Sokaogon Chippewa Community News

Grants Department Working for SCC

Posted on: August 17, 2023
Nicole ManyHorses-Calvert, pictured with her husband Bill ManyHorses-Calvert, joined the Tribe as a Grant Writer on October 31, 2022. Since that time, she has been working to obtain grant funding for various programs of the Tribe.

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service announced that they recently signed contracts with eight tribes for new Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR) Self-Determination Demonstration Projects.

From the USDA’s press release: Empowering tribal nations to select and purchase foods themselves helps better align FDPIR food packages with tribal dietary preferences, supports indigenous agricultural producers and honors tribal sovereignty.

“USDA is committed to supporting indigenous foodways, empowering indigenous agricultural economies and improving indigenous health through traditional foods. FDPIR demonstration projects – that give power back to the tribes to do what’s best for their people – are an important part of that effort,” said Stacy Dean, deputy under secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services.
FDPIR is one tool to strengthen nutrition security in tribal communities by providing USDA Foods to income-eligible households on tribal reservations and Native American households in approved areas near reservations or in Oklahoma. USDA distrib

James Polar and Jeremy Maki, SCC Food Distribution Program

utes both food and administrative funding to participating tribes operating FDPIR.

Under normal program operations, USDA purchases and provides all foods. Through these projects, tribes have more control over the contents of their FDPIR food packages, selecting and purchasing some of the foods themselves.

The tribes awarded include the Sokaogon Chippewa Community. This round of funding totals nearly $4.4 million; USDA previously funded eight other tribal nations, bringing the total to $10 million across the 16 tribal nations participating in this demonstration project. Learn more about each tribe’s project and find a map of participating tribes on the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Services website.