Makoce Agriculture Development Awarded $2.5 Million Community Innovation Grant to Build a Thriving Local Food System on Pine Ridge

Makoce Agriculture Development is thrilled to announce we are the recipients of a $2.5 million Community Innovation Grant from the Bush Foundation. This new and transformational funding will power our work to build an Indigenous food system on the Pine Ridge Reservation that supports thriving communities and a healthier homeland. 

“Our team at Makoce is truly honored to receive this Community Innovation Grant, which will help us realize our vision for a community-owned, community-led food system grounded in Indigenous values and regenerative agricultural practices,” said Nick Hernandez, Makoce’s founder and president. “We’re grateful to the Bush Foundation for recognizing the importance of funding Indigenous-created systems. In the years ahead, we’ll be focused on increasing access to sustainable produced food while creating economic development opportunities that can help to heal our communities and the land itself.”

Makoce was founded in 2019 with the mission of developing a local food system to support a thriving, self-sufficient Oglala Lakota nation. On the Pine Ridge Reservation, colonial policies have led to a dire lack of infrastructure and severe impacts on community wellbeing. Today 95 percent of food on Pine Ridge is trucked in from outside the reservation and is highly processed, contributing to exploding rates of heart disease, diabetes, and more. Although the reservation has a land base of over 1.7 million acres–more than enough to sustain a local food system–land use policies make it extremely difficult to invest in local agriculture needed to produce healthy, nourishing foods. 

“We’re creating systems change that comes from within our nation–to provide land and opportunity for Native food producers, to provide education on regenerative growing practices, and to develop the infrastructure needed to sustain access to healthy nourishing foods. All of that is critical to supporting thriving communities, now and especially for future generations.”

The Bush Foundation’s Community Innovation grant will support Makoce’s five core initiatives: 

• A regenerative Production Farm that cares for the land while supporting a new generation of local food producers 

• The Oceti Sakowin Food Systems Alliance, an advocacy-focused entity that will identify needed changes in tribal policies and food codes and work to expand land access policies for Native producers 

• A Food Systems Institute, which will provide community members with training in culinary, nutritional, and farming/production skills and preserve knowledge of traditional Lakota food and culture

• The Makoce Food Hub, which will provide local businesses and community members with a shared space to shop, learn, collaborate, and expand market access

• Hemp production infrastructure to demonstrate and leverage hemp’s diverse uses and value and increase opportunities for emerging hemp producers.

For more information, contact Nick Hernandez at nick@makoceag.org or (605) 407-4744.