Tribal Food Producer Information Session

June 11, 2025, 12:30 PM EST | 11:30 AM CST

Join the Great Lakes Intertribal Food Coalition and Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center for another quarterly virtual meeting on June 11, 2025 to come together to learn about tracking expenses and sales as well as funding opportunities.

Tribal food producers in the Great Lakes Midwest can connect and learn together about resources available to help build their businesses in these quarterly sessions.

In the session on June 11, we will learn how to use a simple spreadsheet to help producers track expenses and sales, preparing you for applying for funding.

Meeting hosts for these quarterly sessions, Jen Falck (Oneida Nation) Menominee Tribe’s Department of Agriculture and Food Systems and Dan Cornelius (Oneida Nation) University of Wisconsin Law School’s Great Lakes Indigenous Law Center, and invited guest speakers, will share their insights on topics including taxes, business development, financial readiness, and funding for Tribal producers.

They will join Jamie Rahrig of the MSU Center for Regional Food Systems and Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center who will share updates about the upcoming Business Builder subaward program.

The Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center plans to launch the first round of its Business Builder subaward program in 2025 for farmers, harvesters, and farm cooperatives/collectives in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. Over $10 million dollars will be distributed to assistance providers and eligible business owners over the next three years.

Our Featured Speakers

Jen Falck (Oneida Nation) works for the Menominee Tribe’s Department of Agriculture and Food Systems. She has professional experience in environmental health, food safety, tribal administration, and tribal legislation. Her current projects include the Wisconsin Tribal Elder Food Box Program, developing a Menominee Food Code, and helping to rebuild Menominee foodways. Jen is married and has a twenty-one year old daughter in college, a few dogs, and a menagerie of farm animals. Jen and her husband manage Kahulahele Farmstead, an eight acre farmstead which focuses on food sovereignty, restorative agriculture, conscious animal husbandry, building community, and resilience through bartering.
Dan Cornelius (Oneida Nation), owner of Yowela Farms, grower of heritage Indigenous crops, raises animals, makes maple syrup, and harvests wild rice. His overall approach seeks to balance modern equipment with inspiration from traditional practices with no-and-minimal tillage for crop production and animals to help cycle nutrients. Dan is also the Outreach Program Manager for the University of Wisconsin Law School’s Great Lakes Indigenous Law Center and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, as well as serving as a judge on the Oneida Appellate Court.

Join us Wednesday, June 11, 2025 12:30 PM EST | 11:30 AM CST on Zoom, to learn more about resources to support Tribal food producers. This session will be recorded and shared at glm-rfbc.msu.edu and on Youtube.

Link to register: https://bit.ly/TribalInfoSessionJune

For more information, email glm-rfbc@msu.edu or visit glm-rfbc.msu.edu.

About the Great Lakes Intertribal Food Coalition

The Great Lakes Intertribal Food Coalition works to heal communities by strengthening Indigenous food networks. Their Tribal Elder Food Box Program provides nutrition, culturally meaningful foods for Tribal members over 55 years old. In 2022, the program reached all 11 tribes in Wisconsin, delivering over 24,400 boxes.

About the Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center

The Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center is dedicated to offering coordination, technical assistance, and capacity building opportunities for farmers, producers, and other food business owners, in support of a more resilient and competitive food system. Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems (MI) coordinates the Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center that is comprised of network coordinators – Chicago Food Policy Action Council (IL), Northwest Indiana Food Council (IN), Food Finance Institute of the University of Wisconsin System (WI), and the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin Department of Agriculture and Food Systems – who seek to take a transformational, rather than transactional, approach. Learn more at glm-rfbc.msu.edu

Support for the Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center comes from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service Regional Food Business Centers Program. The 12 USDA Regional Food Business Centers support all 50 U.S. States and Territories, and are inclusive of all types of agricultural products produced locally or regionally.

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