Grant to cover study for commercial kitchen, farm-to-table restaurant, other ag opportunities in Glendive, MT

Glendive Community GATE has been awarded a $34,000 grant to conduct a marketing study for a commercial kitchen, farm-to-table restaurant, microbrewery and local producers’ cooperative.

“We’re on the way,” Dawson County Extension Agent Bruce Smith who is heading the steering committee for the project said.

A consultant who is a specialist in commercial kitchens is on board with the project and will be in Glendive after the first of the year. Smith anticipates that he will be at the Glendive Agri-Trade Exposition to talk about the project and distribute surveys concerning it. Steering committee members hope to have the marketing work finished by June, he said.

The grant money will also be used to bring an architect and a structural engineer to Glendive to look at the former GTA grain elevator which is the proposed site for the project and do an architect’s rendition of the complex, he added.

Members of the steering committee are planning a visit to Mission Mountain Market http://www.mt-missionmtnmrkt.com/ in Ronan Thursday through Sunday to look at what is being done there and gather ideas for the local project. They will also be visiting a number of other similar projects along the way, he said.

The Glendive restaurant complex was one of nine projects funded by the Montana Agriculture Development Council’s Growth Through Agriculture program. The projects received a total of more than $285,000.

According to a press release from the council, additional projects approved included agricultural marketing and business development proposals from the Chippewa Cree Tribe of the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation, the Alternative Energy Resources Organization of Helena, Montana’s Pioneer Products of Billings, Great Northern Development Corporation of Wolf Point, Eastern Plains RC&D of Sidney, Montana Stockgrowers Association of Helena, North-Missoula Community Development Corporation of Missoula and Sustainable Living Systems of Stevensville.

“The Growth through Agriculture program continues to attract exciting new projects for adding value to Montana’s agricultural commodities,” said Nancy K. Peterson, director of the Montana Department of Agriculture and a council member. “The program assists Montana’s farmers, ranchers and agricultural entrepreneurs in developing new products and ideas to grow our state’s agricultural industry.”

By Cindy Mullet
Ranger-Review Staff Writer

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