#Food Heroes | Changing the Food Environment on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation: Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation
“Food is what connects people, and especially here. It’s always what brings people together” - Aimee Pond.
Dianne Amiotte-Seidel and Aimee Pond are both enrolled members of the Oglala Lakota Tribe. Together they are part of the dedicated team of the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation (CDC) located in Porcupine, South Dakota. Situated in the central part of the 2.7 million acre Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, with surrounding small, rural communities.
Through its community approach, Thunder Valley CDC, a non-profit organization, works to empower Lakota youth and families on the reservation to improve the health, culture and environment of their community. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Thunder Valley CDC has been collaborating with other non-profits to sustain critical support for surrounding communities with initiatives to provide healthy food, social services and educational activities for the youth.
As the Director of the Food Sovereignty Initiative, Dianne is working to improve access to food, nutrition and pubic health on the Reservation through a small demonstration farm, the Lakota Food Sovereignty Coalition and community gardens. Dianne previously worked with the Intertribal Buffalo Council, where she worked with 58 tribes across 19 states to incorporate buffalo meat into the school lunch programs and communities. Now with Thunder Valley CDC, Diane organized the first annual Lakota Food Summit in 2019, and is coordinating the second annual Summit for February 2021.
The Thunder Valley CDC demonstration farm includes a 1,530 square foot geothermal greenhouse, 1,800 square foot garden and an orchard with over 500 traditional fruit trees - including hazelnut, chokecherries, plums and buffalo berries. In addition, the farm has a poultry unit where they raise laying hens. Most recently they gave away 230 chickens, after 525 baby chicks arrived early July. Prior to giving them away, they donated 160 dozen eggs per week to local non-profits helping to distribute food to households on the reservation during the pandemic.
Through the Youth Leadership Development Initiative, Aimee works to implement mentorship programs and wellness activities including Lakota language, traditions, contemporary culture, physical fitness and diabetes prevention education. Pre-COVID, she ran summer programs for all ages including daily runs and camping trips in the Black Hills. Previously, Aimee was a social worker in one of the local schools, now with Thunder Valley CDC, she is focused on providing consistent support and opportunities for youth to develop in healthy, strong ways.
In their work together, Dianne and Aimee deliver a food sovereignty curriculum and activities in their youth programs and local schools. The farming and community gardens projects also provide skill building and educational opportunities for the youth. Following safety and physical distancing protocols, they held a gardening class for 18 – 26 years olds who are in a job skills training program. “98 Percent of them said they have never planted a seed - They were just so excited,” shared Diane.
“I would like to see more of our community members learning about food sovereignty and to see the younger generation learning how to plant their own gardens. It’s important our Native people learn how to grow their food and be more self-sustaining. That’s very important to me,” says Dianne. “I hope Thunder Valley can get more land so we can have buffalo, so we are able to have our own meat and help the community members.”
Porcupine can be described as a food desert with diabetes and preventable diseases at some of the highest rates in the country. The closest full grocery is 40 miles away. The local convenience store/ gas station is the closest store with minimal supplies of nutritious foods. Though as Aimee described, this convenience store sometimes runs out of staples like milk, eggs, and bread for days. The growing number of organizations that make up the Lakota Food Sovereignty Coalition are transforming these food insecure environments across the reservation with scalable and viable food systems.
Through the pandemic, Thunder Valley CDC and Partnerships With Native Americans (PWNA) have worked together to strengthen their capacity for distributing healthy foods on the Pine Ridge reservation. They recently held a traditional buffalo harvest distributing the meat to elders and families. PWNA has also been delivering large donations of fresh produce, which are then distributed in food boxes to families. Most recently, they distributed fresh produce to 200 families in the Pine Ridge District.
“One of the cohorts and I loaded up our work pick-up truck and went through the Evergreen District where a lot of elders live. I felt pretty good about that because the elders were so happy to receive these food boxes and a lot of the elders said they don’t have transportation to go to stores or they’re using walker or wheelchair,” recalled Dianne.
When it comes to transforming the food environment, eating habits and relationships with food – Aimee explains from experience with her family as well as with community youth, it is about education and diligence. She emphasized it is really important to understand, “how stress impacts our diets, that’s a big thing. We need to do a lot more education on.”
Aimee and Dianne remain unwavering in their dedication to the people of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Whether it is in the classroom, applying for grants, working on the land, delivering fresh food, mentoring through basketball, teaching diabetes prevention or providing a safe space to be – these food heroes are creating opportunities for healthier communities in the short and long term.
This article is part of FAO North America's Regional Food Hero series in the lead up to this year's World Food Day.