The 2026 Native Food Security Grant is a grant from First Nations Development Institute that funds Native-led initiatives to strengthen food security within American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities. The grant supports projects across four focus areas: Native Food Distribution, Food Life Cycle, Wild Food Harvesting, and Native Resilient Foodways.

Funded activities may include food infrastructure, wild food harvesting, traditional foodways preservation, and community food distribution programs. The grant emphasizes Native food sovereignty, cultural relevance, intergenerational wisdom, and equity. Eligible applicants are Native-led and Native-serving organizations.

Awards range from $10,000 to $40,000.

2026 Native Food Security Grant | First Nations Development Institute 2026 Native Food Security Grant About First Nations Development Institute and the Native Agriculture and Food Systems Investments Program For over 45 years, First Nations Development Institute (First Nations), a Native-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, has worked to strengthen American Indian economies to support healthy Native communities.

First Nations invests in and creates innovative institutions and models that strengthen asset control and support economic development for American Indian people and their communities. First Nations began its national grantmaking program in 1993. Through year-end 2025, we have successfully managed 4,405 grants totaling over $110.

6 million to Native American projects and organizations in 46 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. Territory American Samoa, and Guam. For more information, visit www. firstnations.

org. Native Control: Recognize and respect the inherent right of Native communities to exercise control over their food systems, ensuring decisions align with their unique needs and values. Culturally Rooted: Prioritize initiatives deeply grounded in and reflective of the diverse cultural heritage of Native communities, fostering a strong connection to traditional foodways.

Community Empowerment: Develop programs and initiatives that empower Native communities economically, socially, and culturally, promoting a sense of ownership and pride in their food systems. Intertribal Collaboration: Foster collaborative efforts that encourage knowledge exchange, shared resources, and collective solutions among Native communities to address common challenges and amplify impact.

Intergenerational Wisdom: Emphasize the importance of preserving and passing down and up traditional knowledge and practices related to food, ensuring the transmission of wisdom and practice across generations. Equity and Justice: Commit to achieving equity and justice in all aspects of the food system, addressing historical inequities and advocating for policies that promote fairness and inclusivity.

Native Food Security projects are designed to ensure consistent access and availability to an abundance of culturally relevant foods that meet the needs and preferences of Native communities. American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities must have reliable access to traditional foods that support both physical and spiritual well-being.

While conventional food security focuses on the nutritional needs of individuals and households, Native Food Security extends beyond sustenance. It encompasses the physical and spiritual nourishment of families, households, tribes, clans, communities, lands, and the foods themselves to further the conditions that support Native Food Security. When applying, select one primary focus for your grant project.

You may also select optional secondary focus areas. Focus areas for this opportunity include: (1) Native Food Distribution; (2) Food Life Cycle; (3) Wild Food Harvesting; and (4) Native Resilient Foodways.

Learn more about the project focus areas: Native Food Distribution – Providing Food to Community Food distribution projects aim to increase access to healthy, culturally relevant foods within Native communities by supporting food distribution efforts, strengthening local food networks, and addressing food insecurity.

These projects prioritize traditional and locally sourced foods while enhancing the capacity of Native food programs and initiatives to serve their communities effectively. Funding may support infrastructure, operations, and educational efforts that align with Native food sovereignty principles.

Allowable activities may include: Infrastructure & Equipment Support: Establishing or upgrading food storage facilities, including refrigeration and freezers for perishable traditional foods. Purchasing shelving, bulk storage containers, and food distribution equipment. Improving food distribution hubs to increase efficiency and reach.

Procuring traditional and locally sourced foods, including wild game, fish, and heirloom crops. Partnering with Native producers, hunters, and fishers to integrate traditional foods into pantry offerings. Establishing relationships with regional food banks and suppliers to enhance food availability.

Community Access & Engagement: Organizing community food distribution events, including traditional meal giveaways. Implementing delivery services for Elders, disabled community members, and those with limited transportation. Developing culturally appropriate food assistance programs that reflect community food preferences.

Operational Capacity & Professional Development: Training and supporting pantry staff and volunteers in culturally relevant food distribution. Enhancing food safety protocols, inventory management systems, and operational best practices. Providing stipends for community members involved in food harvesting and preparation.

Food Life Cycle – Strengthening Any Point in the Cycle Food Life Cycle projects focus on strengthening the movement of food across the cycle – origin, tending, harvesting, processing, sharing, consumption, enrichment – by identifying and addressing specific Native food security challenges where the food life cycle can be uplifted and strengthened.

As communities improve upon inefficiencies, inequities, deficiencies, and disparities of their food life cycle, they produce a continuous and regenerative food system. Opportunities to Uplift in the Food Life Cycle: Food Origins: Improve the conditions of a food’s origin points or where a food life cycle begins within a Native community. Tending: Improve the ability to cultivate and manage food sources on a community scale.

Harvesting: Improve the ability to gather or harvest foods responsibility at community scale Processing: Improve the ability to safely and efficiently process foods, ensuring they remain fresh and suitable for storage or transportation on a community scale. Sharing: Improve the ability to offer food at the community scale.

Consumption: Improve the ability for Native communities to have access to a nutritionally rich and culturally relevant diet. Waste to Enrichment: Improve the knowledge or ability to enrich the upcoming food cycle by supporting responsible waste management.

Challenges to Address in the Food Life Cycle: Inefficiencies: Wasted resources (time, money, labor, materials) due to poor processes, systems, or decision-making, preventing optimal outcomes. Deficiencies: Gaps, shortcomings, or inadequacies in a system, service, or resource, indicating something is lacking or not meeting a required standard.

Inequities: Unfair, systemic imbalances in access, resources, or opportunities, often caused by structural barriers or discrimination. Disparities: Measurable differences between groups, which can result from inequities, deficiencies, or other factors. Not all disparities are caused by inequities, but many are.

Wild Food Harvesting – Hunting, Fishing, and Gathering The Wild Food Harvesting projects support Native communities in sustaining traditional hunting, fishing, and gathering practices, reinforcing connections to cultural foodways. These projects promote knowledge-sharing and responsible harvesting while strengthening Native food security.

Project activities may include: Access to Place: Lands, waters, and the natural environment Hunting Training: Workshops on traditional hunting techniques, tracking, safety, and ethical harvesting. Wild Game Harvest Training: Training on firearms handling, species identification, hunting regulations, and sustainable practices.

Wild Fruits Gathering & Processing: Education on identifying, harvesting, and processing wild fruits, herbs, and plants. Guided Fishing Activities: Traditional fishing instruction, water navigation, fish handling, and conservation practices. Habitat Creation & Restoration: Initiatives such as tree planting, water restoration, and sustainable land management.

Educational Resources: Development of materials and programs on gathering, processing, and cooking traditional foods. Transportation and Travel Support: Funding for learning exchanges, either for participant’s travel or transportation to learn or bringing in knowledge holders.

Equipment Provision: Essential gear for wild food harvesting, including: Fishing, hunting, and harvesting gear Food storage and processing supplies Resilient Native Foodway – Response and Preparedness Resilient Native Foodway projects support Native communities in strengthening food security in response to climate change and natural disasters.

This initiative funds food security projects that enhance preparedness, response, and recovery efforts while prioritizing traditional ecological knowledge and community-driven solutions to build long-term food system resilience.

Project initiatives may include: Response & Preparedness: Supporting immediate relief efforts and long-term strategies that strengthen local capacity to respond to climate-related disasters in Native food systems, including food production, storage, distribution, and emergency planning to ensure food security in crisis.

Habitat Restoration & Water Security: Revitalizing systems critical to Indigenous foodways by restoring watersheds, forests, and soil health, improving water quality, retention, and access, and investing in conservation strategies to sustain agriculture, aquaculture, and food practices.

Climate Adaptation & Mitigation: Promoting climate-adapted agriculture, regenerative farming, and traditional land stewardship practices that enhance food production while reducing environmental impacts.

Infrastructure & Native Food Distribution Resilience: Strengthening food storage, processing, and distribution networks to withstand climate disruptions, incorporating renewable energy solutions, and supporting localized food hubs to sustain Native producers and consumers.

Traditional Knowledge & Capacity Building: Revitalizing and strengthening Indigenous food knowledge and land stewardship practices through mentorship, intergenerational learning, and community-led training on traditional practices, climate resilience and disaster preparedness.

Policy & Advocacy for Food Security: Advancing Tribal policies that promote climate resilience, strengthen food security, protect Native lands and waters, and uphold the rights of Indigenous communities to control their food systems. These examples illustrate possible project activities but do not represent an exhaustive list of the allowable activities. Participation in any of these activities is not a requirement of this funding.

The grant duration for this funding opportunity will be one year, June 1, 2026, to June 1, 2027. First Nations will award up to 12 grants for projects. Total requests for project budgets within this funding opportunity can be from $10,000 up to $40,000 and must be supported with a budget included in the submitted application.

See the Required Attachments section, under Application information. Application Close – Tuesday, April 14, 2026, 5 pm MT Applicant Notifications – May 2026 Applications are due Tuesday, April 14, 2026, no later than 5 pm Mountain Time. Unfortunately, First Nations cannot make any exceptions to the application deadline.

Partial applications, incomplete applications due to user error, or faxed/emailed/mailed applications will not be considered unless they have received prior approval from First Nations. Access a PDF of this RFP here Project partners must be Native-controlled organizations, working in alignment with one or more of the project focus areas.

First Nations defines “Native-controlled” as an organization in which a majority of the Board of Directors and leadership team are Native American, Alaska Native, or Native Hawaiian. Organizations that are not Native-controlled are not eligible to apply (with or without a fiscal sponsor).

Types of eligible institutions include: Federal- and State-Recognized Tribal Governments (Tribal Government Programs, such as Tribal Culture or Arts Programs, Education Departments, Agriculture Programs) Native-controlled 501(c)(3) nonprofits Native-controlled community organizations with fiscal sponsorship Native 7871 Organizations Current grantees: If you have a current grant with First Nations Development Institute that is in good standing you are eligible and invited to apply.

Please refer to the Grantmaking FAQ section for further insight regarding applicant eligibility. All applicants must complete the First Nations online grant application, including submission of necessary attachments, no later than Tuesday, April 14, 2026, by 5 pm Mountain Time. NOTE: Please check your Junk or Spam folder if an email is not received within 24 hours.

Once in the online portal, click on the “Apply for Funding” text in the menu on the left. Listed on the Apply for Funding page will be a section for the Native Food Security Grant application with a green “Apply Now” button. Click on the button to access the application.

All applicants will receive confirmation of submission after completing the grant application form via email from First Nations Grantmaking ( do-not-reply. grants07-us-east-1@fluxx. io to the submitters email address.

Please check junk or spam folders should this email not arrive. First Nations recognizes that some of our most rural and remote applicants may have limited access to high-speed internet. Any exceptions to use of the online system must be made two weeks in advance of the application deadline by submitting an email request to grantmaking@firstnations.

org . Please include your name, organization, contact information, and the name of the application for which you are applying. If you do not have access to email, you can call our office at (303) 774-7836 and ask to speak with a member of the Grantmaking Department.

Important Note: Please allow enough time to submit a complete application before the deadline, as the online system will not allow you to submit the application after 5 pm MT on Tuesday, April 14, 2026, and no data may be entered thereafter. Partial, faxed, emailed, or mailed applications that are not received on time due to user error will not be considered.

Any requests for exemptions to the online system must be received no later than two weeks before the deadline. Applicants will be asked to submit the following materials for consideration. The following attachments must be uploaded during the online submission process: Budget.

An estimated budget for the proposed project with a detailed cost breakdown that is reasonable and directly related to proposed grant activities. ( Download Budget Template ) Timeline. A detailed project timeline that documents important project goals, milestones, and benchmarks.

Include who will be responsible for the steps and when they will be completed. Tax-Status Documentation. A copy of the organizations or fiscal sponsor’s IRS Determination Letter if the applicant is a 501(c)(3) organization or a community organization using a fiscal sponsor.

Tribal programs and governments may submit proof that they are a federal- or state-recognized tribe. Leadership & Staff List. Tribal programs and governments should submit a list of their Tribal Council in lieu of a Board of Directors.

Native-controlled nonprofits should submit a list of their Board of Directors, with tribal affiliation (if applicable). Community organizations with fiscal sponsors should submit a list of their own leadership team (not the fiscal sponsor’s), with tribal affiliation (if applicable). List key staff and tribal affiliation (if applicable) – optional but recommended.

All applicants must complete the First Nations online grant application, including submission of necessary attachments, no later than Tuesday, April 14, 2026, by 5 pm Mountain Time.

First Nations will award grants based on the following selection criteria: Focus Area (15 Points): The project must have one clearly defined primary focus aligning with grant objectives, with any optional secondary focus areas enhancing impact (note: having a second focus area doesn’t affect the scoring of applications). A strong narrative should connect project goals to Native food security.

Project, Budget, & Timeline (30 Points): The project summary must outline objectives and scope, with a justified and reasonable funding request. A well-organized, detailed, and realistic budget is required, along with a clear implementation plan that includes key milestones. Potential challenges should be identified with feasible solutions.

Community Impact & Equity (35 Points): The project clearly defines the community served and demonstrates one or more of the following measurable benefits to Native communities: The incorporation of Indigenous knowledge, values, or governance Partnerships with Tribal and community organizations Equity considerations prioritize Native populations Priority Scoring (20 Points): Additional points are awarded for tribally led projects, inclusion of traditional foods, first-time applicants with First Nations, projects in rural areas or located on reservation.

Grantees will be required to submit one written final report at the end of the grant period summarizing grant activities, budget expenditures, quantifiable outputs, challenges, and lessons learned. One evaluation survey and/or interview may take place during the grant period to better understand Native community needs and experience.

Reporting and evaluation activities enable First Nations to gain a further understanding of projects supporting the Native Agriculture and Food Systems Investments program. A detailed list of requirements will be outlined in the grant agreement letter. Should you have any additional questions about the RFA or this specific funding opportunity, please contact the Native Agriculture and Food Systems Investment team at NAFSI@firstnations.

org . If you have questions about or need support with the grant application system, please contact the Grantmaking department at grantmaking@firstnations. org or by phone at (303) 774-7836.

First Nations has compiled several free resources related to the grant writing process. Whether you are a small organization new to grants or an organization with extensive experience, these resources may help with the submission of your application to First Nations. Please click here to access First Nations’ free grant-writing resources.

Application Deadline: Tuesday, April 14, 2026, 5 pm Mountain Time. Connect with First Nations: First Nations Development Institute First Nations Development Institute First Nations Development Institute 696 E. Colorado Boulevard, Suite 222