People come and go to chat and pour themselves a cup of coffee at a weekday breakfast service in Lame Deer.
The pantry is one of the only food options here in Lame Deer, a 2,000-person community at least 40 miles away from the nearest Interstate. The pantry lost its stable location after COVID and operates out of an auto garage, next to Lame Deer’s only gas station and grocery store.
To shop, people either pay local prices or drive to larger communities like Billings, more than an hour west.
The pantry estimates they distribute around 100 boxes of food monthly, many to multifamily households and elders without transportation. Pantry director Emma Harris said they follow culturally-informed practices where they can.
“You bless the food that has come in so when you take it out, that individual who gets that box gets blessings along with the food. In that aspect, we’re kind of a little bit different because we want to keep our Cheyenne ways in place,” said Harris.
She said they follow similar practices when cooking, but don’t have access to a kitchen in their current building. That’s part of why they want to build a new one.
The pantry is close to getting not just a permanent location, but also an expansion of their services around traditional foods and practices. The pantry aspires to grow as a shared space and a community resource.
Harris is the driving force. She said they’re finalizing a cost analysis for a new building that would include features like a public garden where members can grow their own plants and herbs.
“Because we want kind of a place for the community, we want a food demonstration area, some spaces where we could rent out to different organizations if they have a need,” said Harris.
She said she hopes renting out space in the new building will give the pantry a steady revenue stream. Right now, she writes all the grants.
“We kind of float along,” said Harris. “We don't have a huge budget, but it seems like every time it starts going down, then something else comes in. And so it kind of carries us.”
The field they plan to build on is just a couple of minutes away by car, east of the roundabout at the center of town.
Harris has big plans for this property if they can get the money. She says that’s why the pantry is working on completing a feasibility study, to show potential funders what they would be bankrolling.
“You just constantly have to search, search all the time for funding,” said Harris.
A pantry like this is more than a food resource to organizers who work with Tribal communities, like Jill Falcon Ramaker at Montana State University.
“It’s supporting Indigenous self determination and folks taking care of one another in their communities,” she said.
Ramaker is Turtle Mountain Anishinaabe and the director of the Buffalo Nations Food System Initiative, a food sovereignty program aimed at restoring Indigenous food systems.
“The current circumstances over the last 150 years have created a number of barriers, a number of challenges,” she said. “But the remnants of our way of life, we still stand in it.”
Back at the food pantry, the staff includes several volunteers who return the organization’s support by pitching in, like Raymond Holmes.
“It’s really helping the people, helping the elders,” said Holmes. “The ones that can’t get around and the handicapped ones, and I’m doing the same thing. Working with them, and it helps me and I help them.”
According to Harris, that’s what keeps the pantry going.
“I think the Creator kind of looks out for this place because it’s a much needed benefit for the people, and the people that are here make it. They’re the ones that make it successful.”
