By Tomie Peterson, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Great Plains Region
Photo Credit: Thunder Valley Community Development Corporations’ Food Sovereignty Initiative
This blog is part of a series of profiles of Native Farm to School Champions, organized and collated by the Intertribal Agriculture Council (IAC). IAC is NFSN's 2019 National Partner of the Year, and we are excited to collaborate with IAC on this storytelling project to celebrate farm to school activities happening across Indian Country. These Champion profiles were written and submitted by IAC's Regional Technical Assistance Specialists, and these programs will be recognized for the farm to school leadership at the 2019 IAC Annual Meeting. Learn more about the IAC at www.indianag.org.
The goal of Thunder Valley Community Development Corporations’ Food Sovereignty Initiative is to create programs and partnerships that will promote a sustainable and viable food system on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
The Food Sovereignty Coalition has five active members of community partner organizations that are working together to create a local food system. A part of this is trying to implement traditional foods into more of the communities. The coalition successfully introduced buffalo meat from Intertribal Buffalo Council into the nine Head Start Centers across the reservation.
They also completed a food sovereignty curriculum that was implemented in local classrooms. It focused on older elementary students, with topics including Oglala food histories, current local foods, nutrition, gardening, safe food handling, and food preservation.
IAC Great Plains Technical Assistant recognizes the great strides that Thunder Valley’s Lakota Food Sovereignty has made and is a strong partner by providing any assistance needed to continue their goal of food sovereignty on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Learn more about Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation Food Sovereignty Initiative here: https://thundervalley.org/live-rez/our-programs/food.