Nalwoodi Denzhone Community (NDC) currently operates “Nnee Nalwoodi (Strong Apache) Life Center” using the 90-acre Dripping Springs property, owned by the Tribe, in the Gilson Wash District of San Carlos Reservation as a “transition center” for struggling youth. This serves as a place of transformation in body, soul, mind, and spirit through reconnection to earth’s Creator by means of education, farming, gardening, animal husbandry, art, and inspiration in a way that is reproducible and sustainable.
The organization currently operates the Nalwoodi Regional Food-hub on a 93-acre tribal-owned farm on the San Carlos Apache Reservation Every year, NDC produces several thousand pounds of fresh produce and supplies fresh eggs and other farm products to local schools and restaurants. Over the last eight years, NDC also developed numerous agriculture education programs.
This grant will be used to address the economic hardships facing the San Carlos Apache communities by building the tribe’s capacity of supporting local-food enterprises with “direct producer-to-consumer” marketing. This grant hopes to create 5-7 direct employment positions and 15-21 indirect jobs.
The program is also open to all Federally Recognized Tribe in Arizona (Arizona has 22 Federally Recognized Tribes).
The Overarching Goal of this proposed program is to effectively address the demonstrated economic hardships facing the San Carlos Apache Tribe and build the required capacity for the successful development and operation of a direct producer-to-customer marketplace on San Carlos Apache Reservation.
Objective 1: Connect and cultivate a regional food economy on San Carlos Apache Reservation. This involves business logistics and operations (business plan, operation policies, food safety plan, and contract documents), promoting vertical integration of the local food industry for efficiency and sovereignty, convening local stakeholders for community-based strategic planning around culturally-sensitive marketing strategies; and collaborating with local/regional producers to implement farmers’ market(s), roadside produce stands, foods stores, and direct producer-to-consumer market events.
Objective 2: Increase local food access and consumption on the San Carlos Apache Reservation. Once the community food store and farmer's market are established, NDC will host farm tours and cooking demonstrations. The project team will also provide assistance to local food producers/vendors to obtain SNAP/EBT/WIC payments (increasing the equity of local food access).
Objective 3: Improve jobs and economic development opportunities in underserved communities and stimulate economic recovery in COVID-19 impacted areas. The goal is to connect food producers with a large online consumer base (e-commerce), provide job and business training for beginning Native American farmers/ranchers, and supporting other business and operational plans (feasibility studies, value-added product strategic planning, and food systems infrastructure).
Objective 4: Provide effective program management. The project team will provide all of the support listed above. We will also facilitate and provide all required federal reports to ensure all grant requirements are met for our constituents.
