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PRIOR LAKE, Minn. — The Fertile Ground Policy Innovation Fund announced it has awarded more than $500,000 in grants to Native-led organizations and tribes.

Administered by the First Nations Development Institute, the seven grants will support American Indian efforts aimed at advancing new policies and innovative policy-making approaches that benefit nutrition and health.

These new grants’ work will range from the development of fundamental food codes to the groundbreaking Rights of Manoomin—legal rights for wild rice.

Grant recipients include:

  • American Indian Community Housing Organization (Duluth, Minnesota)
  • Blackfeet Tribe (Browning, Montana)
  • Chugach Regional Resources Commission (Anchorage, Alaska)
  • Lhaq’Temish Foundation (Bellingham, Washington)
  • Niibi Center (Waubun, Minnesota)
  • Tribal Nations Research Group (Belcourt, North Dakota)
  • Yurok Tribe (Klamath, California)

Learn more about the specific projects funded here.

The Policy Innovation Fund is part of the Fertile Ground Advocacy Campaign, a $1.6 million funding initiative to support American Indian nutrition and health advocacy.

The campaign is made possible through generous funding from Seeds of Native Health, a $11 million philanthropic effort of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community to improve Native nutrition, and the American Heart Association, a global force for longer, healthier lives, and its Voices for Healthy Kids initiative funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

As the Policy Innovation Fund's re-granting partner, the First Nations Development Institute is responsible for grant administration. To support the success of grantees, the American Indian Cancer Foundation will provide technical assistance to the policy change campaigns.

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