Muldown Elementary celebrates Marinara Madness by serving locally sourced sauce

Students at Muldown Elementary School will enjoy a hot lunch on Wednesday featuring a new locally sourced pasta sauce, Montana Marinara.

Montana Marinara is the result of a partnership between the Northwest Food Hub Network and the Montana Office of Public Instruction to bring nourishing food to schools and support investment in the state’s small farms and their communities. The sauce is made at Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center in Ronan and features locally grown butternut squash, carrots, and onions, offering a nutritious and price-conscious product that is easily incorporated into lunchroom menus.

Marinara Madness is a season-long farm-to-school celebration with 150-plus school districts receiving the locally sourced, picky-eater-approved Montana Marinara sauce this spring.

Whitefish School District food service staff plan to serve a tasty lunch of penne pasta with Montana Marinara, salad and fruit. Students will be able to provide their feedback on Montana Marinara through a “Tried It, Liked It, Loved It” sticker chart and learn all about the Montana farms that grew vegetables for the sauce.

“What I think is the most impressive part of the Montana Marinara project is the collaboration of all the entities that it took to be successful — OPI's commodity sourcing and distribution, MMFEC's processing facility, local farmers’ buy-in,” said Jay Stagg, Whitefish School District Food Service Director. “All Montana schools will benefit greatly.”

Montana Marinara is available to K-12 school districts that participate in the National School Lunch Program. It is the first in a line of value-added products designed with schools in mind by Northwest Food Hub Network — a new network of three food hubs in Montana and Washington, which includes the Western Montana Growers Cooperative in Missoula. Schools across the state will again have the opportunity to order the product for the 2023-2024 school year with support for distribution provided by the Montana Office of Public Instruction.

The Northwest Food Hub Network is a collective of farmer-owned cooperative food hubs in Montana and Washington that connects organizations like school districts, hospitals and colleges with local, sustainable food. The Network provides shared infrastructure and cultivates buyer partnerships to support market access and reinvestment in its 200+ source farms and their communities.