COVID-19 is exposing the food deserts around Native American reservations
The pandemic has also hit Indian Country disproportionately hard, both in terms of job loss and in terms of infection rates. (Unsplash/)The disproportionate impact of COVID-19 in Native communities around the United States is the result of historical and current systemic racism that has siloed Tribes and prevented them from using their resources effectively, experts say. One place where this manifests is in food security.For Native people who live in remote areas, the ongoing pandemic’s interruption to food supply has made getting food complicated. In normal times, many remote Tribes need to drive to grocery stores that are an hour or more away. With pandemic-related panic buying, what’s there when people arrive isn’t always even helpful.“You’re driving two hours to get to a place where there’s bare and empty shelves,” says Valarie Blue Bird Jernigan, who is a citizen of the Choctaw Nation and the executive director of Oklahoma State...