supporting low income households nationwide with U.S. grown foods, would be frozen. A later email in March rescinded the March 31 deadline and announced the approval of a budget through September, Holder said.
Gaither received a list of the TEFAP items that will be delivered for April and May. They include frozen turkey breast, dried fruits and pasta. According to Gaither, TEFAP makes up about 20% of food in pounds at the Big Sky Community Food Bank in a fiscal year.
Gaither expressed gratitude for Big Sky Community Food Bank’s unique position, where local entities like Big Sky Resort Area District, and the Yellowstone Club, Spanish Peaks and Moonlight community foundations, as well as individual donors, have supported the food bank’s services.
She also encouraged vacationers to reach out about food leftovers, including non-perishables like soup, unopened items like peanut butter, cooking oils and ramen, and perishables like fruit, eggs and deli meats. People can drop off their donations at the food bank, or call for a pickup as a part of the food it forward program.
