Happy Wednesday Beacon readers! Mariah Thomas here — and I’m feeling stoked. The sun is shining, summer is in full swing and I’m chipping away at my summer bucket list by visiting the Blue Moon rodeo over in Columbia Falls tomorrow night. Here’s hoping all of you are starting to make some progress on your summer plans, bucket lists and projects too!
As your local education reporter, I’d be remiss if I didn’t make sure to mention that the USDA-funded Summer Food Service Program is around for families who might need help feeding their kiddos this summer. It’s open for children and teens and offers free breakfasts, lunches, and some locations even have bulk grab-and-go options. You can find the spots offering this service in the valley here: https://www.fna.usda.gov/sfsp/sitefinder.
Speaking of food… I got to spend yesterday afternoon at the Culinary Institute of Montana, located on campus at Flathead Valley Community College. During the school year, the institute offers an associate’s degree in culinary arts and catering. But this past week, the institute offered a three-day workshop aimed at providing professional development for high school family and consumer science teachers.
Known as “Recipe for Success,” Chef Manda Hudak said the workshop was offered in partnership with the state’s Office of Public Instruction. It’s the third time Hudak has been involved with the program, which she said is offered every two years to teach educators the most up-to-date methods to use in their classrooms. This year’s three-day event included workshops on sauce making, the role of gluten in baking, sous vide (a cooking technique where food is vacuum sealed in a bag and cooked in a circulating water bath) and “a taste of chocolate.” And, Hudak said, it also comes with a chance for family and consumer science teachers to network with colleagues around the state.
Educators from schools in Malta, Big Sky, Helena, Belgrade, Manhattan, Laurel, Great Falls, Butte and Billings attended the three-day event.
Kortney Douma, who teaches family and consumer sciences at Belgrade High School, attended the first Recipe for Success event Hudak hosted several years ago, and has returned since. Douma (Montana’s 2026 Teacher of the Year) said she models her own classroom off the way Hudak teaches and has sent several students to FVCC’s culinary arts and catering program.
Douma explained teachers in the state are all required to take continuing education credits. But in her eyes, FVCC’s Recipe for Success training serves as a unique opportunity to fulfill that requirement in a hands-on way. Douma said each time she has attended Recipe for Success, it elevates her own skills and allows her to bring back new techniques to her classroom.
“This is truly a phenomenal training,” Douma said.
Bill Jensen, who has taught for 12 years at the Billings Career Center, agreed with Douma. While he said he has been affiliated with FVCC and the Culinary Institute of Montana since 2015, Jensen said it was his first time attending Recipe for Success.
He said he looks forward to bringing back several of the lessons he learned through the workshops to his students. For instance, he pointed to the workshop on the role of gluten in baking as instructive. While baking is a topic he’s taught for a long time, he said he’s leaving the workshop equipped to give his students new insight, which enhances their experience at the career center and makes them more hire-able coming out of his own program.
“This is serious industry-based learning, and it’s gonna take my curriculum a long way for the next generation of students,” Jensen said.
For Chef Hudak at FVCC, family and consumer science education comes with a broader importance than just preparing students for potential careers in cooking too. Teachers handling those subjects carry a “patriotic responsibility,” in her eyes, to help ensure their students have the skills necessary to prepare and eat good food, because it goes back to “how our diet affects our health as a nation.”
“I think family and consumer science is a life skill,” Hudak said. “When you think about it, it really sets people up to be successful on the home front, and especially in the area of diet.”
All that awesomeness — and the food they were making in these workshops looked incredible. This reporter left wishing for a taste test!
And… that’s what I’ve got for you folks today. Onto the rest of the Daily Roundup.
Agency Releases Environmental Assessment for Granite Moccasin Logging Project
The project proposes treatment in roadless areas, recommended wilderness and along a Wild and Scenic-designated segment of the Middle Fork of the Flathead River. Proponents say it is needed to reduce the risk of wildland fire and restore forest health.
Kalispell Establishes Temporary Housing Study Advisory Committee
The committee will help oversee an affordable housing study, funded through a grant the city is expected to receive from the Department of Housing and Urban Development
Whitefish City Council Discusses Future of Resort Tax Community Housing Funds
During a work session on Monday, city councilors discussed potential improvements to its grant process for housing initiatives using the levied dollars, while also floating around the idea of increasing the resort tax to bring in more funds to address the city's housing challenges.
In Their Chef’s Journey Class, Kalispell Middle School Students Learn About Career, Life
The middle schoolers have the chance to cater events through the course as they understand what it takes to have a culinary career. But the lessons they take away go far beyond cooking.
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