WASHINGTON, Jan. 9, 2023 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) today announced it has signed a cooperative agreement with the Bishop Paiute Tribe under the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA). Through LFPA, the tribe seeks to purchase and distribute locally grown, produced, and processed food from underserved producers.

“USDA is excited to partner with the Bishop Paiute Tribe to promote economic opportunities for farmers and producers and to increase access to locally sourced, fresh, healthy, and nutritious food in underserved communities,” said USDA Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Jenny Lester Moffitt. “The Local Food Purchase Cooperative Agreement Program will improve food and agricultural supply-chain resiliency and increase local food consumption around the country.”

With the LFPA funds, the tribe will procure fresh fruit and vegetable box subscriptions from producers through their Muadubu Nuumu Fresh Produce Program. This will provide fresh healthy produce to the Bishop Paiute Tribal Elders Program and additional Tribal members from this underserved community.

“The Bishop Paiute Tribe is grateful to be a recipient of the USDA Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) program,” said the tribe’s CEO Gloriana Bailey. “This funding will allow the Bishop Paiute Tribe’s Muadubu Nuumu Fresh Food Produce Project to procure fresh fruit and vegetable boxes and to distribute them twice a month for a year to our Tribal Elders Program and to underserved Tribal community members in need of food.”

USDA’s Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program provides up to $900 million through non-competitive cooperative agreements to enable state, territory, and tribal governments to support local, regional and underserved producers, and maintain or improve food and agricultural supply chain resiliency through the purchase of food produced within the state or within 400 miles of delivery destination.  Funding for the program comes from the American Rescue Plan and the Commodity Credit Corporation.

AMS looks forward to continuing to sign agreements under this innovative program that allows state and tribal governments to procure and distribute local and regional foods and beverages that are healthy, nutritious, and unique to their geographic area.

More information about the program is available on AMS’s Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program webpage.