Food insecurity has been a consistent issue throughout Indian country. Far too many native families are food insecure. Bringing food to these families has been at the core of our mission for almost two decades.
In 2009, Running Strong for American Indian Youth® initiated our food box distribution program to Native communities including the Pine Ridge, Cheyenne River, Crow Nation, Navajo Nation, and Standing Rock reservations. Since that time, we have distributed more than 135,000 food boxes, including nearly 14,000 in the past year alone on the Pine Ridge, Cheyenne River, and Standing Rock reservations. These food boxes contain 25 lb. boxes of non-perishable food items, enough to feed a family of four for a week or more. The boxes can contain dairy items, frozen meat, fresh produce, shelf-stable foods, grains, juices, and more
For the coming year, we are doubling that number to nearly 28,000 boxes, including expanding to the Crow Nation in Montana and to the Walker River Paiute Tribal Nation in Nevada, which operates a food sovereignty program that serves 200 families weekly.
During the last week of August alone, at the Oyate Ta Kola Ku (OTKK) Community Center on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, we distributed 200 food boxes, enabling them to stretch their monthly food budget or use the savings to help pay their rent, utilities or other expenses.
Overcoming Food Insecurity on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
While Americans across the country are experiencing higher grocery prices – which have jumped about 21 percent since July 2020 nationwide – according to an August report in The Washington Post, families on Pine Ridge face significantly higher prices for everyday food staples. (You can read the full article here – https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/08/25/grocers-prices-chains/ )
The Post reported on the dire access to healthy food on Pine Ridge, known as a food desert, that there is only one full-service supermarket on the vast reservation, larger than the state of Delaware. (For comparison, the state of Delaware counted 265 supermarkets and grocery stores throughout 2023, according to The Shelby Report, a grocery store and supermarket trade publication.)
In a way, high grocery prices on the reservation are the result of a “perfect storm” in which, as The Post reports, there’s inflation, supply chain disruptions, store consolidation, and “other fallouts of the pandemic” which are in large part the cause of the higher food costs nationwide.
However, at Buche Foods, the only grocery store in Pine Ridge, The Post reports that at the store “shoppers can see a price differential of 20 percent to 100 percent on everything from potatoes to diapers.”
“At Pine Ridge, which includes 32,000 members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Buche Foods caters to a region where unemployment hovers near 80 percent and more than half the residents live below the federal poverty live, according to tribal leaders,” The Post reported.
Frank Star Comes Out, the president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe is quoted in the article commenting that when cost is the bottom-line consideration, shoppers often stock up on food that is “not healthy and they know it’s unhealthy. But they also know it will cover a few days and prolong their meals.”
And Buche noted, “If you got 10 bucks, the first words out of your mouth aren’t a head of lettuce.’ It’s ‘frozen pizza’ or ‘five boxes of mac and cheese.’”
All of these reasons, and more, are why we are doing all we can to address food insecurity on Pine Ridge through increasing the number of food box distributions at the OTKK community center, helping hundreds of families each month stretch their precious food dollars and eat healthier.
Overcoming Food Insecurity on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation
On the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in South Dakota, Running Strong built the Eagle Butte Food Pantry in 1996, followed by a 1,260-square-foot addition in 2003, and the donation of a brand-new walk-in freezer in 2010, and to date we have delivered approximately 40,000 food boxes to the food pantry, amounting to roughly 700,000 pounds of food.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Running Strong delivered 30,600 pounds of frozen food to the Eagle Butte Food Pantry on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The special delivery was an act of COVID-19 relief for 1,700 families.
“Families on Cheyenne River face significant challenges with food insecurity in normal times, and these sure aren’t normal times,” said Billie Rose Garreaux, Running Strong’s Food Distribution coordinator on Cheyenne River at the time. “Running Strong is proud to do our part to help families facing the coronavirus crisis.”
Overcoming Food Insecurity on the Crow Nation
Starting in September, over the next year we will be shipping 12,000 food boxes to the Crow Nation to be distributed at two locations including at Crow Agency, to be distributed by our new partner, the Black Lodge Community Development Corporation (CDC).
The food boxes will be prioritized for elders in the service area of Big Horn County where the Crow Indian Reservation is located, and primarily those in the Black Lodge District, where the poverty rate is 25.7 percent, compared to the state rate of 12.1 percent.
Overcoming Food Insecurity on the Walker Indian Reservation
On the Walker River Indian Reservation, the food pantry serves 200 families per week. Beginning this month, Running Strong is providing both frozen and dry food boxes weekly.
The Walker River Food Sovereignty Program supports the 99 percent Native American community where the annual median income is just $24,000.
But the support will also encompass developing community gardens in the Spring of 2025, to support access to healthy foods.
From providing thousands of food boxes yearly to supporting food pantries on reservations to developing hundreds of family and community gardens, our work to over food insecurity continues.
But there’s more to be done. With your support, we can expand our reach and deepen our impact. Every dollar you donate goes directly into action: more gardens planted, more meals provided, and more communities taking control of their food supply.
The challenges are significant, but our impact is greater. Act now: Your donation plants gardens, fills plates, and changes lives.
