For rural Native communities, affordable groceries can be hours away

Like many tribes on the peninsula, residents on the Hoh reservation have long dealt with its distance from grocery stores. In general, rural areas with small populations throughout the country tend to lack reliable access to them. State legislators have attempted to untangle the issues surrounding food access in Washington through food pantries and banks, which have been a staple in the system that seeks to help rural communities get the food they need.

But emergency assistance can’t fix food inaccessibility on its own.

A recent report from the Washington Department of Agriculture shows that last year tribal members made over 35,000 visits to food pantries, an increase of 18%. WSDA Food Assistance Program Manager Kim Eads describes these visits as supplemental, as visitors received about 7.6 pounds of food per visit, “so it still does not meet all the needs.”