In theory, the story of Iskashitaa’s delivery of food to the Navajo Nation can be summed up in one sentence: We did it. Simply stated, the delivery of 2,100 pounds of fresh produce is a saga that includes a desperate drive through deserted mountain roads by an ex-Army driver, a scramble for papers to avoid being caught in a lock-down, and the combined efforts of hard-working people in Tucson, Chicago, Maine, and the Navajo Nation.
The story of the Window Rock donation first begins with a crucial effort of teamwork. Following the outbreak of COVID-19 in the U.S., ReFED, a national nonprofit dedicated to fighting food waste, established a national COVID-19 Food Waste Solutions Fund to provide money to organizations fighting hunger and food insecurity. Forager, a small company based in Maine that operates a digital marketplace to supply businesses with fresh, local food, was a ReFED grantee. With ReFED’s support, Forager drew upon its existing platform to connect surplus produce to communities-in-need with a project called the National Gleaner Surplus Program.
The National Gleaner Surplus Program was born out of the recognition that communities hit especially hard by the COVID-19 pandemic often lack access to fresh, healthy produce.
The Navajo Nation represents one such community. According to the BBC, in April and May, the Navajo Nation had some of the highest coronavirus infection rates in the United States, higher even than New York at the height of its caseload. Moreover, on the reservation, the COVID-19 pandemic is inextricably linked to food insecurity.
In 1863, the U.S. military forced the Navajo to move from their ancestral lands to the Bosque Redondo Reservation in Fort Sumter, New Mexico, in what has come to be known as the “Long Walk.” At Fort Sumner, “[p]oor soil conditions and hunting restrictions prevented Navajos from consuming traditional foods,” such as corn, squash, melons, and beans, reported the U.S. Department of Energy. In response, the U.S. government began distributing rations of flour, lard, salt, and sugar. Thus began a centuries-long history of governmental, economic, and cultural factors gradually and insidiously changing the Navajo diet to one high in salt, fat, and sugar.
Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture classifies the Navajo Nation as a food desert, where fresh, healthy food is difficult to find. With over 300,000 people and only 13 grocery stores, there is 1 grocery store for every 23,000 people.
Nate Yazzi, who works at the Window Rock Wellness Center, in the capital of the Navajo Nation, points out that the pandemic has further restricted access to fresh food. Many who live in Window Rock normally drive 30 minutes to Gallup, New Mexico for their groceries. Under strict weekend lockdowns and weekday curfews, that is no longer an option.
With so few places to buy groceries, Navajo President Jonathan Nez explained, in an interview with CNN, that “when we run out of food or supplies we have to go to the stores and there is a lot of people there and I believe...the [COVID-19] spread is happening there as well as at home." Furthermore, NPR writes that decades of food insecurity mean that Navajo have disproportionately high rates of underlying conditions, such as diabetes or obesity, which make the coronavirus more lethal.
COVID-19 and food insecurity engage in a vicious cycle: the pandemic has dramatically narrowed the options for fresh food, and, as a result, Navajo are forced to go to the few crowded grocery or convenience stores within reach, which increases their likelihood of contracting the virus. To further complicate matters, around 40 percent of Navajos “have to haul their water and use outhouses,” as reported by NPR. Sanitary conditions are hard to maintain when many Navajos don’t have access to running water.
Here is where the National Gleaner Surplus Program re-enters our story. In recognition of the critical needs of the Navajo Nation, Forager wanted to work with the COVID-19 Relief Effort on the Navajo Nation, headquartered in Window Rock, AZ, to supply the reservation with low-wash, hearty produce that would be familiar to most Navajo families.
Erica Merritt, the head of the National Gleaner Surplus Program, engaged in initial planning to send a dual donation of food to Window Rock. The dual donation included 2,100 pounds of squash, citrus, and other gleaned or donated produce from Iskashitaa Refugee Network, as well as a truckload of 20,000 pounds of kale from Salinas, California.
However, after consulting with her partners in Window Rock, Erica realized that the Navajo COVID-19 Relief Effort couldn’t distribute the kale quickly enough before it went rotten. Furthermore, kale is a nontraditional food that demands high volumes of water for washing. For all these reasons, it was impossible to follow through with the delivery. Thus, Erica was faced with a major problem. How could she get Iskashitaa’s more suitable donation up to Window Rock without the large refrigerated truck from Salinas?
AmeriCorps Members help Iskashitaa staff load our somewhat ancient Harvesting Van.
That’s when Iskashitaa proved its mettle. Dr. Barbara Eiswerth, Executive Director of Iskashitaa Refugee Network, contacted Erica and said that she’d figure out a way to get the produce to Window Rock, a six-hour drive from Tucson. When Erica asked her how, Barbara said simply, “We’re just going to do it.”
On Friday, June 19, staff and AmeriCorps volunteers packed Iskashitaa’s signature white harvesting van full of 2,100 pounds of honeydew, lemons, grapefruits, oranges, potatoes, and, most importantly, a rainbow of squash. These hardy fruits and vegetables were donated by partnering farms and harvested by refugees and other volunteers from across Southern Arizona. “Believed to be the oldest cultivated food in America,” squash (including flowers, seed, and flesh) has been eaten raw, dried, baked, and boiled by the Navajo for centuries, writes the American Indian Health and Diet Project. The overflowing produce in the white van was useful and familiar to the Navajos, unlike the unfortunate bundle of kale.
Jim Feeney, Redistribution Lead at Iskashitaa, volunteered to drive the van up to Window Rock. However, he couldn’t leave Tucson before getting the go-ahead from Erica. This plan had been hatched so quickly that she hadn’t had time to confirm with her contact on the Nation. As of that morning, there was no plan for what would happen to the food once it reached Window Rock.
Valerie Seeton, Program Manager at Iskashitaa adjusts the fragile fruit for final shipping.
Erica, two hours ahead in Chicago, repeatedly called her contact in Window Rock, trying to reach her so that Jim could begin his drive and arrive before dark. No response. She watched the hours tick by without a word. Later, she found out her contact had been in a meeting all day.
In the early afternoon, Erica called Barbara in a panic. Barbara, trusting in Erica and her ability to secure accommodations for the produce, told Erica that she’d sent Jim off to begin his journey to Window Rock.
Newly invigorated, Erica started calling anyone she could who worked at Window Rock’s Navajo Health Command Center. Eventually, she reached a woman named Eloise Meego, who listened to her and sprang into action. Eloise told her that the produce could be received at the Window Rock Wellness Center, which closed at 5 p.m. Erica knew Jim wouldn’t make it by 5. So Eloise called Nate at the Wellness Center, who agreed to stay late to receive the delivery. Eloise informed Erica that Jim needed to arrive by 8 p.m., because of the weekend lock-down. Erica replied that he should be there by then.
Meanwhile, Jim was having a rough drive. There are several ways to get to Window Rock, and he’d chosen to take the one cutting through the Tonto National Forest, thinking it’d be faster than the city roads.
Jim chuckled as he recalled the drive. “Heavy van, fully loaded,” he said. “I did a couple tours in Iraq as an Army driver. So I know what it’s like to drive in hot conditions, tough conditions.” But this, he said, “was a white-knuckle drive.” Jim’s attention was fully occupied as the van sling-shotted around the dramatic curves of the Superstition Mountains on a narrow, desolate road.
As the clock inched closer to 8 pm, Jim called and said he was still a ways from Window Rock. Erica started getting nervous. “Several hours after Jim had left, I got a text from my initial contact on the reservation,” Erica told me. “She said ‘He won’t get there in time. Turn back.’”
She called Nate to consult with him about what to do. He lives 40 minutes away, and if caught violating curfew, he could face up to a $1,000 dollar fine or 30 days in jail. The Navajo government has been very strict about enforcing the order, and has already issued 250 citations for violating curfew, as reported by the Arizona Republic.
To her immense relief, Nate told her that, in the hours since they’d last talked, Eloise had taken it upon herself to secure Essential Persons Papers for him, which would allow him to stay out past curfew. She didn’t think he’d need them, but wanted him to have them, just in case Jim came later than anticipated. Thanks to Eloise’s foresight, Erica could relax for the first time that day.
Finally, Jim reached Window Rock. The sun had set, and in the looming darkness, Jim waited alone in front of the designated meeting spot: the Window Rock Post Office. He felt his heart sink as he realized that its doors were locked and its windows shuttered. Not a soul was in sight.
Thinking quickly, he texted Erica, in Chicago, who gave him Nate’s phone number. At this point, Nate had been waiting at the Wellness Center for over three hours.
When Nate’s warm voice reached Jim through the phone as he stood in the lonely post office parking lot, Jim breathed a sigh of relief. Nate directed Jim to go to the Wellness Center, a few miles away on the Navajo Nation Fairgrounds.
Nate recounted their meeting: “There’s a guard who locks up the gates to the fairground every night, and he was getting ready to close them” when Jim drove up. Nate laughed, “Jim came just in time.”
The two men unloaded the van and put all the produce in a cool room. By 8:40 pm, they were done. Jim hopped back into Iskashitaa’s van, now considerably lighter, ready to drive through the night back to Tucson, following a route, much to his relief, along a smooth highway.
“We are just thankful for all the donations we’ve received,” Nate said, about the experience. “The Navajo people are very grateful.”
In Jim’s words: “This was a mission that we accomplished by the seat of our collective pants.” As Erica put it: the delivery was “coordination mixed with miscommunication, in the best possible way.”
Over the next week, staff at the Wellness Center would fill bags of food with Iskashitaa Refugee Network produce designed to last 10-12 days, and then hand them out to residents of Window Rock.
To make this donation happen, ReFED provided a generous grant to Forager, who then created a program to link communities in food deserts to nonprofits like Iskashitaa Refugee Network that could provide surplus produce. Workers at the Window Rock Health Command Center helped facilitate the donation by giving their time and, in the case of Nate, taking a personal risk, to receive the produce and store it. This whole process exemplified the meaning of iskashitaa: the Somali-Bantu translation of “working cooperatively together.” Now Iskashitaa Refugee Network, as well as its partners Forager and the National Gleaner Surplus Program, have the experience and the contacts to collaborate on future projects with the Navajo Nation.
Two thousand one hundred pounds of produce is a hefty amount. But it’s the collective time, effort, and care, by people in Maine, New York, California, Arizona, and the Navajo Nation, that was the real gift.
Sources:
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Morales, Laurel. “For Many Navajos, Getting Hooked Up To The Power Grid Can Be Life-Changing.” NPR, NPR, 29 May 2019, www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/05/29/726615238/for-many-navajos-getting-hooked-up-to-the-power-grid-can-be-life-changing.
Silverman, Hollie, et al. “Navajo Nation Surpasses New York State for the Highest Covid-19 Infection Rate in the US.” CNN, Cable News Network, 18 May 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/05/18/us/navajo-nation-infection-rate-trnd/index.html.
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This publication made possible by the Arizona Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities.