As summer winds down and rushes into fall, the gardens are put to bed, the plethora of fresh produce dwindles in choices, and the focus of our appetites naturally shifts from lighter fare to a desire for heartier, more satiating foods. Two of this month’s recipes highlight beans as they offer a great seasonal transition into more substantial entrees plus they are an excellent source of fiber, protein and are naturally cholesterol-free and low in fat. Beans are amazingly versatile and can be substituted to make a meat-free twist on many of your favorite meals. Our third recipe combines the ease of slow-cooked pork with some late-season fresh plums to create the perfect easily thrown-together autumn menu.

A long white semi-truck made a stop in Helena early Wednesday, hauling tons of meat that will help feed needy Montanans. Producer Partnership dropped off 2,400 pounds of donated meat to Helena Food Share, part of a multi-day delivering of food to the Montana Food Bank Network and their partners throughout the state. The delivery, in a truck with the words “Farmers and Ranchers working to end hunger in Montana” emblazoned on the side, was part of 42,000 pounds of USDA inspected pork, breakfast sausage and ground beef to help communities statewide.

The Lewis and Clark County Justice and Helena Municipal courts collected food items in lieu of outstanding fines and donated them to Helena Food Share. Lewis and Clark County Justice of the Peace Michael Swingley donated nearly 1,000 pounds of food and more than $500 in cash collected Thursday. “We thought it would be a good idea and just decided to try it,” Swingley said in an interview Thursday evening. “It was wildly successful.”

On Thursday, food donations were accepted at Van’s Thriftway and the County Courthouse for the first Food for Fines event. “It’s an awesome opportunity for the folks in our community to help the kids in our community,” said Kim Dale, the Program Operations Director at Helena Food Share. The Lewis and Clark County Justice Court and Helena Municipal Court teamed up to host the event. The entire community was encouraged to donate food.

The Helena Community Gardens are not only a great way to get out working with your hands but also help to feed the community…  Kim Dale, the Program Operations Director at Helena Food Share says that this program is a real benefit to the community and helps provide families throughout the area with healthy produce. “It’s so important to the community because healthy food is healthy families.

Nearly 13,400 pounds of food was collected at Saturday’s “Symphony Under the Stars,” to be used to help feed the needy in the Helena area, Helena Food Share officials said Monday. This year’s food drive did not beat last year’s record of 24,000 pounds, but it is still Helena Food Share’s largest food drive of the year “and will go a long way in providing food support for our neighbors here in Helena,” the nonprofit said in an email.

Every year, for Symphony Under the Stars, patrons weigh down their blankets with cans of food, all of that then gets donated to Helena Food Share where they distribute the food to those in need. According to the Feeding Americas website, one in 12 people are facing hunger in Montana. The 19th Symphony Under the Stars concluded on Saturday by bringing in hundreds of pounds of food to those in need. “It’s a reflection of the generosity of our community. This community that we live in, and the amount of food that they bring forward, 13,000 pounds of food, you know, that’s going to translate into more than 11,000 meals, and that food’s going directly to families in our community who are in need,” said Executive Director of Helena Food Share Bruce Day.

Helena Food Share raised at least $117,350 during this year’s Turkey Challenge food drive, which is enough to provide 2,347 meals to community members for the holidays and beyond.

The Helena Food Share Turkey Challenge is up and running with the goal of putting together 2,500 holiday meals by Nov. 18. A $20 donation buys all the side dishes needed for a family; $30 buys a turkey or ham for a family and $50 buys a complete Thanksgiving or Christmas holiday meal for a family. The tradition continues this year at the Lewis and Clark Library but with a new twist. Rather than bringing turkeys, Helena Food Share is asking the community to make a donation online and then come to the library 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 18 to drop off any financial and canned food donations and join in a celebration of gratitude.

One in five children in the Helena area are faced with weekend hunger, hoping their next meal won’t have to wait until Monday at school, according to Helena Food Share’s website. The challenges of the past few years, including high inflation, have caused a rise in food scarcity for families. With its Kid Packs program, Helena Food Share (HFS) is working to make sure Helena’s kids aren’t going hungry over the weekend throughout the school year.

The people served at Helena Food Share come from every neighborhood in the Helena Valley and, likely, are neighbors you encounter day-to-day. It might be the young man who came into the Lewis Street Pantry during his lunch break. He told us, “My hours were reduced at work, so I can’t afford my rent and food too.”

Dave Krainacker is a doctor at St. Peter’s Health specializing in the treatment of obesity. He believes in food as a kind of medicine, and started the church’s community gardening effort in 2016. And, while he and his wife enjoy some of what they grow, they donate most of it to Helena Food Share, a local nonprofit working to solve food insecurity.

Thanksgiving is my favorite meal, and I have certain recipes that simply must be included in the menu each year, one of which, Wild Rice Salad, I’ve included here. Having said that, I always leave space in the menu to try at least one new recipe for side dishes or for ways to use up leftovers, and I’m very excited about the other two recipes I’ve included, one for a lovely Maple Roasted Pumpkin, and the other for a Curried Turkey Salad.

Helena Food Share is preparing for this year’s “Turkey Challenge” a key donation drive that helps put holiday meals on the table for Helena families. “Our goal is to be able to provide up to 2,500 meals for people at both at the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays,” says Day.

During and at the end of the growing season, Helena Food Share is lucky to be able to offer a wide variety of fresh, locally grown seasonal produce and eggs.

More people in the Ninth District are seeking food assistance this year amid rising grocery costs, and food shelves are grappling with the surge in demand.

Food insecurity is a reality for thousands of children across Montana. In the Helena area, schools and organizations, like Helena Food Share, are working to get kids the food they need.

As summer winds down and produce is ready, the Jubilee Garden at Saint Mary Catholic Community has hundreds of pounds of food it’s donating to Helena Food Share.

At Helena Food Share this month, we’re lucky to have one of everyone’s favorite summer foods: hot dogs! This prompted some great conversations about our personal recipes of choice.

This year’s Symphony Under the Stars broke its record for food donations to the Helena Food Share. Typically, the event, hosted at Carroll College, produces around 18,000 pounds of food donations each year. But this year, event organizers set a record-breaking goal to collect 22,000 pounds of food. And, according to a July 17 Facebook post from the Helena Food Share, this year’s event accomplished its goal, producing over 24,000 pounds of food donations.

Organizers of Symphony Under the Stars are calling on the community to help them break a record this year. Annually, the outdoor concert by the Helena Symphony at Carroll College typically generates about 18,000 pounds of food donations to the Helena Food Share. This year, they are aiming for a 22,000-pound donation from event attendees.

Helena Food Share uses the USDA-funded program that allows seniors to get coupons for Farmer Market produce. “It’s been started for well over 15 years, and it started trying to help Farmer’s Markets, and seniors and agriculture and farmers in our community…” said Kim Dale, Operations Director of Helena Food Share.

According to the USDA, fresh produce prices are expected to increase from 1 to 2%, and at the Helena Food Share, they see the impacts of those price increases. “So the cost for food items that we regularly purchase increased over the last six months by about 20%,” said Bruce Day, Helena Food Share director.

Helena Food Share will soon be starting a new way to donate to those in need. As inflation creates rising costs in food for everyone, the Helena Food Share has experienced an influx of people relying on goods that sometimes are not always readily available. Bruce Day, Executive Director of Helena Food Share explained they’ve seen a 25% increase in people coming to Helena Food Share since December 2021.

In 2021 Helena Food Share had over 500 volunteers give their time to help others facing food insecurity, and one volunteer has been with them for five years. When David Mehl moved to Helena from Fort Worth, Texas, he decided to continue giving his time to others, which is where he found his place at Helena Food Share.

Town Pump: The face of hunger is hard to see. It takes many forms. During our fall “Help Those in Need” campaign we attempted to put a face to hunger. Several Montana residents offered their assistance.

Sharon Tatum says she doesn’t know what she would do without it. She is one of 10 people participating in the Food is Care program recently launched by St. Peter’s Health and Helena Food Share that brings healthy food to area residents dealing with food insecurity while managing chronic or complex medical conditions.

Saint Peter’s Health in Helena and the Helena Food Share have teamed up for their Food is Care program. The program provides food boxes to people with health concerns and food insecurity.

According to the Lewis and Clark County Community Health report, 13% of Lewis and Clark County residents had faced food insecurity in 2021. That need placed a high demand on organizations like the Helena Food Share.

From Saturday through Monday, Helena Food Share planned to distribute 1,300 of the 3,046 holiday meals purchased through community donations as part of this year’s Turkey Challenge Food Drive. Volunteers spent the weekend loading turkeys, potatoes, carrots, onions, squash, and other holiday food staples into carts that were wheeled to customers’ vehicles.

If you’re looking for something to be thankful for this time of year, look no further than the Turkey Challenge Leader Board at helenafoodshare.org. There you will find the names of hundreds of Helena-area residents and businesses who chipped in to make the holiday season a little brighter for our less-fortunate friends and neighbors.

While many of us are eagerly planning a holiday feast big enough to feed a small army, one out of every seven Helena-area residents is going hungry.

Helena Food Share’s annual Turkey Challenge food drive has gone virtual again this year. The local food bank is asking for monetary donations to purchase 2,500 holiday meals for families in need.

Freedom Fabrication and Excavation is offering to pick up food and monetary donations around the area through its “Stuff the Truck” food drive Tuesday through Thursday.

Helena, as a community, consists of people who genuinely and deeply care about each other and about making sure that nobody has to go hungry. That feeling is especially true at Thanksgiving when we can’t bear the idea of someone not being able to sit down to break bread and celebrate with friends and loved ones.

Helena Food Share is helping to bring some cheer to those facing food insecurity. One in seven Helena residents faces food insecurity, according to Helena Food Share. That is why they are fundraising money to give away 2,500-holiday meals to those in need this year.

The Helena area Knights of Columbus donated over 2,000 granola bars, 1,048 juice pouches, and fruit cups to the Helena Food Share to go towards the non-profit’s ‘Kid Packs.’

Every day of the year the Helena Food Share works tirelessly to make sure that nobody in the community goes hungry. However, this week they will lend an extra helping hand to one specific group, our senior citizens.

For hunters, there is almost no better feeling than sharing your hard-earned game meat with family and friends. The only thing that could possibly top sitting down to a nice back-strap is using that venison to help those in need. That is exactly what the Hunters Against Hunger program is set up to do.

Best friends Mary Dietz and Mary McDuffie did something a lot of kids do in the summer, they held a lemonade stand. Instead of pocketing the profits, the two Marys used the money to help the Helena community.

As students, families and teachers gear up to head back to school around the Helena area, Helena Food Share is gearing up to help make sure no child goes hungry. And just like in years past, they will be doing that with Kid Packs.

Symphony Under the Stars isn’t just about good music, it also does good for the Helena community. The annual event generates thousands of pounds of canned food for Helena Food Share.

After more than a year, the doors of the Helena Food Share’s Lewis Street pantry are open to customers again. COVID-19 forced Helena Food Share to stop customer choice shopping at the Lewis Street and East Helena pantry locations. Choice shopping was replaced with a grab-and-go, pre-packed grocery option people could pick up at the pantry.

Helena Food Share will reopen its doors for customer traffic Tuesday, after being closed to shoppers for nearly a year due to concerns about COVID-19.

Helena Food Share met with Top Gun Auto Body to receive a $5,000 donation. The food share says they are feeding about 250 households every week and this donation will make a significant impact.

Both Quinn and Dane spent a good chunk of their Wednesday evening digging and raking dirt at the Helena Food Share Garden. Quinn and Dane are part of Carroll College’s Gardening and Community Health class, led by Professor Gerald Schafer.