The Great Lakes Intertribal Food Summit is three weeks away. We’re excited to announce that we have a dozen top Native chefs confirmed, and a great lineup of workshops, presentations, and activities.
Registration is still open, and we’re accepting scholarship applications through April 4th. Here’s the draft agenda:
The Great Lakes Intertribal Food Summit at Red Lake on September 16-17 features a great agenda and Indigenous foods prepared by Native chefs, including the Sioux Chef Sean Sherman. Is there something you’d like to see on the agenda? Feel free to submit your input in the comment box below. Registration is now open. We are currently accepting scholarship applications.
Here is the agenda: glifs_red lake_full schedule_082516.
Some highlights include:
The Native Youth in Food & Agriculture Great Lakes Summit will be held April 22-24 in conjunction with the Great Lakes Intertribal Food Summit at Gun Lake Pottawatomi’s Jijak Camp in Hopkins, MI.
This youth summit will bring together Tribal youth from around the Great Lakes Region, providing amazing learning opportunities in seed saving, culinary arts, food business planning, and many other important topics. Application forms for participants as well as group leaders are available below.
Did you know that in 1865, the Mackinaw Indian Agency reported that Chippewa Indians at the Keeweenaw Bay Indian Reservation, Lanse, Michigan produced 453,252 pounds of Maple Sugar that was sold to east coast businessmen?
Within 20 years, the maple sugaring business was in decline both because of heavy lumbering of sugar maple groves and the acquisition of Caribbean territories, Hawaii and other sugar cane growing colonies. Cane sugar, (which has less then half the healthy nutrients and ingredients as maple), and plantations in those territories reduced the cost of sugar by 50% or more, and along with it, the demand for maple sugar for food preservation, brewing rum and making other sweet things.
In 2014 prices at $55 a gallon (in 2015 a gallon of Penokee Gold Maple Syrup was being sold for $75 to $100 a gallon) the value of the syrup sold would have been around an estimated $1,705.000. In 2014 prices for a pound of sugar at $18 a pound, the value of the sale could have been close to $4,460,000. On some Wisconsin reservations a pound of maple sugar has been selling between $22-$25 a pound in 2015.
If the sugar had been made into small candies and other Value Added Products which double or triple the value of your basic product the potential income at retail values in your store, could have produced as much as $5,115,000 in sales.
The Notah Begay III (NB3) Foundation is accepting applications for Capacity Building Grants to assist Native communities in developing culturally appropriate childhood obesity prevention strategies by providing resources and technical assistance. Applications for grants up to $20,000 will be accepted through January 22, 2016.
USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is accepting applications for its Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP) through Thursday, January 21, 2016. This program funds collaborations aimed at addressing the needs of beginning farmers and ranchers through new and established local and regional training, education, outreach and technical assistance initiatives.
The Great Lakes Intertribal Food Summit will be held at the Gun Lake Pottawatomi’s Jijak Camp from April 21-24, 2016. An open planning call in January will give opportunities for input, and we welcome additional partners.
The 2015 IAC Membership Meeting was a great success. Several hundred attendees, including nearly 80 Native youth attended. Among the highlights were an engaging presentation from Jason Weller who is the Chief of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and presentations from the youth on their efforts to develop agricultural business plans.
Membership forms for the Intertribal Agriculture Council are available at:
North Central Region SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education) is accepting applications for numerous grants, including:
The Notah Begay III Foundation’s Native Strong: Healthy Kids, Healthy Futures is accepting grant applications up to $20,000 for its Seeds of Native Health Capacity Building Grant funded through generous support by the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community. The grant is aimed at understanding the root causes of diabetes and obesity through 1) community health assessments and 2) community planning and capacity building. Applications are being accepted until August 18th, 2015.
Great Lakes Region IAC Website 