$5.5-Million To Tuolumne Me-Wuk Tribe For Local Food Program

Tuolumne, CA — A new USDA agreement with the Tuolumne Me-Wuk Tribe will allow for the purchase and distribution of locally grown, produced, and processed food from underserved regional producers to be distributed to Natives living in a five-county service area.

The goal is to improve food supply chain resiliency for indigenous people in Tuolumne, Calaveras, Stanislaus, Amador, and Mariposa counties.

Tuolumne Me-Wuk Tribal Chairwoman, Andrea Reich, says, “Building partnerships in our rural community has always been important to the Tribe.”

She continues, “This cooperative agreement with USDA Agricultural and Marketing Service and the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians will allow the Tribe the opportunity to develop a food distribution program to purchase food from socially disadvantaged farmers and producers under the ‘Build Back Better Initiative’ and in turn create food sovereignty for the Tribe and our membership.”

More information about the USDA program can be found here.

To sign up for the Tuolumne Me-Wuk Food Distribution program, email infofoodbox@mewuk.com or call Gretchen Johnson at 209-928-5322.

Of the $400 million available from the federal program, $5.5 million will go to the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians over a span of two years.