At the White House Tribal Youth Summit, the USDA announced they with be providing new resources to empower the Native American youth into perspectives of agriculture.
A press release by the USDA states that the AmeriCorps and the U.S. Forest Service have launched Forest Corps, a five-year $15 million agreement, to engage 80 young adults in wildland fire prevention, reforestation, and other natural and cultural resource management projects. The program will recruit Native youth in key locations and provide extensive training and leadership skills for future careers in natural resource management and climate resilience. The USDA's Food and Nutrition Service will award $2 million in grants to four organizations to provide regionally focused training and technical assistance to school nutrition professionals, focusing on traditional Indigenous foods in school lunch, breakfast, summer meals, and culturally relevant nutrition education.
In another move geared towards empowering Native American youth into agricultural pursuits, the USDA's Office of Tribal Relations and AISES have selected students for the AISES research track. This program focuses on amalgamating Indigenous knowledge with western science and engineering concepts. "The students will study topics like ethnobotany, mental health, and traditional medicine", said USDA's Office of Tribal Relations. Moreover, they have also rolled out a comprehensive scholarship scheme named as 'USDA 1994 Tribal Scholars Program'. This lucrative offer includes full tuition fees coverage along with provisions for books purchase allowance, housing stipend, and workforce training; specifically targeting students pursuing degrees in agriculture-related fields at tribal colleges or universities.
To further solidify its commitment towards tribal communities' welfare; AmeriCorps in association with U.S. Forest Service are poised to kick-start an elaborate initiative named 'Forest Corps'. Supported by a robust funding of $15 million spanning over five years this initiative is projected to actively involve around 80 young adults in numerous activities primarily aimed at promoting awareness about wildland fire prevention methods besides offering hands-on experience in reforestation projects and management of various natural as well as cultural resources. The program is scheduled to commence from Summer 2024 and will also focus on nurturing leadership skills among the young natives for securing future careers in diverse sectors such as natural resource management, forest health, and climate resilience. Besides these programs, the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service has also pledged $2 million in grants for four organizations that will work towards offering regionally focused training assistance to school nutrition professionals by focusing mainly on effective utilization of traditional Indigenous foods in various school meal programs besides promoting culturally relevant nutrition education. "The USDA has the goal to better serve tribal governments, citizens, and organizations to build a more diverse pipeline into the agriculture sector", said USDA's Food and Nutrition Service.
