environmental goals.

>> Reporting from Madison.

I'm Zach Schultz for "Here& Now".

>> To combat health disparities on the Oneida reservation.

Ukwakhwa or our foods is using a $250,000 grant to provide culinary knowledge and ancestral education to the Oneida tribal community "Here& Now".

Reporter Erica Ayisi traveled to De Pere to learn more about the.

From Seed to Table program.

This report is in partnership with Icty, formerly Indian Country Today.

>> Eldon Powless is an Oneida chef.

He's making lunch at Ukwakhwa or our Foods kitchen on the Oneida Reservation near green Bay.

>> Here I get to just do what I want.

They're just like, as long as it's.

As long as it tastes as good and it's nutritious.

Go ahead.

Comfort Bowl is an indigenous take on southern comfort food.

>> I wanted to do like a little twist on that and use wild rice and use the beans that we have and whatever we have available.

>> Local Ukwakhwa is in a restaurant, but Powless is their guest chef for this week's meal.

He says he uses some heirloom indigenous foods that are harvested on their farm.

The Oneida way.

>> I try to like, incorporate whatever we can get locally.

>> His recipe of diced celery, onions, carrots and locally sourced wild rice are added to a butter cream sauce with roasted corn.

Black beans.

Simmer in braised smoked ham hocks on the side.

>> Larsson.

Stieg.

Yeah.

>> Stephen Webster is director of farm and culinary operations at Ukwakhwa.

He says they're from sea to table grants with the Wisconsin Partnership Program subsidizes sales of hot lunches made by indigenous chefs to restore wellness to their diets.

>> They get a stipend.

They cook about 80 to 100 meals for the community.

The community then puts in orders how many we want, and then we pretty much disburse those meals throughout the community.

>> Webster says their grant program offers community members meals rooted in ancestral knowledge for modern living, integrating traditional ingredients like corn and beans with contemporary cuisine.

>> The goal of this was to try to expand people's palates.

>> The grant also subsidizes hands on meal preparation workshops using products harvested on the reservation.

>> We've had people make maple seed cookies, which blows my mind sometimes where I was like, it was, there was no gluten in it.

>> Webster says.

In this first year, the program is meeting its goals.

>> Like we did 1393 meals just through the Hot Meal Noon program.

And then we did another 80 some meals through the the meal prep class I talked about.

>> Webster says meals like the Northern Comfort Bowl would cost about $30 each in local restaurants, but Ukwakhwa is able to offer it here for $13 to the Oneida community due to the reduced pricing by the grant.

Webster says he hopes to continue the same pricing when funding ends.

>> But now I feel like we're much stronger from a logistics standpoint to take on this stuff in the future.

programs help the Oneida community reconnect to their indigenous foodways from a time when their ancestors were relocated from New York to Wisconsin in the early 1800s.

>> When they came here again, it was they were following Christian missionaries, but they were still people who practice our our traditions, our language and all that other stuff.

And a lot of those seeds came with them as well.

about indigenous cultivation?

most people are aware of is companion planting.

The three Sisters style of planting.

>> He says.

Maintaining oneida's agricultural methods of planting varieties of corn, beans and seeds next to each other is a balancing act of traditional and modern farming.

>> For 2 or 3 people like me and my wife to do it, we have to use the tractor, we have to do stuff, but we still make it a point to hand plant and hand Weid and so forth to keep those traditions alive.

>> Twice a month, the Ukwakhwa team delivers their culturally relevant meals to seven different drop off sites along the Oneida Tribal Department's route.

Webster Ana Ukwakhwa staff and volunteers packed up his truck with dozens of hot and ready, preordered meals prepared by that week's chef.

>> Hello there.

You get a bite one.

All right.

>> Toni House picked up her three meals at the Ukwakhwa farm, reflecting on her childhood memories of food insecurity from colonization.

>> I remember what it was like to be hungry as a child, you know?

And I remember thinking, how come people didn't hand me good foods?

>> She says the program will help younger children have an appetite and desire for healthy indigenous meals.

>> Nutrition right here impacts three generations automatically.

Scientifically.

We know that.

Now.

>> Back in the Ukwakhwa kitchen, Powless says, traditional indigenous ingredients can be cooked with love and risk while exploring new recipes.

>> You don't have to be super traditional and make it a certain way you can incorporate it however you would like.

>> Webster says.

From seed to table incorporates the past.

>> Make sure that we kind of like go back as much as we can.

>> For a healthier diet in the future.

>> To what maybe our ancestors were eating to help combat some of that and address some of that.