environmental goals. >> Reporting from Madison.
I'm Zach Schultz for "Here& Now".
>> To combat health disparities on the Oneida
reservation. Ukwakhwa or our foods is using a
$250,000 grant to provide culinary knowledge and
ancestral education to the Oneida tribal community
"Here& Now". Reporter Erica Ayisi traveled to De Pere
to learn more about the. From Seed to Table program.
This report is in partnership with Icty,
formerly Indian Country Today.
>> Eldon Powless is an Oneida chef. He's making
lunch at Ukwakhwa or our Foods kitchen on the Oneida
Reservation near green Bay. >> Here I get to just do
what I want. They're just like, as long as it's. As
long as it tastes as good and it's nutritious. Go
ahead. Comfort Bowl is an
indigenous take on southern comfort food.
>> I wanted to do like a little twist on that and
use wild rice and use the beans that we have and
whatever we have available. >> Local Ukwakhwa is in a
restaurant, but Powless is their guest chef for this
week's meal. He says he uses some heirloom
indigenous foods that are harvested on their farm.
The Oneida way. >> I try to like,
incorporate whatever we can get locally.
>> His recipe of diced celery, onions, carrots and
locally sourced wild rice are added to a butter cream
sauce with roasted corn. Black beans. Simmer in
braised smoked ham hocks on the side.
>> Larsson. Stieg. Yeah. >> Stephen Webster is
director of farm and culinary operations at
Ukwakhwa. He says they're from sea to table grants
with the Wisconsin Partnership Program
subsidizes sales of hot lunches made by indigenous
chefs to restore wellness to their diets.
>> They get a stipend. They cook about 80 to 100 meals
for the community. The community then puts in
orders how many we want, and then we pretty much
disburse those meals throughout the community.
>> Webster says their grant program offers community
members meals rooted in ancestral knowledge for
modern living, integrating traditional ingredients
like corn and beans with contemporary cuisine.
>> The goal of this was to try to expand people's
palates. >> The grant also
subsidizes hands on meal preparation workshops using
products harvested on the reservation.
>> We've had people make maple seed cookies, which
blows my mind sometimes where I was like, it was,
there was no gluten in it. >> Webster says. In this
first year, the program is meeting its goals.
>> Like we did 1393 meals just through the Hot Meal
Noon program. And then we did another 80 some meals
through the the meal prep class I talked about.
>> Webster says meals like the Northern Comfort Bowl
would cost about $30 each in local restaurants, but
Ukwakhwa is able to offer it here for $13 to the
Oneida community due to the reduced pricing by the
grant. Webster says he hopes to continue the same
pricing when funding ends. >> But now I feel like
we're much stronger from a logistics standpoint to
take on this stuff in the future.
programs help the Oneida community reconnect to
their indigenous foodways from a time when their
ancestors were relocated from New York to Wisconsin
in the early 1800s. >> When they came here
again, it was they were following Christian
missionaries, but they were still people who practice
our our traditions, our language and all that other
stuff. And a lot of those seeds came with them as
well. about indigenous
cultivation? most people are aware of is
companion planting. The three Sisters style of
planting. >> He says. Maintaining
oneida's agricultural methods of planting
varieties of corn, beans and seeds next to each
other is a balancing act of traditional and modern
farming. >> For 2 or 3 people like
me and my wife to do it, we have to use the tractor, we
have to do stuff, but we still make it a point to
hand plant and hand Weid and so forth to keep those
traditions alive. >> Twice a month, the
Ukwakhwa team delivers their culturally relevant
meals to seven different drop off sites along the
Oneida Tribal Department's route. Webster Ana Ukwakhwa
staff and volunteers packed up his truck with dozens of
hot and ready, preordered meals prepared by that
week's chef. >> Hello there. You get a
bite one. All right. >> Toni House picked up her
three meals at the Ukwakhwa farm, reflecting on her
childhood memories of food insecurity from
colonization. >> I remember what it was
like to be hungry as a child, you know? And I
remember thinking, how come people didn't hand me good
foods? >> She says the program
will help younger children have an appetite and desire
for healthy indigenous meals.
>> Nutrition right here impacts three generations
automatically. Scientifically. We know
that. Now. >> Back in the Ukwakhwa
kitchen, Powless says, traditional indigenous
ingredients can be cooked with love and risk while
exploring new recipes. >> You don't have to be
super traditional and make it a certain way you can
incorporate it however you would like.
>> Webster says. From seed to table incorporates the
past. >> Make sure that we kind
of like go back as much as we can.
>> For a healthier diet in the future.
>> To what maybe our ancestors were eating to
help combat some of that and address some of that.