The Yakama Nation Tribal Government has begun taking measures to provide the Yakama people with increased access to fresh, local, and high-quality food sources that support their traditional diets and assist in upholding their sovereign treaty rights. The after-effects of the Covid-19 pandemic have continued to upset the supply chain and are impacting marginalized communities at a disproportionate rate. Local food systems are successfully increasing access to affordable, reliable, and nutritious products to areas that are particularly vulnerable to becoming “food deserts”. A lack of regular physical access to fresh products is the most obvious limitation, but the most decisive impact is the budgetary limitations on dietary selection. Decreased food security and food sovereignty is rampant in tribal communities and is impacting the health of our communities at disproportionate rates.
The Yakama Nation’s existing LFPA Cooperative Agreement has provided an opportunity to distribute fresh, local produce from the tribally owned, Yakama Nation Farms, to approximately 2000 families in the five local, on-reservation communities of White Swan, Harrah, Wapato, Toppenish and Mabton. Through the LFPA Plus funding, this project will now have an expanded timeline and an expanded service mission. The Yakama LFPA project will now be offered through 2025, will include food distributions focused on our local Senior Citizen populations, and will begin sourcing a protein from the Yakama Nation Bison herd. This will offer food selections to the local Yakama communities that will have traveled fewer than 400 miles from its origin point to the final distribution point.