How AmpleHarvest.org in Indian Country helps Native communities nourish their own
On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we honor the history, cultures, and contributions of Native American Nations. I’d also like to honor something happening right now: the continued sovereignty and self-determination of those Nations, and the role food plays in both.
Gardening is a particular strength. In the National Gardening Association’s 2019 survey, Native American, Inuit, and Aleut households stood out for their gardening participation, including vegetable, container, and herb gardening. An extraordinary 68 percent reported purchasing vegetable garden seeds, compared with 45 percent for the next highest group. It’s a remarkable foundation to build on.
Yet even where fresh food is being grown, some of it may never reach the families who need it. Too often, gardeners simply don’t know they can donate their surplus harvest, or where to take it.
For decades, Americans were taught that food drives meant jars, cans, and boxes but no fresh food. Gardeners quietly assumed their extra tomatoes and squash weren’t welcome. The food was there. The generosity was there. What was missing was the connection.
That is the problem AmpleHarvest.org was created to solve. We teach gardeners that their surplus harvest can be donated, and we help them find a nearby food pantry eager to receive it. Gardeners grow it, pick it, and bring it to the pantry themselves. We never touch the food. It’s free for communities to participate and requires no new distribution infrastructure.
Inspired by Tribal Elders, guided by Indigenous expertise
When I mapped where AmpleHarvest.org was active, I saw a line down the middle of the country. The eastern half of the country was well represented with AmpleHarvest.org member pantries as was the West coast. However, the Southwest, Texas, and the Great Plains were not nearly as well represented. When I overlaid a map of federally recognized reservations, I realized the gap included many Tribal communities. Hunger isn’t missing from those places, and neither is gardening. We had an information problem.
So I did what I should always do first: I asked. I turned to my longtime friend Chief Henry Red Cloud of the Oglala Lakota Nation, and to other Tribal Elders and Indigenous food sovereignty experts. Their guidance helped shape AmpleHarvest.org in Indian Country, developed with support from Google and Bonnie Plants and launched at President Biden’s September 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.
I didn’t assume a program that worked elsewhere would work there, and I learned some of it the hard way. Many Tribal pantries aren’t traditional nonprofits. Some operate out of Tribal government offices, others from a few shelves in the back of a store, so on reservations we ask only that donated food be given away free. Some communities have no conventional street addresses, so we incorporated technology donated by ///what3words that allows us to pinpoint a pantry’s location even when it has no conventional street address. Internet access can be limited, so a pantry needs a connection to register but not to receive donations.
When I wanted a single symbol for our outreach, I learned that sacred images like the eagle feather and medicine wheel weren’t ours to use, and that different Nations hold different traditions. We set them aside. And no two Nations are alike, each with its own leadership, traditions, and priorities.
What came out of those conversations isn’t a separate food system. It’s an existing nationwide resource, made more accessible and relevant through Indigenous guidance. The goal was never to tell anyone how to feed their communities. It was to remove barriers to resources they already have.
Food sovereignty is about more than food
Food sovereignty means a community’s ability to shape its own food system, keep its food traditions alive, and decide how food is grown, shared, and distributed.
Chief Red Cloud lives it. He has spent decades helping families on Pine Ridge reclaim ancestral connections to the land and grow their own food. He shared with me the story of a food sovereignty garden developed with the Oglala Sioux Tribe that, in one year, grew 1,600 pounds of fresh vegetables for elders, distributed through Meals on Wheels. The elders were delighted to receive locally grown vegetables. Food can be hard to come by.
That’s why connecting local gardeners with local pantries matters. Gardeners may be growing foods their families and neighbors value. When they share their surplus, more of that food stays near home. It gives gardeners another way to care for their neighbors and helps pantries offer fresh produce that can be hard or expensive to obtain.
AmpleHarvest.org in Indian Country doesn’t replace Tribal agriculture programs or Indigenous-led food sovereignty work. It complements them by making it easier for food already being grown to reach people who need it.
And in doing so, it supports something central to food sovereignty: a community’s ability to nourish its own people with food grown by its own people, rather than relying exclusively on food brought in from elsewhere.
Beyond the reservation line
Many members of a Nation live on the reservation. Others live nearby, in surrounding rural communities, with their ties to family and culture fully intact. Their need for fresh food doesn’t stop at a boundary on a map, and neither does this program.
AmpleHarvest.org in Indian Country includes pantries both on reservations and in rural communities around them that serve Native families. A gardener on the reservation can donate to a nearby pantry. A gardener just off it can donate to a pantry serving Native neighbors. Those benefits can reach Native and non-Native households alike, strengthening food security across a wide swath of rural America.
Philanthropy that helps communities use what they already have
Making this real means reaching more pantries throughout Indian Country, helping them join, and letting local gardeners know their surplus harvest is welcome. That takes resources, and numerous funders have stepped forward to provide them. I’m deeply grateful. Their support helps us find and engage pantries on reservations and in surrounding communities, adapt our outreach to local circumstances, and build awareness among the gardeners who make all of this possible.
The initiative already has a substantial footprint. By 2024, AmpleHarvest.org reported participation by more than 650 food pantries on or near 38 reservations. Our work is continuing to expand that reach.
This is a different kind of investment in hunger relief. Instead of continually buying and shipping food into communities, it helps those communities use fresh food already growing nearby. It doesn’t replace food banks or Tribal food programs, which remain essential. It addresses something those systems can’t always solve alone: the needless loss of garden harvests that could nourish neighboring families.
And it keeps giving. Once gardeners know they can donate and a pantry is ready to receive, that connection can last season after season, long past any single grant.
Let’s recognize what is already growing
Honoring Native American Nations means more than acknowledging the past. It means recognizing their leadership today and respecting their right to shape their own futures.. Food sovereignty is a vital part of that future.
I’m honored to have learned from Tribal Elders and Indigenous food sovereignty experts, and grateful to the funders and partners helping bring this to more communities. We look forward to working with more Tribal Nations, pantries, gardeners, and organizations.
Because sometimes a stronger, more self-reliant food system doesn’t begin with a new farm, a new warehouse, or another delivery truck. Sometimes it begins with a gardener, a surplus harvest, and the knowledge that a nearby pantry would be delighted to receive it.
That is a simple opportunity with lasting potential for Indian Country and the rural communities around it. It’s one worth growing.
Learn more and get involved
- On a reservation? Start at AmpleHarvest.org/ICto find a pantry or register one.
- Listen to the 14-minute podcast on the origins, challenges, and opportunities of the program: AmpleHarvest.org/podcast-AHiIC
- Watch my keynote, which includes a conversation with Chief Henry Red Cloud, for a deeper look: AmpleHarvest.org/FRAC
- See the survey graph and data behind the gardening numbers: AmpleHarvest.org/AHiIC
- Read the earlier introduction to the program: AmpleHarvest.org/IndianCountry
- Help bring this to more communities by sharing it with Tribal leaders and pantry managers, or supporting our expansion: AmpleHarvest.org
Gary Oppenheimer is the founder and executive director of AmpleHarvest.org, a national nonprofit using technology, education, and community partnerships to address hunger and the waste of locally grown fresh food.
