- Details
- By Chez Oxendine
- Food | Agriculture
Tribal food programs across Indian country are experiencing delivery delays and missing items following a recent consolidation of warehouses by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The warehouse switch, which was announced in February, transitioned the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR) from a two-warehouse system to a single provider in April. While the USDA anticipated cost-savings, the move has resulted in disruptions for many tribal communities, according to a national group of food distribution program directors.
“Deliveries are not showing up, and we don’t know they’re missing until they don’t show up,” Mary Greene Trottier, president of the National Association for FDPIR, told Tribal Business News. “We’re hearing from almost every tribe participating in the program that they’ve been impacted in some way.”
Greene Trottier, who also serves as the director for the Spirit Lake Nation’s food distribution program, said the association has been “slammed” in the wake of the consolidation.
Prior to the warehouse consolidation, tribal FDPIR programs functioned smoothly, with on-time deliveries and departments able to plan distributions in advance. Since the warehouse changes, the program has become “chaotic and frustrating,” Greene Trottier said.
Food packages are missing items or entire deliveries arrive late — or not at all. That’s created scheduling nightmares for staff scrambling to meet client needs. One tribal FDPIR office reported having to share pictures of empty shelves on social media to prove they had no food, Greene Trottier said.
“There's people going without food, people who don't receive the benefits they're entitled for that month,” Greene Trottier said. “It's reaching every warehouse in Indian Country that distributes FDPIR food.”
Missing distributions can be damaging to households that already face disproportionate levels of food insecurity. Carly Hotvedt, interim executive director for the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative, said many households impacted by recent FDPIR disruptions included children and elders.
Hotvedt said 30 percent of impacted households included children, and another 42 percent have elders over the age of 60.
“Children are our future, and elders are knowledge keepers of our tribes,” Hotvedt said in a statement concerning the warehouse issues. “These groups are critically important to us and should not be expected to endure or go without.”
A move to a single logistics provider
The USDA initially contended that early problems — prior to the full consolidation — were due to budget constraints. In the minutes of a working group meeting and consultation on February 16, the department wrote that the consolidation action would take place on April 1. That consolidation would transition to using shipping and warehousing company Paris Brothers as the sole warehouse provider.
Tribes immediately expressed concerns about the consolidation, per the minutes, whose preliminary measures had already caused small shortages. USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) attributed those shortages to vendor delays, not warehouse issues, however. The department did not expect further food shortages after the consolidation.
A USDA representative, speaking on background, told Tribal Business News that the consolidation to using Paris Brothers was due to expiring contracts. The logistics services contracts originally serving the FDPIR and Community Supplemental Food Program were set to expire on September 30, 2023. After extending the contract through March 31, 2024, FNS put out a request for proposals for new contracts.
In January this year, Paris Brothers won the bid based on “decisions from the technical evaluation teams.” Shifting to a single provider wasn’t intention, the representative said, but a result of the way proposals were evaluated. The consolidation was completed March 28, and Paris Brothers began servicing FDPIR and CSFP as the sole logistics provider on April 1 this year. The department first learned of service disruptions in May, the representative said.
“Initial disruptions caused by a large influx of existing inventory into the new warehouses, combined with the number of inbound replenishment orders, caused the contractor to face challenges scaling operations to meet the service requirements under the new contract,” the representative said. “This resulted in some late deliveries and order pick errors, which USDA has been working with the contractor to rectify.”
Greene Trottier said the working group was told the consolidation would save money for the program. She said she wasn’t sure if the consequent scheduling and delivery difficulties have been worth those savings.
“We were informed of the consolidation, but never consulted. We were basically told that the warehouse consolidation has taken place,” Greene Trottier said. “None of that savings is helping out our participants right now because it's an entitlement program so they should be entitled to their food.”
Taking action in the meantime
Organizations like the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative, the Native American Agriculture Fund (NAAF), and nonprofit Feeding America have partnered to help feed people affected by the disruptions, per an IFAI press release.
Feeding America has 198 food banks throughout the country, 82 of which are near or on tribal reservations, according to the organization’s Director of Native and Tribal Partnerships Mark Ford Those food banks are working with tribes and partner organizations to get food out to people who need it.
“Food banks across the country are on alert to reach out to their tribal partners for collaborative support,” Ford told Tribal Business News. “We also welcome anyone interested in assisting to please reach out to their local Indian Tribal organization or their local food bank with offers of support, which may include volunteering with food distributions or through financial contributions so those impacted can get the food they need until this disruption has been resolved.”
That resolution will hopefully come soon: the USDA expects the Paris Brothers operation to acclimate to programmatic demands by July 15. In the interim, the organization has made more permanent hires at their warehouses, increasing the number of available warehouse shifts, and leasing additional warehouse space.
For Greene Trottier’s part, she just hopes people get fed, she said.
“No amount of hard work can correct a lack of food,” Greene Trottier said. “When that happens, our staff are the ones who have to look participants in the eye and tell them they won’t be able to provide what they were promised.”
