Newsroom

The 2023 SNAP E&T State Institute, hosted by FNS, brought together 20 state SNAP agencies for a two-day event that aimed to assess and enhance their SNAP Employment and Training programs. 

A key part of our work to end hunger, improve nutrition, increase physical activity, and reduce diet-related diseases is focusing on historically under-served areas, like rural and Tribal communities. Alaska, for instance, faces unique challenges.

For far too long, decisions about FDPIR were made for tribes rather than with tribes or even by tribes. But USDA is committed to turning that tide and making the future of FDPIR one marked by listening, understanding and collaboration.

Stacy Dean, FNCS Deputy Under Secretary , was inspired by how three tribes - Spirit Lake Sioux Tribe, Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, and Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe - are dreaming big in terms of food sovereignty through FDIPR and SNAP.

Reliable, high-quality work is a powerful way out of poverty, and USDA’s SNAP Employment and Training helps gain professional skills and connections to better employment opportunities.

In Colorado, Adams and Denver counties are taking innovative approaches to co-located health and human services operations.

USDA will hold a five-day consultation series, “USDA Tribal Consultations on Barriers/Equity: Annual Progress Report & Feedback for Next Steps,” virtually April 24-May 1, 2023. 

USDA FNS supports indigenous health and tribal sovereignty through FDPIR Self-Determination Demonstration Projects. The Alaska Native Health Consortium, operates a FDPIR self-determination demonstration project that provides foods to 18 tribes across Alaska.

For the 2025 DGAs, USDA and HHS sought an advisory committee that would be reflective of the full diversity within the United States, with the understanding that our backgrounds can affect our nutritional needs. The broader composition of the committee will ensure the resulting guidelines reflect the nutritional and cultural needs of all Americans.

Last month, 350 SNAP E&T state agencies and other partners from across the country gathered for the 2022 SNAP E&T National Forum. This year’s National Forum included 32 sessions covering a diversity of topics, such as SNAP E&T policy, building E&T programs in rural communities, and using a trauma-informed and anti-racist lens to improve E&T programs.

Since 1977, tribes and intertribal organizations have been eligible to receive food packages from the USDA. Historically, products in the food packages were not traditional to tribes participating in the program. However, in recent years and in consultation with tribes, more traditional products have been incorporated into food packages.

Oklahoma Tribal Engagement Partners collaborates with sovereign tribal nations and tribal organizations throughout Oklahoma to tailor SNAP-Ed programming to meet the needs of Native families. Over time, focus groups have expressed what matters to Natives: the need to be “real.” As organizations look to develop culturally relevant programming, they must step back and listen to what matters to families.

USDA FNS invites tribes to apply for a second round of FDPIR Self-Determination Demonstration Projects. Through these projects, tribes administering the FDPIR can enter into self-determination contracts with USDA to directly purchase food for the FDPIR food packages distributed to their tribe.

Tribal nations across what we now consider the Great Plains relied for millennia on their buffalo relatives for food, medicine, clothing, tools, and shelter. Yet today it is hard to find buffalo meat on school meal trays in the very areas where they once sustained Native communities. FNS is working with tribal partners to figure out why and to remove the barriers we can.