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A program designed to reduce food insecurity among California’s tribal communities is getting a financial boost.
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The Tribal Food Sovereignty Program received its roughly $15 million allocation through California’s $10 billion climate bond, Proposition 4, in this year’s state budget.
In addition to tackling food insecurity, the program is aimed at improving public health. California Native Americans face disproportionately high rates of food insecurity and health issues compared to the rest of the population due to decades of harm to tribal communities in the United States. Tribes were forced to flee their homes and relocated to remote areas, disrupting Native food systems.
The initiative will focus on “defining food systems, encompassing stewardship, cultivation, harvesting, production, and distribution,” according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s website for the program. That could include, the agency said, the return of ancestral land and tribal land acquisition projects.
The program will be the state agriculture agency’s first initiative designed specifically for Native American tribes, according to the Native and food advocacy groups involved.
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“It is a huge milestone for tribes to receive funding like this,” said Jill Sherman-Warne, executive director of Native American Environmental Protection Coalition and a member of the Hoopa Tribe in Southern California. “…(This effort) still has a long way to go, but it’s a great first step.”
Discussions between the state agriculture agency, tribal leaders and the public are ongoing and will last through the end of the year. The department expects to release requests for proposals for program grants in January 2027, with applications due in March 2027.
California has one of the largest Native American populations in the United States. There are approximately 109 federally recognized tribes and dozens without federal recognition in California.
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