BUTTE — Butte consistently ranks high in food insecurity, but a new community farm growing fresh produce is working to solve that problem.
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The Butte Community Farm is a nonprofit farm located on land with a deep agricultural history. Over 100 years ago, the land fed people living in the Silver Bow County Poor Farm Hospital. Today, the land belongs to the National Center for Appropriate Technology.
Mateja Lund, the board president of the Butte Community Farm, is harvesting produce for the Butte Rescue Mission.
"Farming is so beautiful because you have the opportunity to build the land underneath you, to build the health of the soil underneath you that's then going to grow this food that's going to nurture your body...and in our case it's going to nurture our community," Lund said.
The organic-compliant farm grows a wide variety of market vegetables, including tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, potatoes, lettuce, radishes, peas, parsley, arugula, and edible flowers called nasturtium. Hundreds of people have been nourished by the farm's harvest so far this summer.
Over the last five years, health studies show Butte has had a 25% rate of food insecurity, meaning a quarter of the population does not know where their next meal will come from.
"That's a pretty high rate. That's higher than our nation's average and higher than the state average," Lund said.
Butte Rescue Mission Executive Director Brayton Erikson says donations from the community farm help guests at the mission access healthy food.
"Folks that are in crisis that don't know where their next meal comes from, you know, literally eat the next thing in front of them," Erikson said.
"Where else, if you're food insecure, could you come and get like farm fresh locally grown produce?" Erikson said.
Lund described the farm's mission as a cycle of generosity.
"It's sort of this, like giving-back cycle where it all just kind of builds goodness," Lund said.
The farm is looking for volunteers to help with weeding and harvesting, and will host a fundraiser on Sept. 19.
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