Help Us Feed the Women, Children, and Elders
- nkraatz6
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
We have all seen the photos and videos of people in other countries waiting to get food being brought to their country by trucks or planes, often operated by the US military. For most of us, we watch these films with a feeling of safety, from the vantage point of having food in the fridge and money to shop at the supermarket. But on Pine Ridge Reservation, access to food is not so readily available:
The women’s shelter on the Reservation currently has 9 children and 7 women living there. The women and children come to the shelter with only the clothes they are wearing and sometimes a backpack of personal items. Currently, the shelter is desperately in need of food. The three people who work there bring food supplies from their own homes to prepare meals, and One Spirit has been purchasing food for them.
The youth center is serving breakfast and dinner daily now that school is out.
The people who come to the food pantries are often elders caring for grandchildren, the homeless who get food they can prepare at someone else’s home, and young mothers who have no job and have no food for their children.
There is a lack of food appropriate for people with diabetes, which afflicts many people on the reservation. Not being able to meet their dietary needs significantly worsens their health and complicates health problems.
Government subsidies have never been enough to provide food for a month. Every month, when the Electronic Benefit Transfer cards are refilled at midnight on the 9th of the month, there is a line of people at the supermarket waiting to buy food. On this night, the food stores open at midnight for a couple of hours. To people on the Reservation, this time is known as Eat Big Time since many of them have been without sufficient food for an extended period of time.
More than 50% of the Lakota population has diabetes. People who are diabetic and those whose disease has advanced to the point of requiring dialysis need a special diet to maintain a semblance of health. The foods required for a diabetic diet are not in the emergency food supplies dropped from airplanes or brought to the country by trucks. They are not readily available in the food pantries in this country. People who are diabetic need to know the foods they are able to eat and those that will cause further health problems. This information was provided on the Rez by the Diabetic Program. As of this week, the diabetic program was closed due to a lack of funds.
One Spirit is opening a food pantry with appropriate foods for people with diabetes, and it will have a special area with foods for people on dialysis. This will be a pilot program to find the best way to get information and food to this group of people, who need our support. We are working with the Dialysis Management Group, Feeding South Dakota, and Buche Foods to ensure that appropriate foods and information are being provided.