The Osage Nation is launching a new food assistance program.
Recipients will receive $250 annually to spend at the nation's Butcher House Meats and Harvest Land facilities, which were opened during the COVID-19 pandemic with the support of federal funds.
Any member of Osage Nation over the age of 18 is eligible to apply for the program, regardless of income, as long as they have a physical address to receive food orders or the ability to pick up food in person on the nation's reservation. The online application for the program opened June 1 and will close June 30, according to Jann Hayman, the Osage Nation's Secretary of Natural Resources.
Osage Nation Congresswoman Alice Goodfox sponsored the 2025 legislation that appropriated funds to the assistance program.
"What I'm excited most about is that it serves two purposes," Goodfox said in a phone interview. "It provides grocery assistance for Osage citizens that need it, and number two, it keeps our dollars within our government."
The Osage Nation will award the first round of benefits to 1,000 applicants for a shortened assistance period ending in September at the conclusion of the fiscal year, Hayman said. After the Osage Nation Congress completes its budgeting process for the next fiscal year, the nation will begin issuing the funds annually, she said.
This program is the nation's first year-round food assistance service that does not set an income requirement, Hayman said. The Osage Nation also administers a food distribution program for low-income families living on their reservation, and a summer assistance program for children through the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma's Summer Food Service Feeding Program, according to the nation's website.
"With the rising cost of everything, it seems that it's becoming more and more difficult for regular households who don't fit any low income guidelines to just afford high-quality food," Hayman said. "It's becoming more difficult for just families in general through these economic times and, you know, the stressors that everybody's facing every day. So I think that this is really important 'cause it opens it up to everybody."
Rates of food insecurity among Indigenous households exceed the national average, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported in 2024. Over the past year, food and energy costs have been rising across the country, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Hayman said that there are no restrictions on what food items participants can purchase from Butcher House Meats and Harvest Land. She said it was significant that the program would support the Osage's own food systems, and that recipients would know exactly where their food came from. She described some culturally significant foods, like squash, bison and suet, that are available to buyers at the tribe-owned facilities.
Osage Nation members have already told Goodfox, the congresswoman, that their "prayers are being answered." Families, she said, have described wanting more direct assistance programs from the nation, rather than supplements to existing services like the nation's Health Benefit Plan.
Hayman said she would ask Osage Nation members for patience as her office rolls out the program and finalizes its logistics. As of Thursday morning, the nation had already received 975 applications for the benefit program, she said.
"For me, that just kind of shows how important this program is, that people need this, people need help and people need and want to utilize those facilities, and that what we're doing is important," Hayman said.
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