Missoula County MSU Extension has four full time Extension Agents, two Nutrition Educators, and a full time 4-H Assistant. MSU Extension partners with the Missoula County Weed District to offer support and programs to all of Missoula County.

The Missoula County MSU Extension Horticulture program worked closely with the Tribal Health Office on the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal (CSKT) Nation to develop and offer educational programming around backyard vegetables to their employees. This program is preparing Tribal Health employees to better understand vegetable gardening, grow food locally to support their neighbors and community members, and integrate fresh foods into their lives, and the lives of those they serve. The program will continue to grow in future years and engage Tribal members in growing fresh, healthy foods in their own backyards.

Additional educational opportunities throughout the year included workshops on tree pruning, weed control, forest health, rodent control, and soil fertility, creating opportunities for Missoula County residents to learn about various topics to support their horticultural pursuits.

Presentations were given throughout the season: Dormant Pest Control was presented to a group of 20 during a fruit tree pruning workshop; 'Common pests and control measures in your yard' was presented at a local nursery to 12 people; 'Good gardening practices' was presented to 8 people at a local church, 10 participants learned about edible weeds in a “Eat Your Weeds” class at the public library; a garden pests tour was held at a local community garden for 10 people; and 'Common insect and diseases in your landscape' was presented to 20 Master Gardeners in Helena.

Clinic staff worked with City Parks and Grow Safe Missoula to develop an Organic Lawn Care guide that was produced and distributed throughout the City of Missoula.

I received approximately 75 calls relating to canning, food prep, food safety, and pressure gauge testing in 2022. Many had canning pressure gauges tested for the first time, even though they had been canning for some time. Several people said they had only recently learned of the importance of annual pressure gauge checks through a friend or family member who had visited MSU Extension. A salsa-making class in partnership with Garden City Harvest brought 25 participants together from Missoula, New York, and Texas to chop, mix, fill jars, and process locally-grown ingredients into a delicious salsa. It was a first-time canning experience for several.

Monthly cooking classes at the Missoula Public Library allowed participants to have hands-on experience with new recipes, foods, and cooking techniques such as toasting and grinding spices, creating a charcuterie board and making edible centerpieces. The Missoula Senior Center monthly cooking classes explored ways to choose more nutrient-dense foods, cooking for one or two, healthy soups, and nutritious cereals.

MSU Extension continues to help support local caregivers with the vital partnership of Missoula Aging Services. Twice yearly, Powerful Tools for Caregiver’s classes and a monthly Montana Kinship Navigator Program (MTKNP) Support Group for friends and family raising children, continue to meet on Zoom with statewide participants to provide access to caregiver and kinship resources, support, and education.

Gavel Games is a parliamentary procedure competition where participants use skills in running a business meeting. Each must be prepared to fulfill the duties of the office of President, Vice President, Secretary or Treasurer, as roles are drawn from a hat before the start of the contest. With their Gavel Games win, Gus Turner, Shaun Billingsley, Ammarie Sowers and A.J. Sharkey earned the opportunity to compete at the Western National Roundup in Denver this January.

The Video contest allows participants to learn communication skills by preparing and presenting a video up to five minutes in length, as well as answering questions from judges. Autumn Schelvan won the state contest with a video about her Pack Goat 4-H project, earning her a trip to National 4-H Congress in Atlanta in November.

Finally, two of Missoula’s 4-H Ambassadors, Ammarie Sowers and Gus Turner, spent three days being interviewed by a selection committee, and both earned State 4-H Ambassador Officer positions. Ammarie is the youth representative to the Montana Extension Advisory Committee, and Gus is a youth representative on the Montana 4-H Foundation Board.

This year, Missoula County EFNEP partnered with numerous community agencies including the YWCA and Carole Graham House, where mothers of young children learned to prepare healthy food on a budget for their families. EFNEP also worked with the WIC office, Lifelong Learning Center, and Mountain Home Montana. EFNEP partnered with Double Snap Dollars and provided farmer's market coupons to class participants in 2022. EFNEP educators met class participants at the local farmer's market to redeem coupons for fresh, locally-grown produce. This was the first farmer's market experience for numerous participants. Several mothers invested in seeds to grow herbs in their homes and everyone purchased nutritious produce.

As a result of the EFNEP nutrition classes, the participants from the Lifelong Learning Center could provide more nutrient-dense dinners for their families, on a budget. Numerous participants from the YWCA became cognizant of the amount of sugar their families were consuming by learning to read nutrition facts labels for the first time. As a result, they began intentionally reducing the quantity of sugar they consumed. EFNEP taught at many Missoula County schools, including Seeley Lake, DeSmet Elementary, Clinton Elementary, Alberton School, Franklin Elementary, Hawthorne Elementary, Lowell Elementary, Bonner Elementary, and Russell Elementary. The EFNEP educators encourage the children to be messengers and share their newfound nutrition knowledge with their families.

The project has received an enthusiastic welcome from the Missoula Community, and construction is well underway. Healthy Acres Healthy Communities Foundation is now focusing fundraising efforts on 2.5 acres of education gardens. An October garden event hosted 130 active corporate partners and individuals, raising more than $100,000 for garden installation and programs.

In Spring 2022, Molly Anton, Garden Coordinator, joined the Weed District/MSU Extension team. She has expanded the garden planning committee and is creating designs along with garden sponsors/donors/staff to meet the program's needs. She is building a volunteer force and sourcing materials (plants and tools) to install the gardens beginning in the early Summer of 2023. Interpretive signage is in the plan too, and we can’t wait to share this amazing place to grow.