Inter-Tribal Pantry

Reciprocity is the second branch of our vision for change. The Inter-Tribal Pantry project is an initiative aimed at improving food access for Native communities in the Tri-State, Denver-Metro areas, and beyond. By providing culturally appropriate foods and resources to urban Indigenous communities, we hope to improve their health and well-being by encouraging them to utilize more native foods in their diets. Our program also includes education on traditional food preparation and preservation techniques, helping to preserve and share Indigenous food knowledge with hands-on accessibility. Our pantry is community-led and supported by local partnerships, ensuring that our efforts are sustainable and responsive to the needs of the community. By increasing traditional food access and promoting traditional foodways, we support indigenous food sovereignty at both the individual & and community levels.

Our Inter-Tribal Pantry Pop-ups were founded on the belief that direct access to culturally sound foods goes hand in hand with the education around preparation. The look of joy on our visitors when they see classic staples like Mote or Bison in areas where they're difficult to find or priced as luxury items is truly priceless and acts as a reminder of the importance of preserving and sharing the cultural heritage of these foods. Community harvest sharing has been part of humanity since time immemorial. We hope that our events are seen not as simply charity, but as a chance to practice community food sharing. We encourage our visitors to pass on whatever they can not use themselves so our gifts travel further.

To date, we've held 6 pantry distribution events with another 14 arriving in 2023. Since its launch in 2022, we have served 7072 Indigenous individuals and delivered over 8223lbs of food (this includes donations and over $3500 in mutual aid dollars spent). Our future pop-ups will include live cooking demonstrations and recipes to go along with our distributions (the metrics of this new format are forthcoming). Additionally, we host a list of native food producers on our website so that our visitors can purchase directly from Indigenous-owned producers.