Lyndsay Gutierrez of Nourish grew up in Great Falls, joined the military and left for 15 years, then came back to have a daughter and be with family to raise her.

Gutierrez taught cooking classes and worked with farms and programs for years, so cooking classes and programs here was a natural, she said.

“The food truck is a thing we’ve talked about for years but was just never the right fit until the country shut down and there were no more cooking classes to be taught for a while,” she said. “We actually went from ‘we’re doing a food truck’ on a Friday morning to our soft opening in nine days and a sold out first service two days after that. It was wild!”

What are the top 3 advantages to operating a business in Great Falls?

“I have my family here to all help and work together; the Development Authority has been amazing to connect to resources and support with all the technical details;  Great Falls is READY for new things! Both the classes and events as well as the food truck are things people are just hungry for here.”

What are the top 3 challenges?

“Challenges for me are mostly around access to ingredients and resources (nowhere to buy a lot of restaurant supplies I’m used to having handy).”

If there was one thing you could change to existing regulations to remove barriers to business, what would it be?

“For as hard as people said starting a food truck is here, it wasn’t! So far, I haven’t bumped against any regulations that aren’t COVID related.”

What advice would you give to someone considering starting a business in Great Falls?