Montana filmmakers are lifting up stories of people improving kids' health through food.
The Community Film Project is six short films about rural schools and communities getting creative to teach kids about food and good health. The Nk'wsum School in Arlee, on the Flathead Reservation, teaches Kalispel and Salish language and culture.
Francis Brown LoneBear, food director for the school, adds to the cultural offerings through school lunches, which he cooks from scratch using Indigenous foods like bison, elk and local produce. A clip from one of the recently released movies explained the idea.
"We try to gather and pick our foods the best we can," Brown LoneBear said. "We take field trips with the students to gather what we need, and we try to incorporate all that stuff with our meals."
The Montana Partnership to End Childhood Hunger collaborated with Montana filmmaker Laura Tomas on the project. You can find the files on the partnership's website and YouTube channels.
KayAnn Miller, co-executive director of the partnership, said in rural areas, healthy food can be hard to access and schools often become nutrition hubs. She pointed out the Community Film Project tells the stories of people who have turned a desire to help into action.
"It started with one person who got interested and inspired and said, 'We can do something,'" Miller recounted. "They just started gathering like-minded people around them and created a solution that fit their own community."
Lisa Lee, the other co-executive director of the partnership, said during a time when it is difficult to bring in fresh, quality, Montana-grown food, the reaction to the films so far has been powerful, with people reaching out to say more can be done. She hopes the film series brings attention to unnoticed work and inspires others to act on their own ideas.
"We are an agricultural state," Lee stressed. "The food is right in front of us, and how much hope does it give our producers and our schools if we just start seeing meals that are reflective of the food that's grown in front of us?"
Three of the six films have already been released and the final three will be released this week.