Progress 09/01/17 to 08/31/20
Outputs
Target Audience:Sitka Tribe of Alaska's "Food Sovereignty for the Sitka Tribe of Alaska Tribal Citizens" NIFA CFP project had two main components, each with a different target audience. The first component of the project focused on strengthening the capacity of the Sitka Tribe of Alaska (STA) Resource Protection Department's Traditional Foods Program. The target audience for this component of the project was STA Tribal Citizens residing in Sitka, with priority for traditional foods distribution given to tribal elders 55 years and older, income-qualifying households, and other STA Tribal Citizens with limited access to traditional foods such as the disabled. The second component of the project focused on strengthening the capacity of the STA Cultural Resources, Education, and Employment Department's GardeningProgram, and the department's ability to provide locally grown food to students in its programs. The focus of this component of the project centered on a collaboration between the STA Cultural Resources, Education, and Employment Department (CREED) and the Sitka School District's alternative high school, Pacific High School (PHS), on expansion of a shared garden space that provides food for the PHS lunch program and CREED's Sitka Native Education Program (SNEP) afterschool program. The target audience for this component of the project was 9 - 12 grade PHS students and K- 12grade SNEP students. On average, more than70% of the students served under this component of the project were Alaska Native and classified as low-income (qualifying for free-or-reduced lunch). Note: The STA Cultural Resources, Education, and Employment Department formerly Language and Education Department when the funding proposal was submitted) Changes/Problems:STA faced some major challenges under theSTA Cultural Resources, Education, and Employment Department (CREED) component of the project. In 2019, STA requested a no-cost extension (NCE) to its project. The reason for this request wasthat (1) the complexity of the inter-agency coordination between Sitka Tribe of Alaska and the Sitka School District on the STA CREED's portion of STA's CFP grant delayed the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement, and the start of project planning and implementation during the 2017 - 2018 school year, and (2) major changes to the partner Pacific High School gardening program occurred during the 2018 - 2019 school year that delayed garden and shelter planning and construction outlined in STA's original plan. Since the NCE was granted, the major challenge faced by the CREED compnent of the project was the COVID-19 pandemic, and its impact on the 2019 - 2020 school year and 2020 summer school / camps. While STA CREED was able to expand the shared garden space with PHS through the design and construction of planter beds in 2020, students didnot havethe opportunity to garden in them orharvest from them before the end of the project on 08/31/2020 because PHS and CREED SNEP afterschool programs went to remote instruction in early March 2020 prior to installation of the planter beds. The 2019 - 2020 schoo year finished in remote instruction, and all in-person 2020 summer programs were cancelled (e.g. the PHS summer gardening program and CREED SNEP Culture Camps). With this being said, the project did result in the expansion of the shared CREED and PHS gardening space, and we look forward to a return to in-person instruction and future summer programming that can take advantage of this great new gardening space and the opportunity to increase the use of locally grown food in both CREED SNEP afterschool and summmer programs and the PHS lunch program. As of the writing of this final report, these programs are in remote instruction; however, we hope thatspring and summer 2021will allow forin-person instruction in the expanded garden space (we believe this will be possible given that outdoor education is one of the best ways to mitigate for COVID-19 in in-person instruction). What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?As anticipated under the original project proposal, the project provided opportunity for more than four RPD staff to be trained on the use of a new high-quality, high-volume vacuum sealer that has improved the capacity of the RPD Traditional Foods Program to provide traditional foods (largely seafood) to STA Tribal Citizens. Under the CREED component of the project, training opportunities have been provided for PHS students in grade 9 - 12 to learn gardening techniques relevant to local conditions and growing seasons. Additionally, training opportunities have been provided for PHS students and CREED SNEP students (and 4H students) to learn local food harvesting and processing techniques, including deer processing, salmon processing, herring egg processing,and seaweed processing. Additional food preparation / cooking training opportunities have been provided to PHS students through the PHS lunch program that involves PHS students working under the supervision of a PHS Americorps Volunteer to prepare PHS lunches. Opportunities to interact with tribal elders at the STA Cultural Resources Committee have also provided students with important learning opportunities about local food / resource management and traditional uses. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results of the project have primarily been shared through presentations / reports to STA Tribal Citizens (e.g. STA Annual Report and Annual Meeting), and presentations / reports to relevant governing bodies, including the STA Tribal Council and Sitka School Board. Additional information on the project has been shared in partnership meetings and via word of mouth (Sitka is a small community of 9,000, and a lot of information is shared through these more informal networks). Specific to the CREED component of the project: Of additional note is theSitka School District's new instructional Board Policy 6163.4 - School Gardens, Greenhouses, and Farms that affirms the district's commitment to school gardens, greenhouses, and farms as important methods of student instructionand learning, and "recognizes the lifelong benefit to students in developing skills in the safe production of nutritious food." STA and PHS will continue to disseminate the results of this project and the expansion of the shared garden space to communities of interest locally, regionally, statewide, and at the national level through PHS's involvement in national school gardening netwroks. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Under the STA Resource Protection Department (RPD) component of the project, the goal to purchase and train staff on a high-quality, high-volume vacuum sealer was accomplished, leading to the decreasedprocessing time anticipated under thisproject goal. Over the three years of the project (09/01/2017 - 08/31/2020), the RPD estimates that it distributed 15,500 lbs. of herring eggs, 180 gallons of seaweed, 10,400 lbs. of sockeye salmon, 150 lbs. of king salmon, 3,100 lbs. of halibut, 900 lbs. of moose, and 1,200 lbs. of deer/venison. This volume of distribution did not reach the 10% increase in volume from previous years that was anticipated under the project; however, the volume of traditional foods provided to STA Tribal Citizens is dependent on a variety of factors beyond the processing time where we did see an impact. For example, over the last several years RPD has seen a significant decrease in the amount of herring spawn in Sitka Sound, and a decrease in the amount of king and sokeye salmon in Sitka Sound and the surrounding areas (the decrease in herring spawn in Sitka Sound, for example,hit historic lows in 2019 and 2020 that lead to the first herring fishery cancellations in more than 40 years). Under the STA Cultural Resources, Education, and Employment Department (formerly Language and Education Department) component of the project, the goal to expand the shared garden space and local food production with Pacific High School (PHS) was met, and even exceeded. In the second year of the project (2019),the STA Cultural Resources, Education, and Employment Department (CREED) and PHS garden was given significant additional space for garden expansion by the school district. This allowed CREED and PHS to maintain the previous garden footprint, while also planning and implementing expansion ofthe gardening beds to include a new greenhouse purchased in 2020 with funding leveraged from STA's CARES Act funding. Through education activities and garden labor provided by CREED staff, PHS teachers, CREED and PHS students, and community volunteers, the project was able to increase the amount of locally grown food used in the PHS lunch program and CREED SNEP afterschool program from previous years. Moreover, partnerships with the local Fish-to-School Program allowed PHS to increase the amount of local food in its lunch program. In addition to these activities, CREED partnered with PHS and the local 4H program to provide workshops on traditional foods harvesting and processing such as deer processing,salmon processing, herring egg processing,and seaweed processing. It should also be noted that the PHS lunch program has provided lunches with locally grown / harvested food for the STA Cultural Resource Committee, a group of tribal elders who meet on a monthly basis to advise STA and other community organizations on matters related to Sitka's cultural resources. This unanticipated part of the project has lead to opportunities for intergenerational connection between tribal youth and elders around local foods that have been central tothe Tlingit people and their way of life for thousands of years.
Publications
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