Performing Department
Tribal Department of Agriculture & Food Soveriegnty Program Manager
Non Technical Summary
The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Health Division is requesting funding for a Community Garden and Composting Project to Increase Tribal Food Sovereignty. The Leech Lake Health Division Food Sovereignty and Food Distribution Programs both supply organic produce and meat to the community. The programs are available to anyone who feels the pressures of food insecurity. The programs help provide top quality food to households in need. However, a great deal of food does go to waste and there is currently no large-scale composting option in the community. Leech Lake Health Division is developing a new food distribution center in early 2025. To help combat an increase in food waste with a larger facility, this community garden and composting project will allow the larger food distribution center, along with other community businesses, schools, and individuals, to reuse the food waste to create composted soil for the growth of future fresh foods. Additionally, 40% of the Leech Lake reservation has experienced food insecurity at least once in their life time. The most common types of food consumed in the community are processed produce, meats, and dairy. This community and many Native Americans in general have poorer health outcomes than other communities (bia.gov, 2024). It is the Leech Lake Health Division Food Sovereignty Program's mission to work towards 0% wasted food and provide education to community members about food sovereignty.Leech Lake Health Division is located in Cass County, MN on the Leech Lake Reservation. The Leech Lake Health Division is a branch of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe tribal government (hereinafter "the Tribe"). The reservation is 866,645 acres and spans the counties of Cass, Hubbard, Beltrami, and Itasca. 13 communities or municipalities are encompassed within the reservation. The reservation is located in rural northern Minnesota. The tribe has over 9,500 enrolled members and more than 11,300 people living on the reservation or on off-reservation trust land held for the benefit of the Leech Lake Band. The Leech Lake Health Division administers programs and services for all persons within the boundaries of the reservation and to enrolled band members living off the reservation. Zip codes served by the Leech Lake Health Division that would have access to the proposed project include all communities in the reservation: 56636, 56626, 56633, 56663, 56636, and others. The Leech Lake reservation has a high poverty rate (20.8% compared to the national average of 12.6%) and 49% of community members are unemployed (census.gov, 2020). Almost 30% of the community is under the age of 20, and another almost 30% are over the age of 60. The median household income in Leech Lake is almost $13,000 lower than the national average median income. The average household size in Leech Lake is between 3 and 4 people. About 44% of the Leech Lake population identifies as Native American (census.gov, 2020).This project will build on Leech Lake Health Division's existing Food Sovereignty and Food Distribution programs to increase community awareness of these programs and promote education on making nutritious food choices and cultivating your own produce to reduce food insecurity. The need for this program has been identified through the increasing demand for the program's services and reports on a recent community health assessment survey about the type of food consumed or instances of community members going without food.This project uses two preferred methods of food waste disposal that correspond to the EPA's Wasted Food Scale: Compost or Anaerobic Digestion, and Donate or Upcycle.
Animal Health Component
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Research Effort Categories
Basic
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Applied
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Developmental
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Goals / Objectives
The overarching goal of the community garden project and compost initiative is to promote food sovereignty among Leech Lake Band members and reservation residents. Food sovereignty empowers tribal members and reservation residents to cultivate their own healthy foods in an effort to reduce hunger and food insecurity, promote consumption of nutritious foods, and reduce reliance on external food providers, whose disposal of food waste is out of consumers' control. A secondary goal of the community garden project and compost initiative is working with the environment to fulfill local and sacred indigenous needs (food and nutrition) while being conscious of the environment's needs (proper tending and disposal of waste). An incidental outcome of the project is educating the community about tribal customs and the role those customs play in the overall tribal food sovereignty program. A long-term outcome is a reduced cost for all Leech Lake households, but especially low-income households, in purchasing or obtaining fresh meats and produce.Goal One. The community garden project will encourage tribal members and reservation residents to learn about gardening without having to find land to garden and supplies to cultivate their crops (such as fertilizer which the generated compost will be used in place of). According to bia.gov, "For [American Indian and Alaska Native] communities, food sovereignty is about re-introducing traditional processes of food production and distribution." The community garden project will utilize compost as a fertilizer for community gardeners working in the community garden to be established under this grant, located within the reservation boundaries. The community garden project will help the Leech Lake Health Division and project partners work towards accomplishing the overarching goal mentioned above of promoting food sovereignty. The objectives for Goal One include:Objective 1.1. Educate at least 300 tribal members and reservation residents about the benefits of community gardening by the end of the grant period.Objective 1.2. Assist at least 50 tribal members and reservation residents with the implementation of their own community garden plot at the tribe's new community garden by the end of the grant period.Objective 1.3. Production of at least 100 pounds of food from all community garden plots by the end of the first year of the community garden project.Objective 1.4. 10% reduction in reliance on third party food distributors (i.e. grocery stores) among community gardeners by the end of the grant period.Objective 1.5. 20% reduction in reliance on the tribe's food distribution services among community gardeners by the end of the grant period.The compost initiative will help the Leech Lake Health Division work towards the secondary goal identified above of promoting awareness of working with the environment to fulfill mutual needs. According to epa.gov 2024, composting protects the climate by reducing methane emissions from landfills, it recycles organic material to be used again in another form and recovers organic materials to keep them local. Compost adds nutrients to existing soil to increase the soil health and reduce toxic runoff into bodies of water, unlike chemical fertilizer which may erode topsoil and contribute toxic chemicals to bodies of water. Compost can also be a form of climate change mitigation by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and helping the soil retain water to combat droughts. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, food waste generates about 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Leech Lake Health Division plans to use the community garden and composting project as a way to reduce the Leech Lake community's greenhouse gas emissions. The compost will be generated by collecting food waste from the Leech Lake Food Distribution Center, community gardeners, and tribally owned businesses and schools, as well as any individuals who wish to contribute their food waste. Currently this waste is thrown out as garbage because the Tribe does not have composting supplies, educational materials for outreach efforts, or resources to manage start-up composting activities. This new compost initiative for the community garden project aligns with the EPA's fourth most preferred method of food waste elimination on the Wasted Food Scale: Compost or Anaerobic Digestion. Incidentally, it is anticipated the community gardeners may end up with excess crops (hereinafter "surplus crops"). Canning materials and services will be available to community gardeners wishing to donate their surplus crop to the tribe's Food Distribution Program rather than wasting it because it cannot be consumed by the community gardener's household, aligning with the EPA's second most preferred method of food waste elimination on the Wasted Food Scale: Donate or Upcycle. The objectives for Goal Two include:Objective 2.1. Educate at least 100 tribal members and reservation residents about the benefits of and uses for composting by the end of the grant period.Objective 2.2. Generate at least 300 pounds of compost by the end of the grant period.Objective 2.3. At least 3% of the Tribe's Food Distribution Center's food inventory is donated from community gardeners' surplus crops by the end of the grant period.Objective 2.4. At least 1% of reservation farmers begin using compost in place of fertilizer with a commitment to increase compost use over the next 10 years by the end of the grant period.Objective 2.5. At least a 1% increase in interest among tribal members and reservation residents in hobby farming or small-scale commercial farming by the end of the grant period.
Project Methods
The food waste reduction strategies and methods used include educating the community about resources available to for composting or donating food waste. This includes recruiting community members to the community garden, informing them of composting sites and drop off hours, informing them of canning stations available, directing community members to the Food Sovereignty Program for more resources, and asking them to share this information with other community members. The Leech Lake Health Division will create informational brochures, handouts, and other outreach materials to ensure that the community is aware of the project and the new resources available to them. This project will address all segments of the food chain. Consumers will be encouraged to grow and harvest their own produce, reducing reliance on grocery stores for the purchase of fresh produce. Consumers will also be taught how to prepare the food they've harvested, store it properly to ensure a long shelf life, and preserve produce that may be about to expire by pickling or donating the food. There are no significant anticipated barriers. We may experience scheduling delays if ordered supplies are not shipped and delivered on time, or if the carpenter hired to install the garden beds and fencing works too slowly or isn't able to schedule the project at an early date desirable to the project's program manager. Other than schedule delays, it is anticipated that the project will be well received by the tribal government and community members. Leech Lake Health Division anticipates ample planning time between award notification from the USDA and the start of the project so that all essential personnel can discuss economic or logistical issues and remedy or mitigate those issues before they become a problem or barrier to project success. This project should no affect other composting, community gardening, or food waste reduction initiatives in the community. Rather, this project is meant to compliment the small programs we already carry on, as mentioned above in the Introduction section. Essential personnel for this project include the Health Division Director, the Food Sovereignty Program Manager, the Food Distribution Program Manager, leadership from the partner organizations mentioned below, at least one community farmer, and a tribal council representative, if one is available.Composting Process. Food waste will be composted in 4 composting bins located strategically throughout the community. Two bins will be located at the Food Distribution Center, one will be located in the community garden, and the other will be placed at a location to be determined by the program manager, somewhere with high rates of food waste such as a school, daycare/head start facility, or other tribally owned facility. Local and tribal businesses, tribal schools (including the tribal college), and individual community members will be encouraged to collect and drop off their food waste at one of the three locations. Once enough food waste has broken down into compost, the compost will be used to fertilize the community garden plots as needed. After about one year of collecting food waste and generating compost, the Leech Lake Health Division hopes to have enough surplus compost that can then be sold to reservation farmers, hobby gardeners, and small-scale commercial farmers at a rate below the fair market rate for fertilizer. Non-tribally affiliated or off reservation farmers may also purchase the compost but it may be at a higher price since they are unintended beneficiaries and the marked-up costs can help subsidize the lower cost compost sold to intended beneficiaries. Intended project beneficiaries will also be offered educational or instructional materials about starting their own private composting projects and the environmental benefits of composting as opposed to using fertilizer, throwing away wasted food, or relying on third-party food sellers who trash food waste.