Nutrition Times - Native American Heritage 2020

USDA Food and Nutrition Service sent this bulletin at 11/19/2020 02:53 PM EST

Nutrition Times

Native American Heritage Special Edition - November 2020

USDA Celebrates Native American Heritage Month

The USDA gives thanks to the profound history and contributions of American Indian and Alaska Native people. In this edition we share stories and resources about food, nutrition, and health in Indian Country, including some of our USDA programs like Farm to School, Farmers to Families Food Box, and school meals.

Pictured: Artwork by Native youth as part of the Center for Native American Youth's (CNAY) Creative Native Call for Art competition. Artist names clockwise from top left: Joelle Joyner (Meherrin, Cherokee Nation, and Blackfeet), EllaMae Looney (Confederated Tribes and Banks of Yakama Nation), Darby Raymond-Overstreet (Diné), Danielle Reyse Fixico (Chickasaw, Muscogee Creek, Choctaw), Ayebah Wilson (Diné), Elizabeth Morgan (Kiowa Apache).

CNAY works to improve the health, safety, and overall well-being of Native American Youth. As part of their State of the Native Youth Report, CNAY found that Native American adolescents are 30% more likely than non-Hispanic whites to be obese. Native Americans have the highest rates of diabetes with approximately 15% of American Indian/Alaska Natives diagnosed with Type II diabetes.

Click here to read the full report.

Did You Know?

5.2 million
There are approximately 5.2 million American Indian and Alaska Natives (AIAN) in the U.S. today. That’s about 1.5 % of the population. (U.S. Census)

574
There are 574 federally recognized AIAN tribes and villages.

22% vs. 78%
Approximately 22% of America’s 5.2 million Native Americans live on tribal lands. Today, 78% of Native Americans live off-reservation, and 72% live in urban or suburban environments.

60,083
AIANs operated approximately 60,083 farms, comprising over 58.7 million acres of land, and conducted $3.33 billion in total sales, with $1.43 billion from crops and $2.11 billion from livestock and poultry.

25.6%
Only 25.6% of the population on tribal reservations live one mile or less from a grocery store; for the US population, that number is 58.8%.

Resources

SNAP-Ed Toolkit - A searchable database of over 100 evidence-based nutrition education curricula.

USDA Office of Tribal Relations newsletter- Click to subscribe

Grants

FY 2021 Farm to School Grant Program (Closing date: 01/08/21)

USDA Farm to School Grants in Indian Country

Midwest Tribal Communities Expand Farm to School

Pictured: The Mino Bimbaadiziiwin Tribal Farm of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in Wisconsin has many roles in the community, but the overall goals are to increase food access and support their food sovereignty goals.

In October, USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) hosted a webinar highlighting the work done in Midwest tribal communities to promote farm to school efforts and traditional food systems. It featured a presentation by the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, a previous USDA Farm to School grantee. The webinar also discussed how tribes and tribal partners can apply to the FY 2021 USDA Farm to School Grant. To view the recorded webinar presentations, please click here.

To learn more about the USDA Farm to School Grant Program and register for upcoming webinars related to the FY 2021 Farm to School Grant Request for Applications (RFA), visit the USDA FNS Office of Community Food Systems webpage.

USDA Awards FY 2020 Farm to School Planning Grants to Tribes

Pictured: Red Cloud Indian School's geodesic dome greenhouse and school garden. Students are able to grow and harvest their own organic produce, and then learn to prepare them in healthy meals in the cafeteria.

Since 2013, the USDA Farm to School Program has offered annual grants and technical assistance to assist eligible entities in implementing farm to school programs that improve access to local foods. Some examples of tribes who received grants include:

Red Cloud Indian School
Red Cloud Indian School serves Lakota K-12 students on the Pine Ridge Reservation in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. Building off the development of their school farm over the last few years, including classroom activities and lessons in the greenhouse, the creation of a tilapia pond, and launching of their first farmer's market, the school will implement a larger Farm to School Program located on the school campus. One of their goals is to use season extension techniques to continue to produce food through the winter in order to allow student participation throughout the school year and expand the opportunity to teach nutrition and agricultural lessons in the classroom. Click here to read more about Red Cloud Indian School's Farm to School Program.

Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe
The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe (CRST) is located in South Dakota on the Cheyenne River Reservation. The CRST Farm to School Program provides locally sourced beef and buffalo to the School Lunch Programs in the five schools located on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation.

The project gives local producers the opportunity to make their beef and buffalo available to the approximately 2,200 children who are attending school on the Reservation.

Lower Brule Schools
Lower Brule Schools (LBS) has identified Farm to School as a way to connect with local farmers, procure local produce for each school in the District, and to advance agricultural education. LBS will collaborate with Lower Brule Research, South Dakota State University Extension, Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, and South Dakota State University Pierre Regional Extension Center on this initiative.

USDA Farmers to Families Food Box Program Helping Native Communities

Alaska Commercial Company Partners with USDA to Deliver Food Boxes to Remote Alaska Communities

As part of its efforts to support small communities in rural Alaska, the Alaska Commercial Company delivered 40,000 boxes of produce and 30,000 boxes of dairy to 86 rural communities this past summer. This food distribution was part of the USDA’s Farmers to Families Food Box program.

“We were very proud to partner with the USDA, tribal governments, non-profits, and other organizations to implement this food distribution program. Everyone worked harder than ever to ensure that rural Alaskans had access to fresh food over the summer,” noted Kyle Hill, Vice President of Procurement & Marketing for Alaska Commercial Company.

Feedback from community partners was overwhelmingly positive. “Many people had tears in their eyes when we placed the boxes in their cars,” said Nancy Furlow, President of the Alaska Native Sisterhood’s Camp 4 in Sitka. “Others told us their cupboards were bare and they didn’t know what they were going to do until they saw the PSA about the food distribution.”

Pictured: Alaska Commercial Company employees, Alaska Seaplanes personnel, and volunteers preparing to fly food boxes to a rural community.

White Mountain Catholic Charities of Arizona Distributes USDA's Farmers to Families Food Boxes for COVID-19 Relief

White Mountain Catholic Charities (WMCC) of Lakeside Arizona in Partnership with St. Mary’s Food Bank has begun distributing Farmers to Families produce/dairy boxes to those in need in southern Navajo County, Arizona, which serves Native Americans from the Navajo, Hopi and Apache reservations. The boxes are available to anyone in need and contain fresh fruits, vegetables and dairy products. The boxes complement food provided through USDA's The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and distributed by the WMCC Food Bank to assist those whose income has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. WMCC currently receives 120 Farmers to Families Food Boxes to distribute monthly and serves 600-800 households monthly, about sixty percent of whom are Native American.

Building Partnerships to Fight Food Insecurity

Chickasaw Nation and Partners Provide Food for Children During Pandemic

The Chickasaw Nation Impa’chi Kids Meal program provides no-cost meals to children up to age 18 at several locations throughout the Chickasaw Nation, combining services previously offered under USDA's Summer Food Service Program and the Child and Adult Care Program. During the pandemic, PepsiCo Foundation's Food for Good Program reached out to the Chickasaw Nation Impa’chi Kids Meal program wanting to bolster its COVID-19 crisis food assistance.

Building on the Chickasaw Nation's Summer EBT for Children program and Packed Promise program - both of which secure meals for students who receive free or reduced-price school lunches, employees with Chickasaw Nation Nutrition Services worked with PepsiCo’s Food for Good to identify children in need of food assistance and provide food boxes that contained dried fruit, nuts, meat, dairy, cereal, juice, bread, and crackers. Ultimately, 12,480 food boxes were delivered to rural Chickasaw children who were eligible for, but not yet participating in Chickasaw Nation food security programs.

Other Chickasaw Nation partnerships include cooperation with Walmart (serving fresh produce to more than 2,000 families in Ada and Tishomingo), USDA's Farmers to Families Food Box Program (offering hundreds of food boxes to Chickasaws and community members), and Share Our Strength (shipping meals directly to food insecure children who don’t live near food sites).

Click here to read more about these partnerships.

Webinar: Tribal Communities Share Lessons Learned as Schools Head Back-to-School

No Kid Hungry hosted a webinar that featured lessons learned from Tribal communities as part of their ongoing series highlighting solutions and challenges around COVID-19 response and back-to-school. School food service and community leaders shared how they are implementing meal service for students during COVID-19. Panelists who work with the Gila River Indian Community and Saint Michaels Indian School in Arizona highlighted the unique benefits and challenges that Tribal communities face from a cultural and governmental perspective. Discussions at the session centered on program implementation and adoption of program flexibilities provided by USDA. Click here to view the session recording and slide deck.

Boys and Girls Club Working in Native Communities

Boys & Girls Club of Yurok Tribe (Yurok Tribal Reservation, Klammath, California) - Throughout the summer, the Boys & Girls Club (BGC) of Yurok Tribe was able to continue to provide healthy breakfasts and lunches to their Club kids through USDA’s Summer Food Service Program. They partnered with their local transportation department to deliver these meals throughout the summer. Families also had the opportunity to pick-up meals for the week, once a week. Through a partnership with local small business Chef Alyssa's Kitchen, youth at their Teen Center had the opportunity to cook new healthy recipes with their families.

Through their Camp Kic-A-Wah for younger youth this summer, nutrition education materials were sent home to engage the whole family. While students participated online with a facilitator, family members were able to follow along with the paper materials. Healthy snacks were also sent home in a way that could be shared with family members and incorporated into the curriculum.

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