Healthy Meals for Elders Facing Food Insecurity 

Food insecurity takes a toll for Elders on the reservations. One help is the Breakfast-in-a-Bag service from Northern Plains Reservation Aid® (NPRA), a program of Partnership with Native Americans® (PWNA). 

This needed breakfast service ensures that Elders in rural communities have access to nutritious meals at no cost. Rosebud Sioux Elder Sheila Y., age 71, has participated in the NPRA service for nearly a decade. She stretches the food as much as possible to feed herself and her two grandkids. The food lasts her about a week and a half, maybe two. She shared, “Everything that’s in the bag, we make use of it. It means a lot.” 

It’s important to Sheila that her grandkids know how live a healthy lifestyle, as she struggles with her own health. She told us, “I know how to control what I can have, and I’m teaching my grandchildren how to [eat healthy].” 

American Indian and Alaska Native youth ages 10-19 have the second highest rate of Type 2 diabetes. In 2021, nearly half the Elders receiving the Breakfast service had diabetes. 

Sheila has been raising her grandkids, 18-year-old Joselle and 13-year-old Paul, since 2015. They love the oatmeal and apples in the Breakfast Bag, a luxury they do not have in between deliveries.   

Shelia lives in Parmelee, South Dakota, about 20 miles from the nearest grocery store in Rosebud or Mission. Shelia lives on a fixed social security income. “I do the best I can,” she said of dealing with rising gas and food prices.  

When she can’t afford the trip to the grocery store, her Breakfast Bag is delivered by our longtime Program Partner, Marvine D. of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Elderly Nutrition Program. The two have been friends since high school and raised their kids together. “She really helps people,” Sheila said of Marvine. “A lot of people in our community don’t have transportation, and people have a lot of confidence in her.”  

Sheila also receives some assistance from LIHEAP (the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program) to help with energy bills. But there is always a need for more food on the table, something not easily accessible for 1 in 4 Native families. 

The USDA found that only 26% of Native communities are within one mile of a supermarket, compared to 59% of others living in the U.S. This makes it difficult for many Elders to benefit from federal food programs such as SNAP (formerly known as food stamps).  

PWNA and NPRA collaborate with Program Partners and outside resources to improve food access in remote Tribal communities. Your support to NPRA helps improve food security for Elders like Sheila.