Founded in 1986 by Billy Mills, an Oglala Lakota member and Olympic gold medalist, Running Strong for American Indian Youth has spent nearly four decades supporting Native American communities across the country through programs in youth development, health and wellness, food sovereignty, environmental justice, clean water access, and cultural revitalization. Running Strong is on a mission to empower Native youth to dream, lead, and create meaningful, lasting change in their communities.
On the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the nearest grocery store is 80 miles away. What remains is government commodity foods and convenience stores that lack fresh, healthy food. What also remains is a community that wants to reconnect with land, food, and culture. On the Pine Ridge, the Medicine Root Garden began as an effort to feed families, and has since become a regional leader in reconnecting tribal members with the land and helping people achieve food sovereignty.
The program teaches families to grow their own food across three levels, beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Over the last 10 years they have expanded to house four hoop houses, a climate-controlled greenhouse, and an open-air nursery. Each year, between 80 and 100 families participate, from young children to elders. Families are then equip to grow their own fresh, culturally relevant food excess harvest goes directly back into the community through Running Strong’s on-reservation farmers market and fresh food program, distributed free to the families who need it most.
This program built by and for a community that has always known how to grow, who are now reclaiming that knowledge on its own terms.
With support from two Big Green Community Grants, Running Strong has been able to sustain and expand this work, reaching more families each season.
For Lucille Contreras, the Medicine Root Garden was a turning point. She enrolled during the pandemic seeking healing and a way forward, and left with skills, community, and a new sense of purpose. She went on to found the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project.
“I was on the verge of questioning my own life. This class and the garden saved my life. After I harvested this garden, I made big changes in my life and began my journey of healing. I realized the dirt, plants, and animals are healing. They have the power to guide and provide.”
Planting a seed changed her life.
The story doesn’t stop with Lucille. Running Strong’s Dream Starter program, this year centered on the theme of food sovereignty, supports 10 Native youth each year in developing their own community projects, each with a grant component. Running Strong is making sure the next generation of food leaders have the resources to change their food systems.
This is what Big Green funds: leaders already trusted, already working, already rooted in the communities they serve. Our job is to find them and give them the resources to go further.
Big Green is committed to funding organizations like Running Strong that understand that put food sovereignty and cultural reclamation at the forefront and that the people closest to the land have always been closest to the solutions.
