CREATING FIRST NATIONS JOBS GROWING

Hi. I am Joe Munroe. I am of Cree/Metis decent. I come from a long line of people who worked on the land, who fed their families from the land. We can do that again.
·      I am asking you to help people in my community—Muskoday First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada—get off welfare and into the work force while achieving food security and better health.

·      I know this concept can work because I have helped several First Nations communities since 2005 to create jobs growing potatoes and other vegetables.

·      We started a growers’ co-op at Muskoday in 2005. 95% of the 83 people who worked in our organic vegetable production projects here at Muskoday from 2007-2012 found jobs after our summer projects ended and have stayed off welfare since.



·      We also helped to set up market gardens at Flying Dust First Nation, starting in 2008. Flying Dust now has a contract to sell organic vegetables to a major grocery chain.

·      Unfortunately, our project was discontinued when our funder ceased operations in Canada. But I think we can restart the project if we can get some seed money to buy a tractor and some row crop equipment. That’s why we are contacting you.

·      Once we get the seed money and get the land ready for growing, we can access federal and provincial funding for training and job creation.

 
I know we can reduce hunger and poverty in First Nations communities through gardening.

·      I grew up at Muskoday First Nation and worked on my family’s farm and gardens as a youth.

·      Later, I was worked for Heifer Project International-Canada as Indigenous Peoples’ Field Coordinator, where I facilitated organic production projects in First Nations Communities.

·      Our business plan shows that we can make these projects sustainable, but first we need seed money—$15,000—to initiate Stage 1 of the project.

·      What we need is a good used tractor and cultivation equipment to prepare land this year for growing next year. We would also make this equipment available to nearby communities to start their own market gardens.

 
If you’d like to know more about the background and philosophy of our project, please check out these videos:

·      This is an APTV documentary that features our project called: The Great Laws of Nature: Indigenous Organic Agriculture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn1ym5r7pqg  

·      This is a talk I gave to the Bioneers Conference in California called: Joe Munroe - Indigenous Organic Farming & Healthy Economics
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wjG0iMnvyQ


Please contribute generously to our project!