USDA warehouse changes lead to commodity delays for tribes

“Imagine going to your grocery store, and the trucks just didn’t show up. You might get some of your items, but that’s it,” said Mary Greene-Trottier, director of the Spirit Lake Nation food distribution program in North Dakota. “The government has an agreement with tribal nations. They need to uphold their agreements.”

Greene-Trottier said more than 50,000 Native American families rely on these food package deliveries.

The Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations works as an alternative to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, often called “food stamps” or SNAP. The Food Distribution Program is intended for tribal citizens who live in food deserts so those far from grocery stores can go to the warehouse store locations on their reservations and get a package of essential foods – known colloquially to many Natives as “commods.” Those foods include: eggs, milk, cheese, bread, cereal, canned goods, and fresh and frozen vegetables.

Several treaties and the federal-tribal trust relationship state that the government is responsible for supplying Indigenous nations with food. 

As of 2023, 48,489 Native people depended on the Food Distribution Program. Specifically, a 1791 treaty with the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma outlines that the government must “furnish gratuitously the said nation with useful implements of husbandry.” Later, this was upheld by an 1832 treaty with the Sac and Fox tribes stating the government would provide rations to tribes.

The current program is run by the USDA, which previously operated through three major warehouses. From those warehouses, contracted delivery services would pick up the food to haul to reservations across the United States. 

Following the consolidation, tribes across the country have been experiencing significant delays. Some tribes have even received expired shipments or shipments meant for other tribes, said Shakopee Mdewakanton Chairman Cole Miller. 

As co-chair of the Native Farm Bill Coalition, Miller heard about the struggles other tribes were experiencing following the consolidation. 

Miller said throughout the past year tribal leaders had expressed concern about merging the three nationwide distribution centers into one, and their fears ultimately came to fruition.

“They’re (the USDA) not fulfilling their treaty obligations,” Miller said. “This is about putting pressure on the USDA to get a permanent solution in place here. Take care of your treaty obligations.”

Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon stated in a recent letter to USDA Secretary Thomas Vilsack that “the USDA must swiftly and fully address this self-inflicted crisis. There can be no more excuses for food delays, missed deliveries, or delivery of expired products.”

The letter urging Vilsack to address the delays was signed by Merkley, as well as Republican senators John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer from North Dakota, Markwayne Mullin (Cherokee) from Oklahoma, and Democrats Martin Heinrich from New Mexico, Roy Wyden from Oregon, and Tina Smith from Minnesota.

In a statement to ICT, the USDA said it’s taking an all-hands-on-deck approach to resume regular, on-time deliveries to communities that depend on the Food Distribution Program and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program.

“We recognize the impact these delays are having on the daily lives of (Food Distribution Program and Commodity Supplemental Food Program) participants, including their families and communities, and we are deeply committed to finding solutions for the immediate term while addressing underlying issues,” a representative said in an email.

Meanwhile, the Shakopee Mdewakanton tribe decided to take matters into its own hands. 

“We don’t want to make this about us, but when we see a need, we go out and try to help,” said Miller. 

The tribe is offering a total of $1 million in assistance to other Oceti Sakowin tribes in South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota and Montana who are affected by USDA shipment delays.

With funds, tribes can go out and purchase the food they need from grocery stores and bring that food back to their communities to distribute. The funds are available to 18 tribes, which Miller said have been contacted. 

The closest distribution center for Oceti Sakowin tribes was in North Dakota. Now, all three national distribution centers have been combined into just one in Kansas City, Mo.

Over 7,000 reservation families in South Dakota alone use the program.

Most tribes operate their own Food Distribution Program on Indian reservations’ warehouses, and each of them have different storage capacities, so some may be out of a few items, while others are left bare. Greene-Trottier said her warehouse in North Dakota is empty and she’s only able to get people by with bare essentials and the lack of information on shipments isn’t there.

“I just can’t imagine having to turn someone away. I can’t imagine being in Mary Greene’s shoes, having to think about what we do next and how to stretch everything out and make sure people don’t go hungry. As a mom, I just cannot imagine having to do that,” said Mary Bell Zook, communications officer for the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative.

Greene-Trottier said tribes were warned about potential changes in the warehouse consolidation back in February during a consultation with the USDA in Washington, but tribes were assured there would be minimal disruption. 

“They asked that we all bulk up our warehouses, and some warehouses don’t have the infrastructure to do that,” Greene-Trottier said. “Reaching out to another program for some stock might be a possibility for some of the tribes in various parts of the country. Some of the warehouses might have more capacity to hold the food, so they can share, but in reality, it is not that program’s responsibility to provide another program with the food. It’s Food Nutrition Services’ responsibility.”

In July, Greene-Trottier and other tribal officials wrote a letter to Secretary Vilsack, explaining their concern about the short amount of time Paris Brothers Inc. in Kansas City, Mo., would have to transition to being the only warehouse remaining. The warehouse only had four weeks to prepare for the tripled workload.

The USDA said its reason for consolidating all three warehouses into the Paris Brothers Inc. location was because of a competitive bidding process, and the Kansas City warehouse was the only one the USDA felt could meet that need.

To assist the tribes in the transition period, the USDA has offered $11 million to tribal nations to address the shortages while the one remaining contracted warehouse catches up.

Greene-Trottier was quoted in a recent AP article, saying the “money likely won’t go far enough, and tribal leaders have been told they won’t be eligible for reimbursement of any additional costs.”

In Oklahoma, the Cherokee Nation has experienced delays on 12 different food package deliveries since the consolidation in May. 

Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Shella Bowlin said the tribe operates eight food distribution centers. 

“Our food distribution centers are very fortunate that they plan for emergencies and keep at least a month of stocked food,” said Bowlin. “We do have the essentials we need to keep our families fed.”

Even with some emergency stock, however, Bowlin said the “best if used by” dates on groceries from the national warehouses are sometimes very short, which could make items held for emergencies go bad before being picked up. 

“Some of our warehouses are smaller than others and have small freezer and refrigerator space, so we can only order what we can hold,” she said.

Bowlin said it’s difficult to know what to order when a delivery is on the way, but you don’t know when it will get there, or if the items will still be good by the time it gets there.

Greene-Trottier and Bowlin both said before the consolidation, they never had issues with the contracted delivery services being late. She said the Paris Brothers warehouse in Kansas City, Mo., had been an outstanding company to work with.

“Any time we have a disruption, we feel that impact, but we know some tribes are affected more heavily than we are,” said Bowlin. “I think (the USDA) should just take some time to reassess the situation. Can the contractor manage through this and get up to speed? Or do they need to just go back to their original plan?”