The Intertribal Agriculture Council is pleased to announce a new initiative – IAC CARES: Capital Projects for Food Security.
“Our goal is to help Tribal leaders and individual farmers and ranchers make timely decisions with regards to CARES Act funding. This comes with our commitment to support and assist in whatever way possible throughout your projects,” said Zach Ducheneaux, Executive Director of the IAC.
“IAC is the nation’s largest and oldest Native American agriculture and natural resources organization. Our efforts throughout the past 33 years have instilled unprecedented, direct support for Tribal producers and communities into the policies of federal programming administered under the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Bill,” Ducheneaux noted.
With the onset of COVID-19, and the resources allocated to Indian Country through the CARES Act, we have learned that many Tribal communities are prioritizing food and agriculture infrastructure in their response planning. We have been tracking the guidance put out by the United States Treasury and have identified the following with regards to ensuring projects are considered eligible.
It is important to note that necessary expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency with respect to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID–19); were not accounted for in the budget most recently approved as of March 27, 2020 (the date of enactment of the CARES Act) for the State or government; and were incurred during the period that begins on March 1, 2020, and ends on December 30, 2020.
As always, we recommend that you be in close consultation with your legal counsel as the allocation of funds will be subject audits. We fully recognize all our Tribal communities are being hit with food shortages and an increase in food insecurity. Our organization continues our dedication to providing expertise in the following areas:
USDA program access and policy
Agricultural resource identification and partnership leveraging
Tribal foods marketing and outreach support
Native youth in food and agriculture leadership development
Project planning and implementation support
Subject matter expertise in financing
Cattle production, mixed vegetable production, traditional foods, value-added production, processing infrastructure and more . . .
IAC is currently developing training materials for Tribal leadership, staff, individual producers, and/or consultants who are working with Tribal communities on agriculturally based response projects. The following are some ways we are here to serve you:
IAC offers free, agricultural Technical Assistance across Indian Country.
IAC TA Specialists are available to assist your community with CARES Act funded agricultural projects.
IAC can help inform planning, project development, resource identification and cultivating strategies for agriculture project sustainability.
Come and SEE us virtually!
The first IAC CARES webinar featured Quapaw Nation’s meat processing facility. They shared the ins and outs of what it took to plan and develop this nationally recognized facility. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGScdm2PvBM&feature=youtu.be
This video link features IAC Executive Director, Zach Ducheneaux, giving an overview of IAC CARES: Capital Projects for Food Security https://bit.ly/2X47PJi
Continue to follow the ongoing IAC CARES: Capital Projects for Food Security content by joining us on our new E-Learning Platform here: https://intertribal-agriculture-council.mn.co/feed
Here is a link to the IAC staff page. We look forward to working with you: www.indianag.org/whoweare