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Unique University of Montana Leadership Program to Promote Sustainable Food, Farming

The Environmental Studies Program at The University of Montana recently secured a $280,000 gift to train students about building sustainable, community-based food and farming systems in Montana and beyond.

Presented by the Montana Good Works Foundation, the gift will form the Montana Good Works Fellowship program at UM. The program will provide graduate fellowships and professional internships for two students each year for the next five years.

The fellowships will support students with strong leadership potential and a demonstrated commitment to sustainable, community-based food and farming. The gift also creates an opportunity fund that makes it possible to offer related-training programs for students and to support new initiatives.

"The Montana Good Works Fellowship appears to be the first of its kind in the nation," said Neva Hassanein, UM associate professor of environmental studies. "This gift will support emerging leaders early in their careers and help them in their work to make our food system more sustainable."

Mary Stranahan, founder of the Montana Good Works Foundation, said, "Some of the most challenging issues we face in Montana today have to do with the vitality of our rural communities, our agricultural economy and our environmental resources. The solutions to these issues need to be community based and comprehensive. And we need leaders who understand the complexity of such issues."

Cultivating these solutions — and educating the next generation of leaders who will work for positive change — is the focus of the sustainable food and farming emphasis within UM’s Environmental Studies Program. Over the last five years, UM faculty and students have worked with a variety of businesses and citizen groups to promote production, marketing and consumption of local food in Montana. An example is the University’s Farm to College Program, which is dedicated to buying more food locally and regionally to feed the campus community.

"We feel the Montana Good Works Fellowship program at UM will provide an important incentive for our emerging leaders exploring community-based food and agricultural systems as part of the solution in this field," Stranahan said. "MGWF is proud to play a small role in developing competent, visionary leaders who will help improve the viability of Montana rural communities in the future. I love seeing the light bulb go off in somebody’s eyes when they recognize that you can affect change in society."

Contact: Neva Hassanein, UM Environmental Studies Program, 406-243-6271; Mary Stranahan, Montana Good Works Foundation, 406-726-2030.

http://news.umt.edu/index.asp?sec=1&too=100&eve=8&dat=10/17/2006&npa=1381

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