Montana's Harvest of the Month Program shines a light on summer squash

Representatives from Americorps' new Agcorps program and MSU’s extension office gathered in Whitehall on July 25th with 34 kids and an armful of squash for a Harvest of the Month presentation.

Under the glow of a hydroponic grow tower, a group of first graders pass around squash varieties as presenters point out the benefits of the summer squash, a product that is popular in Montana and may even be growing in their own backyards.

"First you need some dirt then you make a row for it and you put it in something. Then you grab the seed that you want to plant then you put it in water," says Wynter Jensen, a six-year-old student from Whitehall. "Then it grows."

Jensen is already a budding farmer with several crops growing in her garden at home but during her class with the 21st Century Program at Whitehall Elementary School, she and other students picked up some new information on the summer squash.

"I think in this day and age it’s especially important to learn where our food comes from and not a lot of kids and not a lot of adults, frankly, do know that," says Cady Brown, a sophomore at UM Western and an intern with the Montana State University's extension office for Madison and Jefferson counties.

Brown is one of three Harvest of the Month presenters walking the kids through topics like the biology of the plant, seed germination as well as health and economic benefits of local food production.

Harvest of the Month is an educational program supported by the Montana Department of Agriculture and the United States Department of Agriculture that showcases Montana foods like beef, dairy, eggs, veggies and fruits. The program also aims to support farm-to-cafeteria programs in schools.

"Harvest of the Month really works on getting to these kids and showing them that the food they eat can come from Montana," says Brown.

Luca Mele, a member of Americorps' new Agcorps program agrees with Brown. He's been teaching adults and children about Montana's food crops for months.

"Most of the kids, they’d seen a squash in the grocery store but they maybe didn’t know that skin is the most nutritious part and they maybe didn’t know that it’s actually a fruit," says Mele.

Both Mele and Brown say their favorite part of the program is watching the kids absorb the information they are giving out.

"It’s really cool to see all these kids trying new things and seeing the start from planting their own squash to being able to identify flowers to being able to see the end product and then what you can do with that end product," says Brown.

For Wynter Jensen, the biology lesson on seed germination and the act of gardening is something to get excited about, after all, she learned new tips on how to grow food for her garden.

"It’s pretty like magical, I think."