Navajo Nation, an American Indian territory that spans over Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico just surpassed New York for the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the United States. As of today, 4,000 positive cases have been confirmed in Navajo Nation. Last weekend, The Farmlink Project facilitated the delivery of over 40,000 pounds of potatoes that would have otherwise gone to waste, from Desert Ridge Farm, in Moses Lake, Washington, to the Navajo Nation communities in New Mexico and Arizona. The Navajo Nation Christian Response team received and distributed these potatoes throughout the reservation with the help of several other local organizations.
Nathan Lynch, from the Navajo Nation Christian Response Team, laid out three main factors for why Navajo Nation has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic: “To start, what most people don’t know is that McKinley county was already in a flu pandemic during January and February.” Due to this pre-existing flu, many Navajo people were still suffering from low immune systems when COVID-19 hit. Secondly, the Navajo culture embraces multi-generational housing, with three-four different generations all living under the same roof. Instead of one person testing positive, this style of living created blooms of ten-twelve positive cases in every household. Finally, 46.5 percent of the community lives beneath the national poverty level, and one-third of the houses on the reservation lack electricity and running water. “A flu pandemic. Multiple generations living together in the same house. A depressed economy with limited running water. Throw these factors together and throw COVID-19 at it—it’s a perfect storm.”
Nathan and the Navajo Nation Christian Response Team are responsible for providing 65 percent of Navajo Nation’s population—roughly 230,000 people—with aid. However, given their limited supplies and means of transportation, they work directly with pastors in Navajo communities to distribute care packages to those most in need. Nathan describes their technique of targeted distribution; the pastors identify recipients through the communities' senior centers and health foundations. “Our food reaches the grandmother who lives 20 miles off the main roadway, up in the canyon.”
The care packages include staple items that elderly Navajo people are familiar with: water, rice, flour, potatoes, beans, and lard. Nathan said that potatoes—really any produce—are a luxury. Sometimes these care packages arrive just in time to remote, elderly individuals who have not eaten in three days. But staples in a time of crisis only sustain the living for so long. Nathan paints a picture of the worst case scenario: pastors walk into homes and find elderly people deceased. After having been sent home from the hospital to self-quarantine, they run out of food with no means of acquiring more. Nathan describes signs on their doors, indicating they’ve tested positive for COVID-19. The signs, like numbers quantifying deaths to coronavirus, say little about the people inside, including their experiences of isolation from family members and the larger community.
Scenes of tragedy across Navajo communities carry historical precedent, including displacement from land, native language suppression, and the separation of children from families. The coronavirus also brings to light a pattern of unequal distribution of resources to the Navajo people that has taken place over centuries. In an interview with the Washington Post on May 16, Navajo Nation President, Jonathan Nez, shared that the Navajo hadn’t received any of the $8 billion that the March 18 Cares Act promised to Native American communities.
In the absence of government aid, organizations like Strengthening Nations, McKinley County Mutual Aid, Indigenous Lifeways and New Mexico First Born have stepped up to support the Navajo communities. Strengthening Nations provides shelter, rehabilitation and mentorship programs and other services to survivors and offenders of domestic and family violence. The quarantine has exacerbated mental health problems and in turn, escalated cases of family violence. The organization has seen an influx of individuals and families seeking shelter, said Christian Vazquez of Strengthening Nations.
Christian also offered glimmers of hope. Offenders have come to Strengthening Nations to ask for volunteer work. Last week, Strengthening Nations and volunteers distributed 800 boxes of food and supplies to single parents and elders. Christian reiterated the scarcity of basic produce, like potatoes. “We don’t usually have [potatoes] in that bulk and wow, that was awesome,” he said, referencing the truckload of potatoes that arrived last weekend. “The produce is usually the first thing to go.”
“It’s really fulfilling getting things to people who really need them,” Christian said, expressing a sentiment that motivates us at The Farmlink Project. Potatoes rise above the level of a staple; they nourish people and help build connections between communities, from Washington to New Mexico and Arizona. These kinds of connections provide hope—even for those fighting personal battles—in the time of COVID-19.
These changes are great. But how’s it all going to be funded?
During the comment process, Farmlink, as well as other food rescue organizations and coalitions, raised critical questions about how the strategy would be funded and, as a result, which measures are feasible. In particular, we hoped for more clarity beyond the draft’s statement that the USDA would use American Rescue Plan Act and Inflation Reduction Act funds and the EPA would use Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds. Of the 86 programs or initiatives reviewed in the final strategy, only 15 are completely new programs announced in the strategy.
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The other 71 are existing programs or initiatives that either already have a food loss and waste focus or that the national strategy has repackaged as food loss and waste solutions. While we had hopes of new, innovative programs being included in the strategy, the good news with these 71 programs is that most, if not all, are already funded, meaning that they are not reliant on an increasingly turbulent Congress for implementation. Of the 15 new programs, which included the EPA’s new consumer education campaign and several new cooperative agreements with land-grant universities, only 2 had specific funding mechanisms. It has become increasingly clear that food rescue organizations and other stakeholders in the food and agriculture space should not consider this strategy as a new rollout of FLW solutions, programs, and funding but rather as an evaluation of the current resources and solutions and how each can be most effectively utilized to achieve the strategy’s goals. In particular, the framing of many of USDA’s programs as FLW solutions offers opportunities to utilize existing funding, data, and infrastructure to solve one of the United States’s most pressing problems.
Whats next?
Now that we have the strategy, it’s time to truly take advantage of the opportunities it presents. In the immediate future at Farmlink, we’re excited to continue optimizing Section 32 as a critical on-farm food loss solution as we anticipate significant surplus recoveries in the fall. As we move forward, we continue to advocate for dignity with food distribution, emphasizing cultural appropriateness and quality in every pound of food we rescue. As outlined in our comments, food rescue organizations are critical stakeholders and thought partners for the agencies. Our inclusion in the strategy as such is an opportunity we are taking full advantage of to help guide federal action to support farmers, feed communities, and heal the planet.
< Back
Navajo Nation, an American Indian territory that spans over Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico just surpassed New York for the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the United States. As of today, 4,000 positive cases have been confirmed in Navajo Nation. Last weekend, The Farmlink Project facilitated the delivery of over 40,000 pounds of potatoes that would have otherwise gone to waste, from Desert Ridge Farm, in Moses Lake, Washington, to the Navajo Nation communities in New Mexico and Arizona. The Navajo Nation Christian Response team received and distributed these potatoes throughout the reservation with the help of several other local organizations.
Nathan Lynch, from the Navajo Nation Christian Response Team, laid out three main factors for why Navajo Nation has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic: “To start, what most people don’t know is that McKinley county was already in a flu pandemic during January and February.” Due to this pre-existing flu, many Navajo people were still suffering from low immune systems when COVID-19 hit. Secondly, the Navajo culture embraces multi-generational housing, with three-four different generations all living under the same roof. Instead of one person testing positive, this style of living created blooms of ten-twelve positive cases in every household. Finally, 46.5 percent of the community lives beneath the national poverty level, and one-third of the houses on the reservation lack electricity and running water. “A flu pandemic. Multiple generations living together in the same house. A depressed economy with limited running water. Throw these factors together and throw COVID-19 at it—it’s a perfect storm.”
Nathan and the Navajo Nation Christian Response Team are responsible for providing 65 percent of Navajo Nation’s population—roughly 230,000 people—with aid. However, given their limited supplies and means of transportation, they work directly with pastors in Navajo communities to distribute care packages to those most in need. Nathan describes their technique of targeted distribution; the pastors identify recipients through the communities' senior centers and health foundations. “Our food reaches the grandmother who lives 20 miles off the main roadway, up in the canyon.”
The care packages include staple items that elderly Navajo people are familiar with: water, rice, flour, potatoes, beans, and lard. Nathan said that potatoes—really any produce—are a luxury. Sometimes these care packages arrive just in time to remote, elderly individuals who have not eaten in three days. But staples in a time of crisis only sustain the living for so long. Nathan paints a picture of the worst case scenario: pastors walk into homes and find elderly people deceased. After having been sent home from the hospital to self-quarantine, they run out of food with no means of acquiring more. Nathan describes signs on their doors, indicating they’ve tested positive for COVID-19. The signs, like numbers quantifying deaths to coronavirus, say little about the people inside, including their experiences of isolation from family members and the larger community.
Scenes of tragedy across Navajo communities carry historical precedent, including displacement from land, native language suppression, and the separation of children from families. The coronavirus also brings to light a pattern of unequal distribution of resources to the Navajo people that has taken place over centuries. In an interview with the Washington Post on May 16, Navajo Nation President, Jonathan Nez, shared that the Navajo hadn’t received any of the $8 billion that the March 18 Cares Act promised to Native American communities.
In the absence of government aid, organizations like Strengthening Nations, McKinley County Mutual Aid, Indigenous Lifeways and New Mexico First Born have stepped up to support the Navajo communities. Strengthening Nations provides shelter, rehabilitation and mentorship programs and other services to survivors and offenders of domestic and family violence. The quarantine has exacerbated mental health problems and in turn, escalated cases of family violence. The organization has seen an influx of individuals and families seeking shelter, said Christian Vazquez of Strengthening Nations.
Christian also offered glimmers of hope. Offenders have come to Strengthening Nations to ask for volunteer work. Last week, Strengthening Nations and volunteers distributed 800 boxes of food and supplies to single parents and elders. Christian reiterated the scarcity of basic produce, like potatoes. “We don’t usually have [potatoes] in that bulk and wow, that was awesome,” he said, referencing the truckload of potatoes that arrived last weekend. “The produce is usually the first thing to go.”
“It’s really fulfilling getting things to people who really need them,” Christian said, expressing a sentiment that motivates us at The Farmlink Project. Potatoes rise above the level of a staple; they nourish people and help build connections between communities, from Washington to New Mexico and Arizona. These kinds of connections provide hope—even for those fighting personal battles—in the time of COVID-19.
< BackNavajo Nation
Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico
Navajo Nation, an American Indian territory that spans over Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico just surpassed New York for the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the United States. As of today, 4,000 positive cases have been confirmed in Navajo Nation. Last weekend, The Farmlink Project facilitated the delivery of over 40,000 pounds of potatoes that would have otherwise gone to waste, from Desert Ridge Farm, in Moses Lake, Washington, to the Navajo Nation communities in New Mexico and Arizona. The Navajo Nation Christian Response team received and distributed these potatoes throughout the reservation with the help of several other local organizations.
Nathan Lynch, from the Navajo Nation Christian Response Team, laid out three main factors for why Navajo Nation has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic: “To start, what most people don’t know is that McKinley county was already in a flu pandemic during January and February.” Due to this pre-existing flu, many Navajo people were still suffering from low immune systems when COVID-19 hit. Secondly, the Navajo culture embraces multi-generational housing, with three-four different generations all living under the same roof. Instead of one person testing positive, this style of living created blooms of ten-twelve positive cases in every household. Finally, 46.5 percent of the community lives beneath the national poverty level, and one-third of the houses on the reservation lack electricity and running water. “A flu pandemic. Multiple generations living together in the same house. A depressed economy with limited running water. Throw these factors together and throw COVID-19 at it—it’s a perfect storm.”
Nathan and the Navajo Nation Christian Response Team are responsible for providing 65 percent of Navajo Nation’s population—roughly 230,000 people—with aid. However, given their limited supplies and means of transportation, they work directly with pastors in Navajo communities to distribute care packages to those most in need. Nathan describes their technique of targeted distribution; the pastors identify recipients through the communities' senior centers and health foundations. “Our food reaches the grandmother who lives 20 miles off the main roadway, up in the canyon.”
The care packages include staple items that elderly Navajo people are familiar with: water, rice, flour, potatoes, beans, and lard. Nathan said that potatoes—really any produce—are a luxury. Sometimes these care packages arrive just in time to remote, elderly individuals who have not eaten in three days. But staples in a time of crisis only sustain the living for so long. Nathan paints a picture of the worst case scenario: pastors walk into homes and find elderly people deceased. After having been sent home from the hospital to self-quarantine, they run out of food with no means of acquiring more. Nathan describes signs on their doors, indicating they’ve tested positive for COVID-19. The signs, like numbers quantifying deaths to coronavirus, say little about the people inside, including their experiences of isolation from family members and the larger community.
Scenes of tragedy across Navajo communities carry historical precedent, including displacement from land, native language suppression, and the separation of children from families. The coronavirus also brings to light a pattern of unequal distribution of resources to the Navajo people that has taken place over centuries. In an interview with the Washington Post on May 16, Navajo Nation President, Jonathan Nez, shared that the Navajo hadn’t received any of the $8 billion that the March 18 Cares Act promised to Native American communities.
In the absence of government aid, organizations like Strengthening Nations, McKinley County Mutual Aid, Indigenous Lifeways and New Mexico First Born have stepped up to support the Navajo communities. Strengthening Nations provides shelter, rehabilitation and mentorship programs and other services to survivors and offenders of domestic and family violence. The quarantine has exacerbated mental health problems and in turn, escalated cases of family violence. The organization has seen an influx of individuals and families seeking shelter, said Christian Vazquez of Strengthening Nations.
Christian also offered glimmers of hope. Offenders have come to Strengthening Nations to ask for volunteer work. Last week, Strengthening Nations and volunteers distributed 800 boxes of food and supplies to single parents and elders. Christian reiterated the scarcity of basic produce, like potatoes. “We don’t usually have [potatoes] in that bulk and wow, that was awesome,” he said, referencing the truckload of potatoes that arrived last weekend. “The produce is usually the first thing to go.”
“It’s really fulfilling getting things to people who really need them,” Christian said, expressing a sentiment that motivates us at The Farmlink Project. Potatoes rise above the level of a staple; they nourish people and help build connections between communities, from Washington to New Mexico and Arizona. These kinds of connections provide hope—even for those fighting personal battles—in the time of COVID-19.
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