South Dakota
The Center has a decade of experience providing assistance to affordable housing groups in the state. Now, CCC is working to build new Native American-led grassroots organizing groups in South Dakota because it has few community-based organizations representing and serving low-income people. In Rapid City, where Native Americans constitute over 10 percent of the population, there are few such organizations operated by Native Americans. The Rural Northwest Team’s goal in South Dakota is to identify indigenous leaders and to create new organizations that build the power and serve the interests of low-income people, particularly Native Americans.
Since the beginning of 2003, the Rural Northwest Team has been working with Native American groups and other allies to identify issues that have the potential of bringing low-income people together to create new grassroots organizations in the South Dakota. In 2003, the Rural Northwest Team made extensive site visits and conducted interviews in the state, resulting in a detailed “blueprint” for future work.
As part of this assessment, interviews were conducted with Head Start program staff serving children: on the Cheyenne, Pine Ridge, and Rosebud reservations; in largely white rural counties in western South Dakota; and, in white and Native American communities of Rapid City. In these interviews, a number of concerns emerged related to hunger: inadequate income to buy enough food, problems getting or keeping food stamps, access to grocery stores in rural areas, and the adverse effects of hunger on children’s development.
In response, the Rural Northwest Team sponsored a household food security study in cooperation with Rural America Initiatives Head Start, Youth and Family Services Head Start, and Pine Ridge Head Start. Over 400 low-income parents were interviewed, and 20 focus groups were conducted. The Chiesman Foundation’s Institute for Educational Leadership and Development evaluated all of the information gathered.
The study found that many lower-income households, especially those on reservations and in rural areas, have problems avoiding hunger. Key issues identified in the report include:
- 20% of the parents reported that some of their children skipped meals because there was not enough food.
- 75% of Indian Reservation families “often” or “sometimes” ran out of food and could not buy more.
- The South Dakota food stamp application is 18 pages long, very complex, and difficult to complete.
- South Dakota’s sales tax on groceries can reduce a low-income family’s purchasing power by 5%. Repealing the food tax would save families between $300 and $400 a year.
A summary of the study and the full report called “Hunger in South Dakota, And What State Leaders Can Do About It,” are available at CCC's Rural Publications Page
By identifying barriers, educating the public, and helping communities organize for policy change, the net result of this project will be increased access to food and reduced hunger. Through this study, the Rural Northwest Team made contact with hundreds of struggling families (primarily Native American) who can be organized to participate in efforts to address food insecurity, as well as a range of other issues that matter to low-income communities.
By engaging low-income people and community leaders in this process, the Rural Northwest Team intends to lay the groundwork for a new, progressive organization in the state, starting in western South Dakota. Toward that end,
30 Native American leaders and hunger study participants gathered in August 2004 to develop a plan to address food insecurity. In addition, there was an initial discussion regarding creation of a sponsoring committee of leaders to consider building grassroots organizing in South Dakota.
The Center for Community Change is committed to providing the necessary resources, organizational development assistance, and staffing to support the creation and growth of the resulting organization, which the Rural Northwest Team plans to launch in 2005. CCC will remain intensively engaged in this project until it has the resources, skilled leadership, and support system needed to be sustainable over the long run.
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