ONEIDA – As a kid, Isaiah Skenandore remembers going with his grandmother Gwenevere Skenandore to pick up government commodities: processed cheese, canned meat, canned vegetables, white flour. “It’s really a lot of stuff that wasn’t necessarily good for you, and it kind of led to a lot of the health epidemics we have in the Native communities,” Skenandore said.
Before Gwenevere passed away in 2022, Isaiah got to bring his grandmother boxes filled with grass-fed beef and pasture-raised chickens from his own farm on the Oneida reservation. “For her to be able to have some of them boxes, and see food that her grandchild grew in them, it was a pretty proud moment.” Skenandore said.
For elders on the Oneida reservation and other tribal nations across Wisconsin, nutritious, culturally-relevant food is a health necessity…