April 15, 2025 • 51 mins
Leading health specialist, award-winning author, and radio show host, Nancy Addison talks with Jason Moore of the Montana Coop, about how he and his team are developing a program to help people around the world create community sovereignty programs for their food and better health. They expand on various ways to make your food healthier and why
that is important. They discuss programs that they are creating for their community, and how it's helping them and the all people. www.montanacoop.com
Organic Healthy Lifestyle is broadcast live Tuesdays at 3PM ET Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com Organic Healthy Lifestyle is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Organic Healthy Lifestyle Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
that is important. They discuss programs that they are creating for their community, and how it's helping them and the all people. www.montanacoop.com
Organic Healthy Lifestyle is broadcast live Tuesdays at 3PM ET Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com Organic Healthy Lifestyle is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Organic Healthy Lifestyle Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Any health related information on the following show provides general
information only. Content presented on any show by any host
or guests should not be substituted for a doctor's advice.
Always consult your physician before beginning any new diet, exercise,
or treatment program.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Welcome beautiful people to organic healthy lifestyle. And I'm Nancy Addison,
your host, and I love to start off my show
with a prayer, and if you'll just join me in
whichever way you would like, I would love that. And
I'm going to start off today reading Ephesions for one
(00:56):
through three. Lead a life worthy of the call to
which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness
and patience, being with one another in love, making every
effort to maintain the unity of the spirit in the
bond of peace. And I'm going to follow that really
quickly with Corinthians first Corinthians fourteen thirty three. For God
(01:22):
is not a god of confusion, but of peace. So
just please join me in our prayer. Dear Divine Creator,
Please allow your love for us to extinguish any fear
that we may have. Enable us to become quiet and
focused on your spirit of divine love. May we feel
(01:44):
the waves of peace washing over us in the earth
and clearing away any anxiety or negative situations. We claim
and declear your grace, love and promises, and gratefully accept
your gifts of strength and passion forty to flexability, wisdom,
in sight, and perfect health. Bring peace to our souls
(02:07):
that passes all worldly understanding, and make us a light
for others to see your strength. I ask this in
the highest good of all concerned for everyone listening now
and for everyone listening in the future.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
So it is so today we are really blessed to
have a really good old friend of mine on the show,
Jason Moore, and he's up in Montana, and he's always
doing wonderful things with his community as long as I've
known him. He's up in Montana and he works with
(02:44):
his community, helping them with their health, with their gardening,
with quality of their food, and just supporting each other.
And I welcome you to the show today, Jason.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Thank you, Nancy. Great to be here once again.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Thank you well. I was trying to remember how long
it's been since I met you, and I met you
when you were in Dallas and you happened to go
on and signed up for my raw food cooking class. Yes,
raw food preparation class, I guess I'll just say there.
(03:26):
But you were so kind to me, and I hope
I'm remembering this correctly, but you shared with me that
you had been to many, many of those raw food
plant based classes and that mind just really was exceptional,
and you invited me up to Montana to join you
(03:46):
all in some of your retreats up there.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Yeah, that's about right.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
I was operating a business there in Dallas, Grand Prairie exactly,
and I've been in Montana now for fifteen years, so
we've known each other for over fifteen years, and you
came out to two of our retreats and we're It's
one of the things that we're maintaining, along with many
other programs that are all connected.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
It's a great system we're working.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
We're still feels like we're in the toddler phase, and
once everything is really working well, then it'll be quite
the display of what's possible that can be replicated by
any community. So that's our main goal, is to create
a program that's replicable and that's meaningful and connects to
(04:40):
the youth and serves the elders. But really brings everybody
together on a shared vision of a collective impact effort.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Well, I just absolutely love what you've done from the
very beginning, and your mother, Barbara even is a big
part of your program. And I just love the fact
that you bring the community together and you really support them,
but also you share in things and teach teach different skills,
(05:14):
like you know how to grow your own food or
permaculture and how to do it in an effective way.
And then also you teach quality, and I think that
is so important. You know the quality of the seeds
you plant, the quality of the foods you grow or
that you're eating. And then you've also even branched out
(05:37):
and embraced more communities around your area, including the indigenous area,
which is just so fantastic. And I was really excited
about you being on the show today because I do
think you have wonderful information that people can adapt to
anywhere they're living in the world. And so I'd love
(05:58):
for you to share just a little bit about your
mission and how you came to be doing what you're doing,
and if you can bring us forward to the present,
that would be wonderful.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Yes, thanks, Nancy. Well started when I moved to Montana
fifteen years ago. I moved here because I was able
to work from home, and I wanted to be closer
to my mother. And she's been an acupuncturist and herbologist
for probably forty years, and she's operated her clinic here
on the Flathead Indian Reservation and serving a lot of
(06:36):
Native and non Native people for many, many years. So
when I joined, I just kind of joined, just collaborated
on these health retreats with my mother, and we did
over twenty five of them. We did the last weekend
of every month, and we did some week long juice
bass and some corporate retreats. So we are kind of
(06:56):
going down that road as far as creating a business
around this retreat. What we found once people left the retreats,
we weren't really able to stay connected with them, especially
in regards to the food that they got used to
consuming those good raw foods that we were making recipes
for Nancy, that we were preparing for them, and they
(07:17):
really appreciated the good food and the good energy it
gave them. They went home back to their own town
and then they got back on the American diet and
there was just not really a good way for us
to build, to prepare and deliver foods to them. So
we went out to the market and found an online
(07:37):
farmer's market model that we're replicating from the Oklahoma Food
co Op. They showed us how that this online market
can serve the whole state that you're in. So I
went down and spent some time in Oklahoma and got
to see the whole system in action. And now I
can say why it's so much work is because as
(08:00):
you're managing a whole food supply chain. So if you
talk about wanting to be food secure, or to be
in control or have a resilient food supply chain, this
is a really great program to do that. There's lots
of other benefits to it. You don't need refrigerated trucks,
you don't need warehouses. People can get their food the
(08:23):
same day it's picked, so you get one hundred percent of.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
That nutritional value from different vegetables.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
There's lots of benefits to this program, but it is
a lot of work because you're connecting the farmers and
the producers directly with the consumers, and you're coordinating the
ordering and distribution of all that product and to serve
the whole state is quite the challenge, so we created
a co op around this model, so we're owned by
(08:51):
both producers and consumers, so they're both at the table
and being represented to build this resilient food supply chain.
So that's kind of what kick things off with where
we're at. That was twelve years ago when we started
the Montana co Op. We're still working on that online
farmers market business plan to serve the whole state, and
(09:15):
in the meantime, we keep adding more and more projects
and we've got two We've received two pretty good sized
grants from USDA for their farm to school, and we're
also doing a Native farm to school through the First
Nations Development Institute. So what we're mostly excited about is
(09:38):
kind of our future project that we haven't implemented yet.
But we've implemented several projects that all integrate into this
one big project where where the ultimate goal is for
the students to be involved in bringing their town to
be food secure, to be food sovereign, so that they
(09:59):
can say that they help their town become food secure.
So there's, like I said, there's about five different programs
that we take the students through over a year or
two with that ultimate goal of helping their town become
food secure. So that also ties into the school of
(10:21):
being a food hub. There's been a lot of discussion
about from USDA specifically about schools being like food hubs.
So that's been part of the Montana co Ops plan
right from the beginning. Instead of just having drop points
all around the state what people order and dropping off
(10:41):
their order, we want to set those up as food hubs.
So that's the model that we've been proving over the
last ten years, is what a community driven food hub
looks like. And now we're looking at how we can
integrate the school as being part of that community driven
food hub.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
So we're really excas about it.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
We've got a couple of schools that are on board,
and we're just trying to figure out whether this should
be an after school activity that we do with the
students and their parents. There's an opportunity for the kids
to work. It's sort of like a newspaper route, be able
to go and knock on their neighbors doors and do
this school fundraiser program that's going to market local food
(11:22):
and distributes local food. This program is one of the
ones that's already been done here in Montana. It was
a win win win program, So that's kind of one
of the latter projects as part of this overall food
sovereignty program. So that's the highlights where we're at. We're
(11:44):
in Ronanne, Montana. If anybody's out and about. We're about
ten minutes from the lake Lathead Lake. It's the largest
freshwater lake west of the Mississippi. And we're about an
hour from Glacier National Park and a couple hours from
Yellowstone National Park. So if you're out about, come on
up and we'll give you a tour of our community
(12:04):
food hub in Ronan, Montana, where we have all kinds
of things going on. We have a local food restaurant,
we have an outdoor food truck court, got a garden,
nice good sized gardens, so we're grown as much as
we can for the restaurant. We've got a permanent stage.
We've got music classes, we've got art classes, cooking classes,
(12:28):
gardening classes, all kinds of different workshops. We also have
this online market that's just getting fine tuned right now,
but you can see it if you go to our
website Montana co op dot com. We're really wanting to
join hands and work with some other folks that can
(12:50):
see the benefits of what we're doing. Eventually, we'll have
another video. We do have a couple of videos that
are available too that we could send you. I can
include a link here, but yeah, that's just a quick rundown. Nancy,
you have any questions or further directions you'd like me
(13:10):
to take that.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Well, you know, I think it's just so vitally important
that y'all are focusing on quality, because one of the
things I talked about on the show quite a lot
is how our food has been grown with herbicides and
genetically modified seeds and different types of things. In fact,
in the last year, there's been over a thousand patents
(13:34):
made for putting poison a snake venom into fruits and
vegetable seeds. So being in control of the quality of
your seeds as well as your soil and your food
is so paramount today and so important around the world,
And I know it's incredibly important here in the United States,
(13:57):
where you know, we just have the US and the
FDA allowing all kinds of incredibly harmful toxins on our
food supply. So it's been a real challenge and then
also schools, especially in the United States, they carry so
many fast foods and processed foods in their schools. And
(14:20):
the studies I've read throughout time where the schools that
were really challenged with different types of discipline problems, or
very very low IQs or really just dangerous outbursts from children,
where they've done where they've taken those schools and taken
(14:42):
out all the junk food and the processed foods and
the microwaves and all the sodas and replaced it with
real food. Those have totally changed those schools around to
the point where they're like the highest IQ score in
the district or the the best well behaved school in
the district. And it's amazing how the children actually can
(15:06):
feel the difference and don't want to go back to
the process fast foods. They've even done this with United
States prisons and found that the prisoners became much more
kind to each other, much less violent, became more interested
in education and improving their life so that when they
(15:28):
got out they'd be able to get a job. And
I just think, you know, working with the children is
so vitally important because once children start gardening, it shows
that their science and mascores go up dramatically. But also
children are much more likely to eat real food like
(15:50):
salads or vegetables or fresh fruits if they are actually
participating in the growing of those Because today the food
and the grocery stores is so sanitized, kids don't know
where it's even coming from. They don't even know what
the plant that you know that the fruit came from,
(16:10):
or the vegetable came from even looks like anymore. And
they're so used to just getting food out of a
box or through their car window or whatever that you know,
it's it's more of a re education of the people.
But when you do it through the kids, and the
kids are encouraging their parents to eat healthier or eat
(16:32):
fresh food, it's just I think it's just such a
powerful way to approach any kind of community. And with
the challenges we have with the quality of our food,
you know, this is such an important thing that you
are teaching today. And Jason, you would you like to
(16:53):
share a few thoughts on what I just talked about there.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Yeah, you know, it's funny because when we started everything off,
we didn't know where it was going fifteen years ago,
but we started off with the health retreats and just
understanding and teaching that food is our medicine.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
So it's kind of been just a given relative to organic.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
Foods, no pesticides, you know, the whole permaculture, building our soil,
that's just been kind of kind of common nature to us.
So we don't really bring that up very often, but
we should bring it up more. But that's definitely been
part of our whole picture and plan. And then the
(17:41):
tapping into the children, you know, that's where it starts,
and that's where the kids get their first taste, and
that's when they decide what they like and don't like.
And definitely, if they were involved in growing it, they
pulled that carrot out of the ground and they got
that fresh, fresh taste and all those nutrients, then they're
(18:03):
going to appreciate that and enjoy that much more than
getting something out of a bag.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Oh. Absolutely, And Jason, we've got some questions coming in
from some of our listeners. So Jason has said that
sounds like a terrific program. Do you have these in
other states?
Speaker 4 (18:23):
Yeah, this is really new to the United States. If
it's not expanded beyond where we are, that's our goal
is to expand, and we're ready to expand we've got
a plan. It's called a call to community sovereignty, and
sovereignty is a term that's used a lot on the
(18:45):
reservation here, especially food sovereignty, but there's other energy sovereignty
and housing sovereignty. So it's basically being in control of
a resilient supply chain, making sure that everybody's got access
to these items. So we've got it if somebody wants
(19:07):
to start something in their own town and replicate a
lot of what we're working on, and even more importantly,
where we can collaborate together. And just because we're in
different states doesn't mean we can't work together. As you know,
a lot of people work from home and there's a
lot that we can collaborate on.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
So I think it's time where we really need.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
To get more community minded, and definitely within our own community,
but also working with others across the country because we're
all dealing with similar challenges related to having resiliency in
our systems. So whatever we can do ourselves, whatever we
can instill in the kids. There's a lot of people
(19:50):
a lot of coming together right now around having a
strong local food system, especially with what happened with COVID
and shelves and being empty. That was a big issue,
but even bigger on the reservations. So every tribe in
the country is working on a food sovereignty initiative. Is
(20:13):
they all want to be food secure. They all want
to reintroduce a lot of their traditional foods that's been
healthier and gives them more energy than the food that
they eat now. But we are excited to share this
knowledge and to work with other folks. So if anybody's interested,
(20:35):
my email is Jason at Montana co op dot com,
where you can call me anytime at four oh six
two eight five one four nine. And the first thing
we would suggest is pull together a group of people.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
That's usually the first step of starting a co op.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
A co op business, it's a it's a specific business
model where everybody's an equal owner and everyone has an
equal vote, and you can really come together around some
common goals. So we can help with the whole process
of starting the co op, putting some programs into place,
helping to write and receive some grants, and there's lots
(21:22):
that we can share and we'd be more than happy.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
To that's so great and Heath, I hope we answered
your question on branching out to other states with this program.
And then Kyle was asking why are they not teaching
these in the schools in society these days? And Jason,
I think I'm going to answer this one, but it's
(21:45):
because the school system in the United States is controlled
by people who don't really want you to learn this,
and they control the education to be really formed like
a was back in the nineteen twenties when they literally
made it to make you subservient to authority, not creative.
(22:07):
These are quotes from Rockefeller, who started the whole public
schools in the United States. But he only wanted people
to get out of the schools. You know, they run
them like a prison. They separate people, they do it
by time, by bells where you have to switch. It's
run just like a prison. And he wanted you to
(22:30):
get out of the school so that you could go
work in his factories and not see any difference on,
you know, quality of life. So it's basically to make
everybody alike where you don't question authority and you just
accept the standard information. And then they rewrote the history
(22:53):
books in the nineteen twenties, took out everything they didn't
want you to know, but in everything they thought that
they wanted us to know. And then they rewrote them
again in the nineteen fifties, and if you look at
some of the if you go back and look at
some of these old books, it's amazing what they took out,
and they basically rewrote history. But that's a whole nother
(23:17):
rabbit hole. We're not going to go down today. But
you can introduce it into your schools andever you are
and see if you can get them to accept it.
So you know, I encourage you all to do that, truly,
and I think it's more important today than ever to
(23:38):
really homeschool your children. And the homeschooled children I know
that live around in Texas with me are some of
the most brilliant and most creative people. And they don't
have the anxiety that the children do that go to
public school. Back to how a friend take her high
(23:59):
school daughter out of a public school before Christmas. And
to tell you the truth, this child is like a
new person. I saw her the other night and she
is so relaxed, there's no anxiety anymore. She didn't have
her phone in her hand all the time, and she
(24:19):
just absolutely looks so beautiful and so mature and happy.
And I hear this from other people who have removed
their children from the public school system, So, you know,
just something to think about. And Jason, I hope that
was our id answer for you.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Yeah, no, that was good Will said.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
And then Paul was asking if this is a franchise
business or our business model.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Yeah, so it's a co op business model, and we're
recommending that every state or every region get their own
food co op. And that's where you start to really
start to pull people together that stakeholders that are interested
(25:12):
in building a resilient food system. And then from there
we can just we'll have a team to work with,
and then we'll just introduce some of the programs that
we've already done. Some of those I can actually send
you some links to. So this first one, it's called
reimagining Native Food Economies. Now when you look at this,
(25:35):
you'll see a statement in this document that says this
is not just for Native communities, that it's actually is
going to will serve and support all rural communities.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
And so I'm going to include that link here. Take
a look at that.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
So this is actually the first step that we do
with the students is to help create the vision. So
if you know much about collective impact models, you can
look that up to there's a certain process that they're
suggesting you go through if you're going to tackle any
big challenges. So the first thing under a collective impact
(26:18):
model is to pull together your stakeholders and then you
come up with a shared vision, a goal that everybody
can agree on and move forward on, and then you
implement that plan. And then the implementation is where you
start to tap into all the different talents and resources
that are available in your community as well as outside
(26:40):
your community. Like I consider us being a great resource
for every one of you it would be wanting.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
To do something like this.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
But this is the first step is to show and
share with the students that the vision. So with that vision,
now we can move forward on the plan. And then
we go into the other one. The first step of
the plan is to do this assessment in your community
and it's called that food Sovereignty assessment. So I'm going
(27:09):
to include that link next.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
So Jason, I don't know if they'll be able to
see your links, but for any of y'all that would
like to get this information from Jason, Please do send
him an email at Jason at montanamontanacoop dot com and
I'll put that link with the show description, but he'll
be able to share these with you. And I just
(27:35):
think this is such valuable information Jason, and you know,
it's kind of a really great idea to have this introduced,
I would say into even elementary schools, junior highs, where
you've got children who need fresh air, sunshine, want to
go out and play in the dirt and get really grounded,
(28:00):
and how healthy could this be And then of course
you know, they really learn a skill that it's going
to be valuable for life.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
Yeah, I'd love to work with the homeschool groups. I
think that's instead of a school fundraiser for this online market,
it can be a fundraiser for the homeschool.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
So just kind of like the newspaper routes.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
I had a newspaper route and there was a little
bit of work involved. We got all these different pieces
of paper we had to consolidate into one package and
put it in the bag and run around and deliver
deliver that. And it was a pretty pretty it was
a great job. It wasn't easy. You know, we had
to get up early, and we had a schedule we
(28:45):
had to go by. But this is kind of similar
to that with this local food ordering and distribution, and
it's going to help all of us build a local
food system. It gets the kids involved, and there's a
lot of sort of mentoring that goes on with this
(29:08):
program too, because the kids get to get out, go
out to the farms, and go out to the processing
centers and meet these folks. So that way, when they're
selling the product, they can give a real life experience
of their field trip to those locations.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Well, and you know, when children are young, most of
them have tons of energy and you're like whoa, And
you know, these types of programs teaches them the responsibility
of doing something important that helps others. But it also
(29:47):
teaches them to think outside the box and be creative
because you know, you're sharing information with other people, so
it teaches you to be more articulate. And in all
of this type of thing, it would teach himself for
back and give them, you know, a boost in how
they feel about themselves. I think so many things today
(30:07):
that children participate in don't really boost their own self esteem,
and I think that is so critically important today because
you know the calls I get because I help counsel
people for their families, and I get so many calls
today on young people having incredible anxiety problems and depression,
(30:31):
and something like this where you get out and you
get fresh air and sunshine, you're doing something wonderful for
people and for yourself, and then of course you're probably
eating healthier food. I think all of this contributes to
lifting your spirits and actually will help cut down on
the anxiety and the depression that they might be feeling.
(30:53):
Because I've always felt that when you are volunteering or
when you are doing a job that is and benefits others,
it builds you up instead of breaks you down right,
And things in the US school system actually break down
children's creativity, and you know, they all want them to
(31:17):
conform to the lowest level in the class and just
memorize stuff and regurgitate it, and it's probably stuff that
you probably will never even use again in your lifetime.
It's not actual skills that you can utilize. And when
I think back on all the years I spent sitting
in school learning stuff I never used again, which, as
(31:40):
I found out now. It was pretty pretty worthless stuff.
And I think, you know, the homeschooling you can really
tap into because I know the schools around me. There's
a whole lot of children in my area where I
live in Texas at homeschool and these kids are amazing.
Some play ten instruments and speak for languages. Other ones
(32:03):
are expert on welding, you know. Others are learning different
things like car mechanics, you know, actual life skills. There's
a big class at our library for you know, whoever
wants to learn how to sew or make your own clothing,
and so it's you know, it's it's actual things that
(32:23):
we can utilize in our lives and that builds you
up instead of breaking you down. And see, Okay, there's
a message here that says they can see and click
the links on the TV platforms Facebook, LinkedIn, twitch in
X So, if y'all are listening and you're watching live
(32:46):
on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitch or x you can click on
the links that Jason just put in the chat box.
Thank you. Rebel Rebels are wonderful SAMD engineer everyone and
I'm so great for her and expand on that. Would
(33:06):
you and take us into the future of what you're
seeing happen here.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Yeah, sounds good.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
So there's five programs, So it starts off with this vision.
So the vision has already been created by like we're
on the reservation, so we're dealing a lot with the
tribal communities and the tribal leaders that this organization, the
Native American Agriculture Fund. They've got millions of dollars to
(33:33):
help tribal communities achieve food sovereignty. So this group, along
with all of its national tribal partners, created a vision
of what's possible. So it is called Imagining the Native,
Reimagining Native Food Economies. So that's the first one. The
(33:55):
next one is actually engaging with the community. So that's
where you go out and you do this food sovereignty assessment,
and that's where you find the gaps in becoming food sovereign,
becoming food secure. Once you know the gaps, then you
can create a plan to tackle those gaps. And so
(34:16):
that's where these other programs are coming into play. Like
this school fundraiser program markets and distributes local food. There's
another First Nations Development Institute program called the Native Farmed
a School Planner. So we received the grant to be
(34:36):
able to work with multiple schools on and off the
reservation to look at different Native American education in six
different focus areas. One of those is community, so being
able to launch this food sovereignty assessment and engaging with
the community and this effort to become food sovereign, it
(35:00):
just makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
And once you're delivering food to the neighbors and.
Speaker 4 (35:07):
The people in your community, you can go beyond food sovereignty.
And this is where what we've done here is we've
set up multiple co ops under the Montana co Op.
So we of course started with the food and now
we've got our our get Well co Op, so that's
our overall wellness. Our retreats fall under there. We've got
(35:28):
a little clinic in our food hub. We definitely promote
special great diets, raw foods and plant based and well
and then we also have the little House co op,
so that's also part of health. The determinants of health
is everyone having access to a safe and secure home.
(35:53):
So we're one of the projects that ties into the
work that I've been doing my whole life is I've
been in the moving industry. My dad started the largest
moving company in Canada, and I worked for my dad
for twenty years and then I worked for install At.
They're the largest new furniture office furniture installation company. They
(36:13):
have a division called Ecoserve that just helps corporations deal
with their surplus. So it's been one of our nonprofit
projects here for the last nine years is receiving multiple
Chapter Traider loads of surplus office furniture and repurposing it.
We've donated product to about fifteen different schools, about ten
(36:36):
different tribal departments, and about fifteen other nonprofits in the community.
One of our recent shipments was a desk company that
went out of business and we were able to receive
over ten thousand desktops. We didn't get the legs, they
were able to recycle the middle legs, but we have
(36:56):
ten thousand bamboo desktops that were using to finish out
small homes, so we cut them to be tongue and
groove and created ceiling floor walls. It's just one of
the examples of what's possible with surplus office furniture and
to help finish out small homes.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
And we've got.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
The little house co Op, We've got the get Well
co Op. We've got this so the food side of
things since we were under the we did have it
just under the Montana co Op, but we're calling that
the Farmer's Market co Op now and we market and
distribute seven different categories of items that's all local, Montana made.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
We have been reaching out into our.
Speaker 4 (37:43):
Region for more organic foods, so we've partnered with Azure
Standard on bringing in product and adding that to our
online market.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
But our other categories besides food, our.
Speaker 4 (37:54):
Art, animals, body products, garden, home and outdoor. So pretty
much those seven categories cover anything that we can make.
We can put it in one of those categories and
help with the help those local producers and crafters market
(38:14):
and distribute their product using the same system as the
online market for the food.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
That is so fantastic and it's so all encompassing on
what people are really needing in the world today, doesn't
matter if you're in the United States or somewhere else.
And I think all of those ideas are just so incredible.
In what a generous group y'all are. I mean, y'all
(38:44):
always reach out to you the very neediest in the
communities and lift them up and really That's what it's
all about, isn't it lifting everyone up so that everyone
can be healthy and feel great. And I know you
focus on a lot to do with the food quality
(39:05):
like I do, because I think you know it does
when you ingested, it becomes yourselves, your tissue, your blood.
And I'd love for you to share with them just
a little bit on why you focus on plant based
foods and raw foods and what is to you Jason,
What does raw food mean to you?
Speaker 4 (39:26):
Yeah, well, personally, I've benefited from the raw foods. When
I was young, I just basically ate. But most teenagers
eat when they don't have parents that know any better.
You know, you're eating pizza and macaroni and cheese and
all that good stuff, but it doesn't do good for
(39:48):
you and your body. And a lot of kids, you know,
like myself, you know, it causes skin problems, acme and inflammation.
And that's what I dealt with most of my life.
I just didn't know there was an answer, and it
was all in the food. And so once I went
through Nancy's class and understood about the benefits of raw
(40:10):
foods and then started coordinating health retreats and really started
experiencing it firsthand of what's possible, and I've just been
on that same road for so long and just seeing
more and more people coming to the table around the
same concept that food is our medicine and that it's
(40:31):
a real thing. Then it comes down to the implementation
and the project coordination to make it all happen. I
do have a fair amount of skills in that area
from my previous job. I am a project coordinator, project manager.
I've done some big multi location projects, just kind of
(40:53):
been able to take that into the nonprofit world, and
I really feel like we're missing out on this cooperation opportunity.
I'm a Christian and Pastor's been teaching a lot about
we're all part of the same body. God is the
(41:13):
head and we are the body, and God's a big
picture plan involves each of us having a purpose in
that plan. So trying to figure out what that plan
is by combining all of our talents together is interesting
but very needed these days, and really trying to put
(41:34):
our differences behind so that we can really kind of
go beyond that and get into what we're trying to
accomplish together.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
It's so great, and I just, you know, one of
the things that I learned many years ago when I
was trying to heal myself and I got on this
journey kind of similar to you, Jason, that you know,
I grew up just eating what everybody liked. The doctor
was telling us to eat, you know, white wonderbread or
(42:03):
you know, processed foods and margarines. It sometimes amazes me
that we even survived the fifties in the sixties. But
you know, when I I was just so sick growing
up and had terrible skin, I was told I was
going to go blind. I was pre diabetic. And it
(42:27):
was when I started learning to eat real food, real
food in its whole, real form, like fresh off of
the vine or fresh you know, tree ripened food like
a real apple or a real carrot, or and it
when I really just took that on one hundred percent.
I mean, I grew up with a garden and we
(42:47):
would eat salads or we would have vegetables, but we
also had a lot of processed foods available to us.
And in fact, it was my doctor that actually told
me that I should drink sugar free sodas, and that
was probably one of the worst pieces of advice I've
ever gotten. In my life because those are really hard
to detoxify from and stop. But when I did and
(43:13):
started eating real food that was fine ripeender tree ripe
and you're grown organically, and I watched all of these
health problems that I had struggled with my whole life
just fall away, just actually disappear. And I think this
(43:33):
second half of my life and I'm now, you know,
barking on my seventieth year. It's and I never get sick,
and I feel better, I think than I ever did
when I was young, which is really sad because you know,
I wish I, you know, had knew this back then.
But I think this is the magic of your program,
(43:55):
and also you know, really getting the children to be
involved so that they don't struggle with those health problems
and the diabetes and you know, the heart problems that
come from eating a lot of process foods with chemicals
and additives and colorings and artificial sweeteners and all types
(44:16):
of things like that. So you know, I just really
applaud you and your whole team and your group that
you work with. And I've been up there and I
know that they really focus on the quality and on
really helping each other learn how to do things in
the best way possible that really supports everyone. So I
(44:40):
really highly encourage all of y'all to reach out to
Jason if you have some helpful information or some connections,
or if you want to, you know, start something in
your part of the world. I know he would just
be so delighted to help y'all create this type of
(45:02):
situation in your home or your community. And so, Jason,
I I can't believe, but we've only got about five
minutes left with our time here today, and do you
have some different information that we haven't been able to
share yet that you would like to add to our discussion.
Speaker 3 (45:25):
Sure, I guess, just letting you know.
Speaker 4 (45:28):
We've spent a lot of time and energy and strategic
thought on building the foundation.
Speaker 3 (45:33):
So that's the foundation we're going to be sharing with you.
Speaker 4 (45:37):
And one of the projects that's coming up, it's going
to be a three twenty one day retreat and primarily
focused on people in our own community, and we're going
to host that here at our office building in Ronan.
We do not have accommodation here, people can stay in
(45:57):
their home and go through this twenty one days. We're
also seeing this as being a very informal retreat, so
people will just come and go. We will have a
twenty one day calendar that will almost be replicated every
twenty one days of each month, and we'd love to
put that out for anybody out there. We'll offer this
(46:20):
twenty one day free retreat. We'll let you know all
the services and food that it includes. That definitely everybody
gets a smoothie and a solid as part of that
free service. We'll have a sort of add on extra
cost to like massages and acupuncture and anything else that
you would want. And we can definitely connect you with
(46:41):
accommodation as well, whether you want to camp out or
you like to have a cabin on the lake.
Speaker 3 (46:47):
We've got it all covered.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
That's awesome, and I'm guessing you will have educational classes
as well to help teach people about the importance of
raw enzymes and real food that hasn't been cooked or
processed over one hundred and eighteen degrees or irradiated or microwaved. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (47:09):
Yeah, And it's also the whole health concept too, so
we're really looking at the body, soul, and spirit. So
they'll be workshops covering all those areas given our church
for example, they've got a healing room on Thursday, so
we'll be tying that in to get people an option
to build to go down and go over to the
church and get healed in a spiritual manner. So yeah,
(47:33):
lots of great things. And if anybody out there has
a workshop they'd like to come and teach, we would
be more than happy to accommodate that as well.
Speaker 2 (47:41):
Awesome. Well, when you emailed me the other day, you
sent me a little quote by Marie Curie. Life is
not easy for any of us. But what of that?
We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves.
We must believe that we are gifted for something and
(48:04):
that is the thing that must be attained. And I
thought that was so pretty and so uplifting. And I
know we just have just a couple of minutes here,
but Jason, do you have I know, I just want
to thank you so much. You're in the bottom of
my heart for joining us today and sharing this really
valuable information with everyone. I'm always honored to have you
(48:28):
on the show.
Speaker 4 (48:30):
Thank you, Thank you, Nancy, and I want to thank
you as well. And then everything that you're about and
you're persevering on I know your purpose is part of
our purpose, so we'll see where things go. They're going
to continue for sure for many years.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
I love that. So would you like to share just
a really short parting thought in this last minute with
our listeners that maybe they can implement right now wherever
they are world to make their life better in some way,
shape or form.
Speaker 4 (49:06):
Sure, Well, you know, having a purpose in life and
figuring that out. For me, I didn't really find my
purpose until I moved here and I was placed in
a location that on the reservation that was dealing with
a lot of challenges. I never experienced anything like that
living in the big cities. I didn't really know what
(49:28):
my purpose was. I knew it wasn't just business. So
I would encourage everybody to really dig deep, find some books.
There's some good ones out there. Purpose driven life, there's
just a lot of great ones. But then figure out
how that purpose connects with other people's purpose, and that
(49:49):
I believe is creating God's big picture plan is all
of us collaborating and working together. I mean, somebody comes
into your life and take that as as a call
to collaborate and to cooperate and just be open and
and just go with that that you're trusting that God's
(50:12):
put this person in your life for a reason, whether
whatever that may be. And sometimes it's just maybe it's
even a challenge that you're that that person is giving you.
So just try and take that as an opportunity to
live your purpose and to discover your purpose.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
That's beautiful. Thank you so much for that, and for
everyone out there. Jason and I send you lots of
love and we wish you great health and I look
forward to talking to you all again next week.
Speaker 3 (51:00):
The sadys St
Any health related information on the following show provides general
information only. Content presented on any show by any host
or guests should not be substituted for a doctor's advice.
Always consult your physician before beginning any new diet, exercise,
or treatment program.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Welcome beautiful people to organic healthy lifestyle. And I'm Nancy Addison,
your host, and I love to start off my show
with a prayer, and if you'll just join me in
whichever way you would like, I would love that. And
I'm going to start off today reading Ephesions for one
(00:56):
through three. Lead a life worthy of the call to
which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness
and patience, being with one another in love, making every
effort to maintain the unity of the spirit in the
bond of peace. And I'm going to follow that really
quickly with Corinthians first Corinthians fourteen thirty three. For God
(01:22):
is not a god of confusion, but of peace. So
just please join me in our prayer. Dear Divine Creator,
Please allow your love for us to extinguish any fear
that we may have. Enable us to become quiet and
focused on your spirit of divine love. May we feel
(01:44):
the waves of peace washing over us in the earth
and clearing away any anxiety or negative situations. We claim
and declear your grace, love and promises, and gratefully accept
your gifts of strength and passion forty to flexability, wisdom,
in sight, and perfect health. Bring peace to our souls
(02:07):
that passes all worldly understanding, and make us a light
for others to see your strength. I ask this in
the highest good of all concerned for everyone listening now
and for everyone listening in the future.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
So it is so today we are really blessed to
have a really good old friend of mine on the show,
Jason Moore, and he's up in Montana, and he's always
doing wonderful things with his community as long as I've
known him. He's up in Montana and he works with
(02:44):
his community, helping them with their health, with their gardening,
with quality of their food, and just supporting each other.
And I welcome you to the show today, Jason.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Thank you, Nancy. Great to be here once again.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Thank you well. I was trying to remember how long
it's been since I met you, and I met you
when you were in Dallas and you happened to go
on and signed up for my raw food cooking class. Yes,
raw food preparation class, I guess I'll just say there.
(03:26):
But you were so kind to me, and I hope
I'm remembering this correctly, but you shared with me that
you had been to many, many of those raw food
plant based classes and that mind just really was exceptional,
and you invited me up to Montana to join you
(03:46):
all in some of your retreats up there.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Yeah, that's about right.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
I was operating a business there in Dallas, Grand Prairie exactly,
and I've been in Montana now for fifteen years, so
we've known each other for over fifteen years, and you
came out to two of our retreats and we're It's
one of the things that we're maintaining, along with many
other programs that are all connected.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
It's a great system we're working.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
We're still feels like we're in the toddler phase, and
once everything is really working well, then it'll be quite
the display of what's possible that can be replicated by
any community. So that's our main goal, is to create
a program that's replicable and that's meaningful and connects to
(04:40):
the youth and serves the elders. But really brings everybody
together on a shared vision of a collective impact effort.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Well, I just absolutely love what you've done from the
very beginning, and your mother, Barbara even is a big
part of your program. And I just love the fact
that you bring the community together and you really support them,
but also you share in things and teach teach different skills,
(05:14):
like you know how to grow your own food or
permaculture and how to do it in an effective way.
And then also you teach quality, and I think that
is so important. You know the quality of the seeds
you plant, the quality of the foods you grow or
that you're eating. And then you've also even branched out
(05:37):
and embraced more communities around your area, including the indigenous area,
which is just so fantastic. And I was really excited
about you being on the show today because I do
think you have wonderful information that people can adapt to
anywhere they're living in the world. And so I'd love
(05:58):
for you to share just a little bit about your
mission and how you came to be doing what you're doing,
and if you can bring us forward to the present,
that would be wonderful.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Yes, thanks, Nancy. Well started when I moved to Montana
fifteen years ago. I moved here because I was able
to work from home, and I wanted to be closer
to my mother. And she's been an acupuncturist and herbologist
for probably forty years, and she's operated her clinic here
on the Flathead Indian Reservation and serving a lot of
(06:36):
Native and non Native people for many, many years. So
when I joined, I just kind of joined, just collaborated
on these health retreats with my mother, and we did
over twenty five of them. We did the last weekend
of every month, and we did some week long juice
bass and some corporate retreats. So we are kind of
(06:56):
going down that road as far as creating a business
around this retreat. What we found once people left the retreats,
we weren't really able to stay connected with them, especially
in regards to the food that they got used to
consuming those good raw foods that we were making recipes
for Nancy, that we were preparing for them, and they
(07:17):
really appreciated the good food and the good energy it
gave them. They went home back to their own town
and then they got back on the American diet and
there was just not really a good way for us
to build, to prepare and deliver foods to them. So
we went out to the market and found an online
(07:37):
farmer's market model that we're replicating from the Oklahoma Food
co Op. They showed us how that this online market
can serve the whole state that you're in. So I
went down and spent some time in Oklahoma and got
to see the whole system in action. And now I
can say why it's so much work is because as
(08:00):
you're managing a whole food supply chain. So if you
talk about wanting to be food secure, or to be
in control or have a resilient food supply chain, this
is a really great program to do that. There's lots
of other benefits to it. You don't need refrigerated trucks,
you don't need warehouses. People can get their food the
(08:23):
same day it's picked, so you get one hundred percent of.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
That nutritional value from different vegetables.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
There's lots of benefits to this program, but it is
a lot of work because you're connecting the farmers and
the producers directly with the consumers, and you're coordinating the
ordering and distribution of all that product and to serve
the whole state is quite the challenge, so we created
a co op around this model, so we're owned by
(08:51):
both producers and consumers, so they're both at the table
and being represented to build this resilient food supply chain.
So that's kind of what kick things off with where
we're at. That was twelve years ago when we started
the Montana co Op. We're still working on that online
farmers market business plan to serve the whole state, and
(09:15):
in the meantime, we keep adding more and more projects
and we've got two We've received two pretty good sized
grants from USDA for their farm to school, and we're
also doing a Native farm to school through the First
Nations Development Institute. So what we're mostly excited about is
(09:38):
kind of our future project that we haven't implemented yet.
But we've implemented several projects that all integrate into this
one big project where where the ultimate goal is for
the students to be involved in bringing their town to
be food secure, to be food sovereign, so that they
(09:59):
can say that they help their town become food secure.
So there's, like I said, there's about five different programs
that we take the students through over a year or
two with that ultimate goal of helping their town become
food secure. So that also ties into the school of
(10:21):
being a food hub. There's been a lot of discussion
about from USDA specifically about schools being like food hubs.
So that's been part of the Montana co Ops plan
right from the beginning. Instead of just having drop points
all around the state what people order and dropping off
(10:41):
their order, we want to set those up as food hubs.
So that's the model that we've been proving over the
last ten years, is what a community driven food hub
looks like. And now we're looking at how we can
integrate the school as being part of that community driven
food hub.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
So we're really excas about it.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
We've got a couple of schools that are on board,
and we're just trying to figure out whether this should
be an after school activity that we do with the
students and their parents. There's an opportunity for the kids
to work. It's sort of like a newspaper route, be able
to go and knock on their neighbors doors and do
this school fundraiser program that's going to market local food
(11:22):
and distributes local food. This program is one of the
ones that's already been done here in Montana. It was
a win win win program, So that's kind of one
of the latter projects as part of this overall food
sovereignty program. So that's the highlights where we're at. We're
(11:44):
in Ronanne, Montana. If anybody's out and about. We're about
ten minutes from the lake Lathead Lake. It's the largest
freshwater lake west of the Mississippi. And we're about an
hour from Glacier National Park and a couple hours from
Yellowstone National Park. So if you're out about, come on
up and we'll give you a tour of our community
(12:04):
food hub in Ronan, Montana, where we have all kinds
of things going on. We have a local food restaurant,
we have an outdoor food truck court, got a garden,
nice good sized gardens, so we're grown as much as
we can for the restaurant. We've got a permanent stage.
We've got music classes, we've got art classes, cooking classes,
(12:28):
gardening classes, all kinds of different workshops. We also have
this online market that's just getting fine tuned right now,
but you can see it if you go to our
website Montana co op dot com. We're really wanting to
join hands and work with some other folks that can
(12:50):
see the benefits of what we're doing. Eventually, we'll have
another video. We do have a couple of videos that
are available too that we could send you. I can
include a link here, but yeah, that's just a quick rundown. Nancy,
you have any questions or further directions you'd like me
(13:10):
to take that.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Well, you know, I think it's just so vitally important
that y'all are focusing on quality, because one of the
things I talked about on the show quite a lot
is how our food has been grown with herbicides and
genetically modified seeds and different types of things. In fact,
in the last year, there's been over a thousand patents
(13:34):
made for putting poison a snake venom into fruits and
vegetable seeds. So being in control of the quality of
your seeds as well as your soil and your food
is so paramount today and so important around the world,
And I know it's incredibly important here in the United States,
(13:57):
where you know, we just have the US and the
FDA allowing all kinds of incredibly harmful toxins on our
food supply. So it's been a real challenge and then
also schools, especially in the United States, they carry so
many fast foods and processed foods in their schools. And
(14:20):
the studies I've read throughout time where the schools that
were really challenged with different types of discipline problems, or
very very low IQs or really just dangerous outbursts from children,
where they've done where they've taken those schools and taken
(14:42):
out all the junk food and the processed foods and
the microwaves and all the sodas and replaced it with
real food. Those have totally changed those schools around to
the point where they're like the highest IQ score in
the district or the the best well behaved school in
the district. And it's amazing how the children actually can
(15:06):
feel the difference and don't want to go back to
the process fast foods. They've even done this with United
States prisons and found that the prisoners became much more
kind to each other, much less violent, became more interested
in education and improving their life so that when they
(15:28):
got out they'd be able to get a job. And
I just think, you know, working with the children is
so vitally important because once children start gardening, it shows
that their science and mascores go up dramatically. But also
children are much more likely to eat real food like
(15:50):
salads or vegetables or fresh fruits if they are actually
participating in the growing of those Because today the food
and the grocery stores is so sanitized, kids don't know
where it's even coming from. They don't even know what
the plant that you know that the fruit came from,
(16:10):
or the vegetable came from even looks like anymore. And
they're so used to just getting food out of a
box or through their car window or whatever that you know,
it's it's more of a re education of the people.
But when you do it through the kids, and the
kids are encouraging their parents to eat healthier or eat
(16:32):
fresh food, it's just I think it's just such a
powerful way to approach any kind of community. And with
the challenges we have with the quality of our food,
you know, this is such an important thing that you
are teaching today. And Jason, you would you like to
(16:53):
share a few thoughts on what I just talked about there.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Yeah, you know, it's funny because when we started everything off,
we didn't know where it was going fifteen years ago,
but we started off with the health retreats and just
understanding and teaching that food is our medicine.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
So it's kind of been just a given relative to organic.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
Foods, no pesticides, you know, the whole permaculture, building our soil,
that's just been kind of kind of common nature to us.
So we don't really bring that up very often, but
we should bring it up more. But that's definitely been
part of our whole picture and plan. And then the
(17:41):
tapping into the children, you know, that's where it starts,
and that's where the kids get their first taste, and
that's when they decide what they like and don't like.
And definitely, if they were involved in growing it, they
pulled that carrot out of the ground and they got
that fresh, fresh taste and all those nutrients, then they're
(18:03):
going to appreciate that and enjoy that much more than
getting something out of a bag.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Oh. Absolutely, And Jason, we've got some questions coming in
from some of our listeners. So Jason has said that
sounds like a terrific program. Do you have these in
other states?
Speaker 4 (18:23):
Yeah, this is really new to the United States. If
it's not expanded beyond where we are, that's our goal
is to expand, and we're ready to expand we've got
a plan. It's called a call to community sovereignty, and
sovereignty is a term that's used a lot on the
(18:45):
reservation here, especially food sovereignty, but there's other energy sovereignty
and housing sovereignty. So it's basically being in control of
a resilient supply chain, making sure that everybody's got access
to these items. So we've got it if somebody wants
(19:07):
to start something in their own town and replicate a
lot of what we're working on, and even more importantly,
where we can collaborate together. And just because we're in
different states doesn't mean we can't work together. As you know,
a lot of people work from home and there's a
lot that we can collaborate on.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
So I think it's time where we really need.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
To get more community minded, and definitely within our own community,
but also working with others across the country because we're
all dealing with similar challenges related to having resiliency in
our systems. So whatever we can do ourselves, whatever we
can instill in the kids. There's a lot of people
(19:50):
a lot of coming together right now around having a
strong local food system, especially with what happened with COVID
and shelves and being empty. That was a big issue,
but even bigger on the reservations. So every tribe in
the country is working on a food sovereignty initiative. Is
(20:13):
they all want to be food secure. They all want
to reintroduce a lot of their traditional foods that's been
healthier and gives them more energy than the food that
they eat now. But we are excited to share this
knowledge and to work with other folks. So if anybody's interested,
(20:35):
my email is Jason at Montana co op dot com,
where you can call me anytime at four oh six
two eight five one four nine. And the first thing
we would suggest is pull together a group of people.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
That's usually the first step of starting a co op.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
A co op business, it's a it's a specific business
model where everybody's an equal owner and everyone has an
equal vote, and you can really come together around some
common goals. So we can help with the whole process
of starting the co op, putting some programs into place,
helping to write and receive some grants, and there's lots
(21:22):
that we can share and we'd be more than happy.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
To that's so great and Heath, I hope we answered
your question on branching out to other states with this program.
And then Kyle was asking why are they not teaching
these in the schools in society these days? And Jason,
I think I'm going to answer this one, but it's
(21:45):
because the school system in the United States is controlled
by people who don't really want you to learn this,
and they control the education to be really formed like
a was back in the nineteen twenties when they literally
made it to make you subservient to authority, not creative.
(22:07):
These are quotes from Rockefeller, who started the whole public
schools in the United States. But he only wanted people
to get out of the schools. You know, they run
them like a prison. They separate people, they do it
by time, by bells where you have to switch. It's
run just like a prison. And he wanted you to
(22:30):
get out of the school so that you could go
work in his factories and not see any difference on,
you know, quality of life. So it's basically to make
everybody alike where you don't question authority and you just
accept the standard information. And then they rewrote the history
(22:53):
books in the nineteen twenties, took out everything they didn't
want you to know, but in everything they thought that
they wanted us to know. And then they rewrote them
again in the nineteen fifties, and if you look at
some of the if you go back and look at
some of these old books, it's amazing what they took out,
and they basically rewrote history. But that's a whole nother
(23:17):
rabbit hole. We're not going to go down today. But
you can introduce it into your schools andever you are
and see if you can get them to accept it.
So you know, I encourage you all to do that, truly,
and I think it's more important today than ever to
(23:38):
really homeschool your children. And the homeschooled children I know
that live around in Texas with me are some of
the most brilliant and most creative people. And they don't
have the anxiety that the children do that go to
public school. Back to how a friend take her high
(23:59):
school daughter out of a public school before Christmas. And
to tell you the truth, this child is like a
new person. I saw her the other night and she
is so relaxed, there's no anxiety anymore. She didn't have
her phone in her hand all the time, and she
(24:19):
just absolutely looks so beautiful and so mature and happy.
And I hear this from other people who have removed
their children from the public school system, So, you know,
just something to think about. And Jason, I hope that
was our id answer for you.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Yeah, no, that was good Will said.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
And then Paul was asking if this is a franchise
business or our business model.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Yeah, so it's a co op business model, and we're
recommending that every state or every region get their own
food co op. And that's where you start to really
start to pull people together that stakeholders that are interested
(25:12):
in building a resilient food system. And then from there
we can just we'll have a team to work with,
and then we'll just introduce some of the programs that
we've already done. Some of those I can actually send
you some links to. So this first one, it's called
reimagining Native Food Economies. Now when you look at this,
(25:35):
you'll see a statement in this document that says this
is not just for Native communities, that it's actually is
going to will serve and support all rural communities.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
And so I'm going to include that link here. Take
a look at that.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
So this is actually the first step that we do
with the students is to help create the vision. So
if you know much about collective impact models, you can
look that up to there's a certain process that they're
suggesting you go through if you're going to tackle any
big challenges. So the first thing under a collective impact
(26:18):
model is to pull together your stakeholders and then you
come up with a shared vision, a goal that everybody
can agree on and move forward on, and then you
implement that plan. And then the implementation is where you
start to tap into all the different talents and resources
that are available in your community as well as outside
(26:40):
your community. Like I consider us being a great resource
for every one of you it would be wanting.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
To do something like this.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
But this is the first step is to show and
share with the students that the vision. So with that vision,
now we can move forward on the plan. And then
we go into the other one. The first step of
the plan is to do this assessment in your community
and it's called that food Sovereignty assessment. So I'm going
(27:09):
to include that link next.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
So Jason, I don't know if they'll be able to
see your links, but for any of y'all that would
like to get this information from Jason, Please do send
him an email at Jason at montanamontanacoop dot com and
I'll put that link with the show description, but he'll
be able to share these with you. And I just
(27:35):
think this is such valuable information Jason, and you know,
it's kind of a really great idea to have this introduced,
I would say into even elementary schools, junior highs, where
you've got children who need fresh air, sunshine, want to
go out and play in the dirt and get really grounded,
(28:00):
and how healthy could this be And then of course
you know, they really learn a skill that it's going
to be valuable for life.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
Yeah, I'd love to work with the homeschool groups. I
think that's instead of a school fundraiser for this online market,
it can be a fundraiser for the homeschool.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
So just kind of like the newspaper routes.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
I had a newspaper route and there was a little
bit of work involved. We got all these different pieces
of paper we had to consolidate into one package and
put it in the bag and run around and deliver
deliver that. And it was a pretty pretty it was
a great job. It wasn't easy. You know, we had
to get up early, and we had a schedule we
(28:45):
had to go by. But this is kind of similar
to that with this local food ordering and distribution, and
it's going to help all of us build a local
food system. It gets the kids involved, and there's a
lot of sort of mentoring that goes on with this
(29:08):
program too, because the kids get to get out, go
out to the farms, and go out to the processing
centers and meet these folks. So that way, when they're
selling the product, they can give a real life experience
of their field trip to those locations.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Well, and you know, when children are young, most of
them have tons of energy and you're like whoa, And
you know, these types of programs teaches them the responsibility
of doing something important that helps others. But it also
(29:47):
teaches them to think outside the box and be creative
because you know, you're sharing information with other people, so
it teaches you to be more articulate. And in all
of this type of thing, it would teach himself for
back and give them, you know, a boost in how
they feel about themselves. I think so many things today
(30:07):
that children participate in don't really boost their own self esteem,
and I think that is so critically important today because
you know the calls I get because I help counsel
people for their families, and I get so many calls
today on young people having incredible anxiety problems and depression,
(30:31):
and something like this where you get out and you
get fresh air and sunshine, you're doing something wonderful for
people and for yourself, and then of course you're probably
eating healthier food. I think all of this contributes to
lifting your spirits and actually will help cut down on
the anxiety and the depression that they might be feeling.
(30:53):
Because I've always felt that when you are volunteering or
when you are doing a job that is and benefits others,
it builds you up instead of breaks you down right,
And things in the US school system actually break down
children's creativity, and you know, they all want them to
(31:17):
conform to the lowest level in the class and just
memorize stuff and regurgitate it, and it's probably stuff that
you probably will never even use again in your lifetime.
It's not actual skills that you can utilize. And when
I think back on all the years I spent sitting
in school learning stuff I never used again, which, as
(31:40):
I found out now. It was pretty pretty worthless stuff.
And I think, you know, the homeschooling you can really
tap into because I know the schools around me. There's
a whole lot of children in my area where I
live in Texas at homeschool and these kids are amazing.
Some play ten instruments and speak for languages. Other ones
(32:03):
are expert on welding, you know. Others are learning different
things like car mechanics, you know, actual life skills. There's
a big class at our library for you know, whoever
wants to learn how to sew or make your own clothing,
and so it's you know, it's it's actual things that
(32:23):
we can utilize in our lives and that builds you
up instead of breaking you down. And see, Okay, there's
a message here that says they can see and click
the links on the TV platforms Facebook, LinkedIn, twitch in
X So, if y'all are listening and you're watching live
(32:46):
on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitch or x you can click on
the links that Jason just put in the chat box.
Thank you. Rebel Rebels are wonderful SAMD engineer everyone and
I'm so great for her and expand on that. Would
(33:06):
you and take us into the future of what you're
seeing happen here.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Yeah, sounds good.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
So there's five programs, So it starts off with this vision.
So the vision has already been created by like we're
on the reservation, so we're dealing a lot with the
tribal communities and the tribal leaders that this organization, the
Native American Agriculture Fund. They've got millions of dollars to
(33:33):
help tribal communities achieve food sovereignty. So this group, along
with all of its national tribal partners, created a vision
of what's possible. So it is called Imagining the Native,
Reimagining Native Food Economies. So that's the first one. The
(33:55):
next one is actually engaging with the community. So that's
where you go out and you do this food sovereignty assessment,
and that's where you find the gaps in becoming food sovereign,
becoming food secure. Once you know the gaps, then you
can create a plan to tackle those gaps. And so
(34:16):
that's where these other programs are coming into play. Like
this school fundraiser program markets and distributes local food. There's
another First Nations Development Institute program called the Native Farmed
a School Planner. So we received the grant to be
(34:36):
able to work with multiple schools on and off the
reservation to look at different Native American education in six
different focus areas. One of those is community, so being
able to launch this food sovereignty assessment and engaging with
the community and this effort to become food sovereign, it
(35:00):
just makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
And once you're delivering food to the neighbors and.
Speaker 4 (35:07):
The people in your community, you can go beyond food sovereignty.
And this is where what we've done here is we've
set up multiple co ops under the Montana co Op.
So we of course started with the food and now
we've got our our get Well co Op, so that's
our overall wellness. Our retreats fall under there. We've got
(35:28):
a little clinic in our food hub. We definitely promote
special great diets, raw foods and plant based and well
and then we also have the little House co op,
so that's also part of health. The determinants of health
is everyone having access to a safe and secure home.
(35:53):
So we're one of the projects that ties into the
work that I've been doing my whole life is I've
been in the moving industry. My dad started the largest
moving company in Canada, and I worked for my dad
for twenty years and then I worked for install At.
They're the largest new furniture office furniture installation company. They
(36:13):
have a division called Ecoserve that just helps corporations deal
with their surplus. So it's been one of our nonprofit
projects here for the last nine years is receiving multiple
Chapter Traider loads of surplus office furniture and repurposing it.
We've donated product to about fifteen different schools, about ten
(36:36):
different tribal departments, and about fifteen other nonprofits in the community.
One of our recent shipments was a desk company that
went out of business and we were able to receive
over ten thousand desktops. We didn't get the legs, they
were able to recycle the middle legs, but we have
(36:56):
ten thousand bamboo desktops that were using to finish out
small homes, so we cut them to be tongue and
groove and created ceiling floor walls. It's just one of
the examples of what's possible with surplus office furniture and
to help finish out small homes.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
And we've got.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
The little house co Op, We've got the get Well
co Op. We've got this so the food side of
things since we were under the we did have it
just under the Montana co Op, but we're calling that
the Farmer's Market co Op now and we market and
distribute seven different categories of items that's all local, Montana made.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
We have been reaching out into our.
Speaker 4 (37:43):
Region for more organic foods, so we've partnered with Azure
Standard on bringing in product and adding that to our
online market.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
But our other categories besides food, our.
Speaker 4 (37:54):
Art, animals, body products, garden, home and outdoor. So pretty
much those seven categories cover anything that we can make.
We can put it in one of those categories and
help with the help those local producers and crafters market
(38:14):
and distribute their product using the same system as the
online market for the food.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
That is so fantastic and it's so all encompassing on
what people are really needing in the world today, doesn't
matter if you're in the United States or somewhere else.
And I think all of those ideas are just so incredible.
In what a generous group y'all are. I mean, y'all
(38:44):
always reach out to you the very neediest in the
communities and lift them up and really That's what it's
all about, isn't it lifting everyone up so that everyone
can be healthy and feel great. And I know you
focus on a lot to do with the food quality
(39:05):
like I do, because I think you know it does
when you ingested, it becomes yourselves, your tissue, your blood.
And I'd love for you to share with them just
a little bit on why you focus on plant based
foods and raw foods and what is to you Jason,
What does raw food mean to you?
Speaker 4 (39:26):
Yeah, well, personally, I've benefited from the raw foods. When
I was young, I just basically ate. But most teenagers
eat when they don't have parents that know any better.
You know, you're eating pizza and macaroni and cheese and
all that good stuff, but it doesn't do good for
(39:48):
you and your body. And a lot of kids, you know,
like myself, you know, it causes skin problems, acme and inflammation.
And that's what I dealt with most of my life.
I just didn't know there was an answer, and it
was all in the food. And so once I went
through Nancy's class and understood about the benefits of raw
(40:10):
foods and then started coordinating health retreats and really started
experiencing it firsthand of what's possible, and I've just been
on that same road for so long and just seeing
more and more people coming to the table around the
same concept that food is our medicine and that it's
(40:31):
a real thing. Then it comes down to the implementation
and the project coordination to make it all happen. I
do have a fair amount of skills in that area
from my previous job. I am a project coordinator, project manager.
I've done some big multi location projects, just kind of
(40:53):
been able to take that into the nonprofit world, and
I really feel like we're missing out on this cooperation opportunity.
I'm a Christian and Pastor's been teaching a lot about
we're all part of the same body. God is the
(41:13):
head and we are the body, and God's a big
picture plan involves each of us having a purpose in
that plan. So trying to figure out what that plan
is by combining all of our talents together is interesting
but very needed these days, and really trying to put
(41:34):
our differences behind so that we can really kind of
go beyond that and get into what we're trying to
accomplish together.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
It's so great, and I just, you know, one of
the things that I learned many years ago when I
was trying to heal myself and I got on this
journey kind of similar to you, Jason, that you know,
I grew up just eating what everybody liked. The doctor
was telling us to eat, you know, white wonderbread or
(42:03):
you know, processed foods and margarines. It sometimes amazes me
that we even survived the fifties in the sixties. But
you know, when I I was just so sick growing
up and had terrible skin, I was told I was
going to go blind. I was pre diabetic. And it
(42:27):
was when I started learning to eat real food, real
food in its whole, real form, like fresh off of
the vine or fresh you know, tree ripened food like
a real apple or a real carrot, or and it
when I really just took that on one hundred percent.
I mean, I grew up with a garden and we
(42:47):
would eat salads or we would have vegetables, but we
also had a lot of processed foods available to us.
And in fact, it was my doctor that actually told
me that I should drink sugar free sodas, and that
was probably one of the worst pieces of advice I've
ever gotten. In my life because those are really hard
to detoxify from and stop. But when I did and
(43:13):
started eating real food that was fine ripeender tree ripe
and you're grown organically, and I watched all of these
health problems that I had struggled with my whole life
just fall away, just actually disappear. And I think this
(43:33):
second half of my life and I'm now, you know,
barking on my seventieth year. It's and I never get sick,
and I feel better, I think than I ever did
when I was young, which is really sad because you know,
I wish I, you know, had knew this back then.
But I think this is the magic of your program,
(43:55):
and also you know, really getting the children to be
involved so that they don't struggle with those health problems
and the diabetes and you know, the heart problems that
come from eating a lot of process foods with chemicals
and additives and colorings and artificial sweeteners and all types
(44:16):
of things like that. So you know, I just really
applaud you and your whole team and your group that
you work with. And I've been up there and I
know that they really focus on the quality and on
really helping each other learn how to do things in
the best way possible that really supports everyone. So I
(44:40):
really highly encourage all of y'all to reach out to
Jason if you have some helpful information or some connections,
or if you want to, you know, start something in
your part of the world. I know he would just
be so delighted to help y'all create this type of
(45:02):
situation in your home or your community. And so, Jason,
I I can't believe, but we've only got about five
minutes left with our time here today, and do you
have some different information that we haven't been able to
share yet that you would like to add to our discussion.
Speaker 3 (45:25):
Sure, I guess, just letting you know.
Speaker 4 (45:28):
We've spent a lot of time and energy and strategic
thought on building the foundation.
Speaker 3 (45:33):
So that's the foundation we're going to be sharing with you.
Speaker 4 (45:37):
And one of the projects that's coming up, it's going
to be a three twenty one day retreat and primarily
focused on people in our own community, and we're going
to host that here at our office building in Ronan.
We do not have accommodation here, people can stay in
(45:57):
their home and go through this twenty one days. We're
also seeing this as being a very informal retreat, so
people will just come and go. We will have a
twenty one day calendar that will almost be replicated every
twenty one days of each month, and we'd love to
put that out for anybody out there. We'll offer this
(46:20):
twenty one day free retreat. We'll let you know all
the services and food that it includes. That definitely everybody
gets a smoothie and a solid as part of that
free service. We'll have a sort of add on extra
cost to like massages and acupuncture and anything else that
you would want. And we can definitely connect you with
(46:41):
accommodation as well, whether you want to camp out or
you like to have a cabin on the lake.
Speaker 3 (46:47):
We've got it all covered.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
That's awesome, and I'm guessing you will have educational classes
as well to help teach people about the importance of
raw enzymes and real food that hasn't been cooked or
processed over one hundred and eighteen degrees or irradiated or microwaved. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (47:09):
Yeah, And it's also the whole health concept too, so
we're really looking at the body, soul, and spirit. So
they'll be workshops covering all those areas given our church
for example, they've got a healing room on Thursday, so
we'll be tying that in to get people an option
to build to go down and go over to the
church and get healed in a spiritual manner. So yeah,
(47:33):
lots of great things. And if anybody out there has
a workshop they'd like to come and teach, we would
be more than happy to accommodate that as well.
Speaker 2 (47:41):
Awesome. Well, when you emailed me the other day, you
sent me a little quote by Marie Curie. Life is
not easy for any of us. But what of that?
We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves.
We must believe that we are gifted for something and
(48:04):
that is the thing that must be attained. And I
thought that was so pretty and so uplifting. And I
know we just have just a couple of minutes here,
but Jason, do you have I know, I just want
to thank you so much. You're in the bottom of
my heart for joining us today and sharing this really
valuable information with everyone. I'm always honored to have you
(48:28):
on the show.
Speaker 4 (48:30):
Thank you, Thank you, Nancy, and I want to thank
you as well. And then everything that you're about and
you're persevering on I know your purpose is part of
our purpose, so we'll see where things go. They're going
to continue for sure for many years.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
I love that. So would you like to share just
a really short parting thought in this last minute with
our listeners that maybe they can implement right now wherever
they are world to make their life better in some way,
shape or form.
Speaker 4 (49:06):
Sure, Well, you know, having a purpose in life and
figuring that out. For me, I didn't really find my
purpose until I moved here and I was placed in
a location that on the reservation that was dealing with
a lot of challenges. I never experienced anything like that
living in the big cities. I didn't really know what
(49:28):
my purpose was. I knew it wasn't just business. So
I would encourage everybody to really dig deep, find some books.
There's some good ones out there. Purpose driven life, there's
just a lot of great ones. But then figure out
how that purpose connects with other people's purpose, and that
(49:49):
I believe is creating God's big picture plan is all
of us collaborating and working together. I mean, somebody comes
into your life and take that as as a call
to collaborate and to cooperate and just be open and
and just go with that that you're trusting that God's
(50:12):
put this person in your life for a reason, whether
whatever that may be. And sometimes it's just maybe it's
even a challenge that you're that that person is giving you.
So just try and take that as an opportunity to
live your purpose and to discover your purpose.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
That's beautiful. Thank you so much for that, and for
everyone out there. Jason and I send you lots of
love and we wish you great health and I look
forward to talking to you all again next week.
Speaker 3 (51:00):
The sadys St
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