Awarded Grants

The purpose of this project is to increase the participation of youth in healthy foods, and to expose them to financial literacy as entrepreneurs. Increasing participation will be evident through the outreach component to include Lac Courte Oreilles youth and the youth that will be touched in each semester at school. With diabetes being so prevalent on Indian reservations, this program will allow the youth to share their knowledge of healthy foods, and to have a product that is their own -- the Very Berry Healthy Snack mix. There is nothing more lasting than investing in our youth.

Teach Food is Sacred, Food is Medicine philosophy to the youth/community participants. Increase access to healthy, locally-produced foods. Create a network of local food producers that will be made available and utilized by community members. Create events and curriculum to make traditional food knowledge and practices more commonplace with Salish people. Increase overall health of project participants through food, exercise. and nutrition related information. Leverage resources from other local food sovereignty and youth projects. Create/leverage HJV activities for sustainability and replication in other reservation communities/schools. Create a network with similar FNDI grantees with HJV leadership team to share best practices.

The ultimate purpose of the Strengthening Menominee Health and Native Food System project is to utilize existing resources to maximize the community's availability, accessibility, and cultural understanding of local food. The College of Menominee Nation will 1) increase production of local food at the Collaborative Garden through volunteer engagement, 2) create financial incentives for low-income individuals to access food at the Kehtekaewak Farmers Market, 3) increase youth and Elders' cultural understanding and consumption of traditional squash, and 4) develop a 5-Year Agriculture Outreach Business Plan to place CMN's local food initiatives on a path towards self-sufficiency.

The ultimate purpose of our project is to 1) increase food security of the community, and to 2) develop a community system to provide access to fresh, healthy foods. This project will support the families, youth and elder gardening projects within the community by expanding on existing gardens, and creating new family gardens. As a follow-up, interested gardeners will receive encouragement and guidance to expand to market gardening, providing extra family income and filling a need for local produce.

The purpose of the CRITFC salmon marketing program is to create a resource for the tribes, tribal fishers and their families to utilize to help them control tribal natural resources. Fishers utilize food safety and quality handling techniques to help increase the quality and availability of products to tribal communities and also facilitate access to mainstream markets as consumers become more aware of the products being processed in conformance to applicable federal regulations. Education of new FSMA regulations can support strategies to promote a sustainable program that can be replicated overtime and passed on to future generations.

The ultimate purpose of this project is to create a community learning kitchen that will serve as a part of the local food system where the nutritious food grown in the adjacent 1 acre community garden can be cleaned, packaged, and prepared for delivery to those who need it most. This renovation and remodel will extend the useful life and better use this building to its full capacity. This Commercial grade community kitchen will allow the tribe to have more control of the local food system, increase productivity and leverage other assets in the process.

The ultimate purpose is to 1) strengthen local, tribal food systems and increase tribal control by increasing access to traditional Anishinaabe food knowledge and tribal wild rice harvesters for all 11 GLIFWC member tribes through community education/outreach during community events and tribal youth programs. 2) Create relationships between tribal youth/community Programs and Harvesters increasing access to and knowledge of wild rice, and the interrelationships of wild rice and Anishinaabe culture. 3) Support developing entrepreneurially-related food ventures and contribute to economic growth by creating tools and strengthening networking skills to leverage opportunities for Harvesters created through participation within the community.

The Nooksack Indian Tribe' community possesses health disparities for diabetes disease prevalence rates and is in need of increased public health awareness of diabetes education and prevention. Many tribal members do not benefit from health education materials to understand risk factors for diabetes and how to reduce these through lifestyle choice and behavior modification. The Nooksack Seeds of Health project is to raise public health education for chronic disease prevention by building collaborative cross system campaign for health advocacy and social services by enhancing a community garden. Participants learn how to access produce and it's connectivity to individual health promotion.

The ultimate purpose of this project is to increase the well-being of tribal members and tribal food sources by 1) controlling the release of chemical toxic substances within tribal jurisdiction and lands; 2) leveraging previously accomplished research to write and propose forward-looking model pesticide legislation to tribal governing bodies; 3) utilize existing legislation banning genetically-modified organisms to create educational materials for future community workshops on restoring food traditions. Additionally, this project will support the efforts of tribal sovereigns to retain governing authority over the release of chemical toxins into the environment and create a mechanism for enforcement.

The overarching purpose of the Medicine Root Community Garden Project is to (1) increase the availability of fresh, healthy, locally produced foods grown by and for the people of Pine Ridge Reservation and (2) create community-based entrepreneurial opportunities.