Butte Community Farm expands local access to crops, area food system knowledge

The new nonprofit community farm is dedicated to improving access to local food and expanding communitywide knowledge about the local food system.

“I really saw that there was a lot of space for growth in those areas in Butte and in southwest Montana,” said Mateja Lund, president of the community farm’s board of directors.

Lund served with AmeriCorps in 2024 and spent part of her time working on the National Center for Appropriate Technology’s urban demonstration farm, the SIFT farm, and other time offering education about locally grown food in classrooms and to other community groups.

In 2024, she and other community members began having roundtable discussions about the local food system. By 2025, they were meeting monthly with the goal of starting a community farm.

Now, in its first growing season, the Butte Community Farm is operating behind NCAT in the former site of the SIFT farm.

Rows of leafy greens sit ready for harvesting, sweet peas grow off the climbing vines and colorful nasturtiums bloom in the high tunnels.

Lund said the space is an incredible resource with its clean soil, high tunnels and irrigation system — infrastructure she said would easily have taken the farm five to 10 years to achieve on its own.

Producing fresh food to share with the community, especially those facing food insecurity, is an important part of the community farm’s goal.

According to the 2023 Community Health Needs Assessment, a survey conducted every three years in collaboration with the Butte Silver Bow Health Department and St. James Healthcare, 25.4% of community residents were determined to be food insecure. 

Food insecurity is defined in the survey as residents who either ran out of food or were worried about running out of food in the previous year.

“Right now, we are donating all of our food to partners that are already serving community members who might not be able to access local food otherwise,” Lund said.

Those partners include the Butte Rescue Mission, Blacktail Health’s food pantry, Continental Gardens retirement home and Butte’s little free food pantries.

In the month of July, the community farm donated 225 pounds of produce, including lettuce, radishes, scallions, sweet peas, mixed greens and parsley.

Lund recalled being nervous after dropping off the first donation at the Butte Rescue Mission, worrying about bitter lettuce. 

“They sent us photos of these big, beautiful salads that they made and one of their residents that had made that salad with just, like, a big old smile. And they said that they used our first donation in 320 meals,” Lund said, “That was just incredible to know.”

The farm will continue to donate at least half of its produce and plans to sell the remaining produce to help support operation costs.

Lund said the community farm is looking forward to adding an on-site farm stand where community members will be able to access produce 24/7 and pay what they are able.

Butte faces a number of challenges for food production, said Lund, including a short growing season and soil concerns due to Butte’s mining history and active mining operations.

“That makes us no less deserving of having this type of resource,” Lund said. “One of our goals out here is to offer community members that education around how they can accommodate those challenges.”

The community farm is hosting community work nights, when volunteers can come to learn about the farm and get their hands dirty, helping out with farm tasks like harvesting, planting and weeding.

Lund sees the farm as a third space where everyone, regardless of their background or their experience, can come feel a connection to the land and community around them.

With five board members, all volunteers, the farm’s biggest fundraising goal over the next five years is to be able to support a staff member.

Lund says hiring a staff member will allow the farm to offer more educational opportunities, including engaging more consistently with youth groups and offering longer-term workshops and series. A staff member will also allow for expanded food production, allowing them to grow and donate more produce.

Their fall fundraiser will be held on Sept. 19 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and will include a lunch made by a local chef, farm tours, live music, yard games and a silent auction. 

Information about upcoming community nights and other programming at the farm is available on their Facebook and Instagram pages.