By Delia Nickson
Katie Chustak’s Innovative Programming at Red Cloud
From a young age, Katie Chustak loved being outside and cultivating crops, and her hobbies led to a passion for sustainable food and farming systems. After studying sustainable food and farming systems and agricultural education at Purdue University, Chustak went to participate in the volunteer program at Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where she was able to apply this passion. Today, Red Cloud has a new greenhouse that was built to promote STEM education, as well as a school garden.
When Chustak began her work at Red Cloud, the Lakota Food Sovereignty Coalition was just starting to come together, in response to a growing need to determine ways to develop food systems and promote community health while sustaining cultural knowledge of traditional Lakota foods and medicines. Serving as director of food sovereignty at Red Cloud, Chustak is integrating her knowledge into their school garden program.
“As we see the effects of climate change growing and heightening, I think environmental health is becoming more and more urgent, but also environmental food justice.”
In her work, Chustak has been drawn specifically to food sovereignty playing a supportive role for Indigenous food. She says, “As we see the effects of climate change growing and heightening, I think environmental health is becoming more and more urgent, but also environmental food justice.”
While Chustak has made plenty of progress with the school greenhouse and garden, she continues to plan and set goals for the future. After a lot of fine-tuning, the greenhouse is growing all four seasons, but obstacles still arise with an extreme climate. This past winter was especially intense and brought on an emerging insect problem in their garden. “We’re having a terrible time with grasshoppers,” Chustak says. “It sounds kind of funny, but they’re taking our tomatoes and peppers!” In order to combat this new issue, Chustak has started planning for integrated pest management, in addition to maintaining the soil’s health, so that they can continue to be good stewards of the land.
She is also focusing on conserving water with their irrigation by using drip lines and adding a layer of straw and mulch to prevent evaporation while continuing to conserve water.
As for big plans, Chustak is putting an emphasis on partnering with the school cafeteria this year to try and incorporate Lakota culture in menu items, as well as locally grown and produced foods.
Delia Nickson is a Marquette University senior majoring in environmental studies. She interned for the USA Midwest Province Jesuits in summer of 2022.
On top of the thriving school garden, Chustak has introduced a community farmers market, which has been exciting for everyone involved. The market provides an affordable way to purchase locally grown produce and gives the community an opportunity to gather around food. Chustak is a strong believer in the social aspect of food and how cultures and communities are built in those relations.
The farmers market also benefits the community by offering a way for local producers to come sell their products. One of these vendors is the small-scale ranch Homegrown Pork and Poultry, which is located within the boundaries of the Oglala Lakota Nation. Chustak says, “It’s been great to be able to provide them [homegrown pork and poultry] from a local market in Pine Ridge, because they’d usually be going up to Rapid City or places off the reservation.”
Chustak has plenty of exciting plans for the new school year as she continues her mission of educating students on food sovereignty and promoting community health.
