With funding provided by the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service’s Local Foods Purchasing Agreement, the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa will establish Aandanjigewin, a food distribution program that will:
- Decolonize and indigenize the Fond du Lac local food system,
- Create marketing opportunities for community members who harvest, produce, and process food products,
- Increase the availability of nourishing and culturally traditional food to community members,
- Broaden the awareness of tribal sovereignty and treaty harvesting rights belonging to community members, and
- Encourage best practices for sustainable harvest, preparation, and preservation of traditional Ojibwe foods.
To create stable and viable marketing opportunities for local producers, the Aandanjigewin Local Foods Purchasing Agreement program will purchase food products directly from up to 100 local food producers and harvesters. To increase food access, these food products will then be shared with the community in multiple distributions of ½ to ¾ bushel food boxes to 500 Fond du Lac households as seasonal harvest allows. Lastly, through outreach and education, Fond du Lac band members will gain increased awareness of their treaty rights of harvest, as well as knowledge of methods of harvesting, processing, and preserving Ojibwe traditional foods. Through these efforts, the Fond du Lac Band aims to reduce food insecurity, create economic opportunity, revitalize traditional foodways, advocate for tribal sovereignty, expand understanding of treaty rights within the ceded territories, and foster a decolonized local food system within the Fond du Lac community.