Fort Belknap receiving grant for farm-to-table program

Fort Belknap Indian Reservation is one of five Montana reservations that will be participating in a federal grant to bring food raised on the reservation to the dinner tables of people living there.

Billings-based Native American Development Corp. announced Thursday that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration awarded the community development organization an $800,000 three-year grant to be used on Montana reservations.

The grant is part of Health and Human Services’ Health Foods Financing Initiative.

The goal, NADC said in a press release, is to create a vertically integrated system where food raised by producers on the reservation is sold at  farmers markets, convenience stores, grocery stores, small retailers and trading posts.

The multiple goals of the program include increased access to healthy and affordable food to food deserts — areas without easy access to healthy foods — on the reservations as well as creating jobs through small business development for growing, processing and selling the food.

NADC said it has developed a business model to vertically integrate the production-to-market system including using processing and marketing strategies to bring the product to market in the communities.

The development corporation also will utilize collaborative efforts with stakeholders at the reservation sites to develop a “systems approach” for a sustainable agriculture demonstration projects. Grant funds, collaborations, partnerships and technical assistance would be made available at each designated grant site, the release said.

The program also will include the Crow, Fort Peck and Northern Cheyenne reservations and Little Shell Tribe. The recipients will receive grants in the first year to develop infrastructure including gardens and orchards, Mitzi Racine of NADC said. The $800,000 is split between three years and includes infrastructure, education and nutrition components, she added.

The participants also will be encouraged to market the products off-reservation.

The NADC is a nonprofit Community Development Corporation serving Native communities in Montana, Wyoming and North and South Dakota. NADC is a certified Native American Community Development Financial Institution.

NADC was established in 1996 by tribal enterprise business managers in Montana and Wyoming as the Board of Directors of the Montana Indian Manufacturer’s Network to assist in the creation and operation of community-based CDC, empowering Indian communities toward economic and social stability; create and administer loan funds to finance Native entrepreneurs and build the economic infrastructure in Native communities; provide technical and resource assistance to Native-owned businesses; and act as a liaison for state, regional, national, and international economic development businesses.