Ketchikan Indian Community (KIC) is establishing a cooperative agreement for the purpose of purchasing locally sourced food from a target audience of socially disadvantage farmers and producers in Alaska and serving this food to the tribal community in order to enhance access to traditional foods, strengthen local food system resiliency, lower food insecurity in Ketchikan, and promote the consumption of fresh, nutritious, and minimally processed foods by underserved community members.
The tribe has a proven track record of successfully implementing food distribution events. Over the past three harvest seasons, KIC has implemented a herring egg distribution event that provides locally harvested herring egg portions to community members. For this annual event alone, the tribe anticipates procuring herring eggs on kelp from 1 – 3 vendors during the LFPA Plus period of performance.
In recent years, Ketchikan Indian Community has also distributed fish boxes to tribal beneficiaries containing a variety of minimally processed salmon and halibut which was procured from a local seafood producer.
It is also worth noting that food distribution organizers implementing this project can collaborate with established tribal feeding programs willing and able to assist with distribution activities by serving or distributing procured food to tribal beneficiaries participating in these food serving activities. For example, unclaimed fish boxes in past distribution events were donated to the elder’s café for continued distribution or consumption by tribal beneficiaries participating in elder lunch and dinner services. Minimizing food loss and waste in this way will have a positive impact on the environment.