Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians

This pilot project will extend our Entrepreneurship Programming to Choctaw Youth for the first time and allow us to evaluate the effectiveness of our approach while giving Choctaw youth training and hands-on experience in entrepreneurship and digital fabrication skills.

COVID-19 Response

COVID-19 Response

The project will increase access to high speed internet by making available to all tribal homes of the MBCI high speed broadband service at no monthly charge and expanding the capabilities of the Tribal Healthcare and Educational systems to provide dependable, remote services.

COVID-19 Response

MBCI intends to better utilize our existing fiber-optic infrastructure and gain control of all available 2.5 GHz spectrum to increase access to broadband in all 8 tribal communities to allow first responders, essential government employees, health care providers, and students to be able to function despite COVID19 quarantine policies.

COVID-19 Response

The project will help increase our distribution numbers by making our produce available to more Tribal members. Being able to control what goes into our TSA boxes will also help us educate and manage a healthier form of diet to our participants. The goal is to develop healthier eating options.

The ultimate purpose is to 1) create nutrition and healthy eating information for the Tribal community with both recipe hand-outs and how-to cooking demonstration videos that will be available to all in the community, 2) utilize this nutrition education material to share with our CSA partnership with the Diabetes Prevention Initiative to encourage more healthy eating habits, and 3) create a new Kid-run Farmers Market to strengthen the connection between tribal youth (and hopefully their parents) and their local food system.

The ultimate purpose is to 1) strengthen the connection between CFP's organic farming operation and tribal members, and 2) leverage CFP's farming assets to provide more fresh produce to the tribal community. CFP has developed significant production capacity that has seen increasing demand from Off-Reservation customers that are willing and able to pay premium prices. However, CFP wants to ensure that we supply as much of the fresh produce to the tribal community as possible. The LFA's primary purpose is to strengthen the connection between CFP and the tribal community, particularly the tribal students and low-income tribal families.

The ultimate purpose of Choctaw Fresh Produce is to take control of its food systems by expanding a community garden. The garden provides fresh vegetables to the casino and the expansion will create a surplus of vegetables that will be used to establish a mobile farmers market. The project will increase access to fresh produce on the reservation, create jobs, and stimulate economic development.