USDA awards $1.5 million to Kotzebue-led Alaska food systems project

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture has awarded $1.5 million to the University of Alaska system for the Drumbeats: Alaska Food Systems and Cultivators Collaborative, according to a federal award record listing Kotzebue as the recipient location. The work is led by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Chukchi Campus with the UAF Bristol Bay Campus in Dillingham.

The money runs three years, from Sept. 15, 2026, through Sept. 14, 2029. It funds applied research on state, regional and community food system issues. It also funds curriculum and vocational pathways to diversify Alaska's food systems workforce, and an eight-member statewide Alaska Food Systems Advisory Council to guide extension programming. Partners include UAF's Department of Tribal Governance, the Center for One Health Research, the Community and Technical College Culinary Arts program and the Cooperative Extension Service.

It is the largest of five USDA awards posted that day for Alaska recipients, totaling $2,203,636. The others: $102,000 to UAF for extension work across the 37 Tanana Chiefs Conference tribes, $102,000 and $250,000 to Ilisagvik College for North Slope programming and student support, and $249,636 to UAF's Arctic Roots rural student pipeline.

The award description frames the work as protecting Alaska's food supply "to enhance national security" and expanding local food markets. UAF's Drumbeats consortium describes its goal differently: place-based Alaska Native food and energy sovereignty through Indigenous leadership and culturally responsive education.

The Chukchi Campus' food work in Kotzebue traces to 2018, when it launched the Food Sovereignty and Security project, according to a Drumbeats evaluation report. It has since established the Kotzebue Food Coalition, demonstration and native food gardens, and a hydroponic system producing greens and tomatoes above the Arctic Circle.

The consortium has received USDA NIFA Alaska Native-Serving and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions funding before. Its most recent prior award, also $1.5 million, advanced the same work. A 2022 Rural CAP needs assessment put the Northwest Arctic Borough's food insecurity rate at 18.2%, among the highest in Alaska.

The record carries no comment from the university, the campuses or community partners, and no detail on how the advisory council will be seated.