The Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, Agriculture Department seeks funding to provide locally sourced traditional foods for distribution to school aged children and elders living in their homes to provide relief for rising food costs. The project seeks to provide access to new market opportunities for local producers by introducing new distribution methods to product end users. Distribution boxes will be provided to school aged children at Red Lake School District locations each month and will contain traditional sources of protein such as buffalo and fish and will also include other locally harvested and produced items such as maple products, wild rice, and fresh produce as seasonally available. The distribution program aims to achieve the following goals:
- Ensure approximately 1550 school aged children and families with school aged children have access to food to prevent instances of hunger.
- Ensure approximately 300 elders living in their homes can access local traditional foods for inclusion in their regular diets.
- Increase market opportunities for local producers through distribution of products to local end users.
Distribution efforts will be made possible by collaborating with school district staff, youth organizations, community members, local food producers, and volunteers to support food distribution efforts. Distributions will be delivered to elders’ homes from program collaborators and will be sent home with school aged children.