NMS Deliciously Indigenous by NMS USA

Deliciously Indigenous

Birch Sourdough Biscuits, Salmon Belly Soup, Reindeer Stew, Beach Asparagus

Salad, Fiddlehead Pizza, Tundra Moose Meatloaf, Akutaq, Seal Soup, Herring

Eggs Salad, Reindeer Pot Pie, Fireweed Jelly, Cod Tacos, Beach Greens Salad,

Pickled Fiddleheads, Fried Salmon Skins, Rosehip Chutney, Caribou Dry Meat,

Spruce Panacotta, Beach Asparagus Salsa, Smoked Salmon On Pilot Bread,

Rhubarb Bread, Nasturtium Capers, Pickled Baby Bull Kelp, Frybread, Devil’s

Club Pesto, Salmon Caesar Salad, Reindeer Sausage, Fish Pie, Blueberry

Salmon Lox, Chagamisu, Fish Head Soup, Bison Ribs, Seaweed Soup, Moose

Stroganoff, Dandelion Jelly, Smoked Hooligan, Fireweed Chai Tea, Yarrow

Cookies, Nettle Pesto, Juniper Macaroon, Pirok, Crab Apple Butter, Pickled

Ferns, Moose Head Soup, Bull Kelp Jelly, Pickled Salmon, Seal Oil, Rose Petal

Jelly, Pineappleweed Jelly, Pickled Blueberries, Moose Soup, Creamy Beach

Greens Soup, Cranberry Pudding, Blueberry Pudding, Chocolate Sesame Seed

Weed Bark, Beach Asparagus Kimchee, Spruce Tip Salsa, Candied Spruce Tips, Cranberry Mustard, Birch Glazed Salmon, Chaga Glazed Duck, Salmon Bacon

Brittle, Cranberry Kulich, Moose Stuffed Cabbage Leaves, Bull Kelp Bbq Sauce

Traditional and Indigenous foods are an essential way of life for our people.

THEY ARE HEALING. THEY ARE COMFORTING. THEY ARE HOME.

THIS IS THE STORY OF OUR TRADITIONAL FOODS PROGRAM.

01. STORIES

OUR STORY

Our story spans thousands of years. For generations, the Iñupiat have existed in northern Alaska, and in 1972, under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, our parent company NANA Regional Corporation was formed. Shortly after, NMS was born.

In the 50 years since, we have set the standard for providing essential support services to businesses throughout Alaska and across North America.

We are not your average food service provider. We understand the value of incorporating culture into our operations for our clients and we do this better than anyone.

From food service to cleaning and from facilities management to security, we blend traditional values and modern solutions into everything we do.

DELICIOUSLY INDIGENOUS

Traditional and Indigenous foods are an essential way of life for our people.

Given our culture and our services, we understood the unmet need of providing traditional foods on menus across healthcare, education and commercial entities. And we wanted to do something about it. It was our chance to shape the future of food service in Alaska.

Our team at NMS galvanized, lobbied, and advocated for the passing of the 2014 Farm Bill. When it passed, we were ready. Ready with menus, operations, and a vision for the future to make traditional foods a staple in our food service program.

Today, we incorporate Indigenous foods into our menus not only for the Alaska Native Medical Center, but for all our sites. Places like Marlow Manner, Nullaˊgvik Hotel, Thirty Nine Restaurant, ManiilaqAssociation and Bristol Bay Area Health Corporation.

Traditional foods are in our DNA. We call it

BERTHA AND THE HERRING EGGS

Bertha was an Alaska Native Elder who had traveled hundreds of miles away from her village to receive medical care. Like many patients, her first days at the hospital were jarring. She was far from the comforts of home and facing fears that come with hospitalization. Bertha yearned for a source of comfort. To heal, she needed a connection to home that wasn’t provided by modern medicine.

Bertha’s hospital room was inundated with unfamiliar people, so it came as a surprise when, finally, something familiar came through the door. The NMS team had

prepared traditional herring eggs—a dish that is nonexistent on a standard hospital menu—and had them sent to Bertha’s room.

Upon eating her first bite, Bertha’s entire demeanor changed. Hertired, hardened expression gave way to a warm, rapturous smile.

In that moment, she had been transported home. She was connected back to her culture. And culture heals.

That seemingly simple exchange of herring eggs led to a monumental shift in how we provide food to our Alaska Native patients.

How

DISCOVERING MEDICINE IN HOSPITAL FOOD

BY CYNTHIA DAVIS NMS PAST AREA GENERAL MANAGER

When I moved from Florida to Alaska, traditional foods meant peanut butter and jelly and chicken noodle soup. Chef Amy and I joined the team at NMS at the same time but came with very different backgrounds. She came with an understanding of hunting and gathering and brought coolers of wild game meat to the hospital. I came from a food management background but with no understanding of Alaska. The hunting tool I brought with me was my Costco card.

When our first traditional foods donation came in, I didn’t know what to do with it. In fact, I couldn’t even see the food.

A box of herring eggs arrived from Ketchikan. Chef Amy blanched and removed the eggs from the branches.

That small box turned into 100-150 portions by making a salad with the eggs sprinkled in like sesame seeds.

I was dressed in a business suit when I walked into the first patient's room to deliver this new dish. She eyed me with a look of Whatever you’re selling, I'm not interested. I greeted her with a huge smile.

"I have a gift for you." What could you possibly have for me?

"I have herring eggs!"

What do you know about herring eggs?

"Nothing. But I heard you do."

She looked at the cup and took a small bite. The energy in the room changed completely. Her wrinkles softened, her eyes closed, and I could feel her going back to somewhere—somewhere in her past where she was comforted and happy. It was such a magical moment. I didn’t fully comprehend the significance at the time, but I knew we made a difference.

I have learned a lot since I first arrived in Alaska with my Costco card. I’ve learned that harvesting wild salmon is not a hobby but an intergenerational gathering that has been practiced and celebrated for thousands of years. I’ve learned the value in admitting that I don’t know and in appreciating the lessons learned from others who know more.

Most importantly, I have discovered that food is medicine and it heals.

Thank you, Bertha, I will never forget what you taught me.

“Not only can traditional foods nourish our body, they can nourish our soul.”

VIVIAN ECHAVARRIA ANTHC VICE PRESIDENT OF PROFESSIONAL & SUPPORT SERVICES

02. OUR PROGRAMS

TRADITIONAL FOODS DONATION PROGRAM

As Alaska Native people, we follow a lifestyle where cultural traditions lead to healthy living and where subsistance is more than survival. Traditional foods bring meaning and connection to our people, to our culture, and to our lands. By focusing on traditional foods, we support the overall health of our people.

Translating a subsistence lifestyle to food service programs and getting these foods on hospital menus was an important milestone in ensuring that we are taking care of our people when they are away from home.

The herring eggs Bertha ate were from our first Traditional Foods Program donation. This donation was made possible by the Ketchikan Indian Community and the passage of the 2014 Farm Bill which included specific language to shield Tribal organizations from liability in receiving and serving traditional foods in hospitals, long-term care facilities, senior and childcare centers.

For years, Alaska Native leaders including NANA shareholders negotiated with the federal government for permission to serve traditional foods. The 2014 Farm Bill established major changes in commodity programs including the expansion for specialty foods such as traditional and subsistence foods from rural communities.

Led by the Indigenous knowledge of Cyrus Harris, the guidance of the state of Alaska and the power of the Farm Bill, NMS Executive Chef Amy Foote developed the policy and procedures for the Traditional Food Program at ANMC in 2014. This comprehensive policy outlined the new Traditional Foods Program including details on what could be received, how it was received, how it would be handled, and where it would be stored.

Our policy has become the standard for many Tribal organizations as we share the path to making Alaskans the healthiest people in the world.

OUR FOOD AND NUTRITION PROGRAM

At NMS, our job is to create a unique culinary experience and a service spirit that will bring comfort and respite to those in need. From where we get our ingredients to how we prepare, present and serve meals, every part of the process is carefully considered by our team of experts.

Traditional Foods are integral to health and spiritual wellness. Our menus emphasize delicious, nutritious foods with an innovative focus on traditional foods, fresh choices and comforting foods to assist healing and recovery.

The partnerships we have built enable our team to provide the healing ingredients for our Elders and patients. Honoring our Elders and teaching our staff what it means is vital to our work.

“The reindeer stew at the hospital is out of this world.” ELDER

“I think Native foods make people happier.”

ELDER

EVOLUTION OF OUR MENU

After our first donation of herring eggs, the team at NMS was inspired to expand traditional food offerings.

We started by changing the usual patient food items to reflect Alaska. For example, spaghetti and meat sauce with reindeer instead of beef. Offering reindeer sausage next to pork sausage. Then, with a donated seal, Traditional Tuesdays was born.

The seal donation had been a lifelong mission for our donor—to provide his people the foods that they knew, loved, and would heal from.

We stretched the seal donation to several Tuesdays by serving soup. We started canvassing the hospital, sharing the healing soup with patients, as well as staff. We found ourselves providing important cultural education to the staff at the same time. The patients loved it. It was so popular patients began requesting it from neighboring hospitals.

We saw the value in providing traditional foods. We saw how it brought our patients comfort-and a new energy to the hospital. Now, we needed to find a way to make the program sustainable.

“I’ll have patients smell seal soup in the hallway and be texting someone back in the village ‘it smells like home,’ that in itself is really powerful.”

AMY FOOTE

NMS AREA EXECUTIVE CHEF & AREA GENERAL MANAGER

TRADITIONAL FOODS WISHLIST

Alaska Native peoples have followed a subsistence lifestyle of living off the land and sea, eating what is in season for thousands of years. While times have changed and stores now provide additional items, the tradition of using wild foods remains strong.

Traditional foods are comforting and healing. When our people are away from home—in a hospital—these foods provide more than sustenance. They heal.

The NMS kitchen blends commercially available products with wild ingredients to create dishes that look and smell and taste like home. Here is a wish list of items we accept and use in our Deliciously Indigenous Program.

PLANTS

Blueberries, Crowberries, Currants, Cranberries, Salmonberries, Raspberries, Gooseberries, Huckleberries, Cloudberries, Nagoonberries, Thimbleberries, Watermelon Berries, Wild Strawberries, Juniper Berries, Elderberries, Cedar

Leaf, Spruce Tips, Birch Water, Birch Bark Flour, Cottonwood Bud, Chaga, Crab

Apples, Fiddlehead Ferns, Wild Chive, Wild Celery, Cultivated & Wild Rhubarb, Nasturtiums, Forget-Me-Not Blooms, Clover, Chamomile, Chickweed, Labrador

Tea, Wild Rice (Chocolate Lily), Yarrow, Beach Asparagus, Beach Greens, Bull

Kelp, Black Seaweed, Bladderwrack, Goose Tongue, Lovage & Sea Lovage and Cattails.

GAME, FISH & SEAFOOD

Moose, Deer, Caribou, Elk, Bison, Musk Ox, Goat, Sheep, Snowshoe Hare, Beaver, Squirrel, Porcupine, Whale, Seal, Salmon, Salmon Eggs, Salmon Heads, Halibut, Flounder, Cod, Lingcod, Black Cod, Trout, Rockfish, Grayling, Sheefish, Pike, Hooligan, Whitefish, Whitefish Eggs, Herring, Herring Eggs, Bidarki, Octopus and Abalone.

COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE

Reindeer, Deer, Elk, Buffalo, Salmon, Smoked Salmon, Smoked Salmon Eggs, Halibut, Smoked Halibut, Shrimp, Cod, Black Cod, Crab, Octopus, Clams, Oysters and Smoked Herring Eggs.

03. HOW WE WORK

SOURCING TRADITIONAL FOODS

To keep a menu with predominantly traditional food items we receive donations, buy Alaska Grown, and have built several local partnerships.

We collect donated, hunted and gathered foods that meet our policy standards: Meat must be whole, quartered, or

roasts; Fish must be gutted and filleted, with or without heads; Plants must be whole, fresh or frozen.

We have an intake and storage program to manage donated foods. These donations help to reduce overall costs while providing food staples for our Alaska Native patients.

ALASKA GROWN

In Alaska, more than 95% of our food is shipped in from out of state. For fresh fruit and vegetables this is a death sentence. It’s especially hard for fresh leafy greens, so we source locally to increase the quality of our produce.

We support the Alaska Grown program as a strategic part of our plan and are always looking for new business partners. We work individually with farmers to develop plantings to support business in addition to our goal of traditional and biodiverse fruits and vegetables.

A few of our partners include:

• Alaska Flour Company

• Barnacle Foods

• Alaska Range Dairy

• Copper River Seafoods

• Chugach Chocolates

• Noble Ocean Farms

• Favco

• Indian Valley Meats

• 10th & M Seafoods

• Seagrove Kelp

• Tustumena Smokehouse

PROGRAM PARTNERSHIPS I

Imported foods for our patients must travel a minimum of 1,600 nautical miles from Seattle, taking more than seven days at sea. By creating local partnerships, we have more control over our food sources. This means more secure inventory, fresher produce, and higher quality.

Local partnerships also allow us to grow and cultivate foods native to Alaska without negatively impacting ancestral harvesting grounds.

SPRING CREEK FARM

We work with the Spring Creek Farm, operated by Alaska Pacific University at the Kellogg Campus, to grow seeds and test traditional plants as food. We collaborate with local farmers to reclaim traditional plants such as sour dock, pineapple weed, fiddlehead ferns, fireweed, mountain mint, sorrel and dandelion. These foods are nutrient dense and several offer medicinal powers.

TYONEK FARM

The Tyonek Farm is a community garden in the Kenai Peninsula Borough that engages youth to provide food for their Elders and their own school snack and lunch program. The program is a partnership between the Tyonek Tribal Conservation District and the Tebughna School. We purchase excess grown items from the farm to serve our patients.

MATANUSKA EXPERIMENTAL FARM

At the Matanuska Experimental Farm and Extension Center, operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks, we’re growing Tlingit and Haida potatoes. These are a traditional food and heirloom potato that is not being commercially grown. Our goal is to grow enough to produce a viable seed potato stock to move into more commercial volumes to heal our patients at the Alaska Native Medical Center. In 2022, we harvested over 250 pounds. We’re excited to continue this cycle and track the increase in production year-over-year.

SPACE FARMING INSTITUTE

We partner with the Space Farming Institute to research and develop reliable year-round techniques for growing traditional plants. We’re growing foods to increase nutritional value, research light spectrum for taste, and extend shelf life.

This partnership powers our Food Is Medicine pilot program, the first of its kind in the country and happening right here in Alaska. We’re at the nexus of food where we’re learning to grow traditional foods indoors, year-round and hydroponically.

The partnership between NMS, ANMC, and the Space Farming Institute has been so successful it’s caught the attention of the governor. He personally invited NMS Executive Chef Amy Foote to present at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference to share how we’ve developed scalable solutions using indoor agriculture to produce traditional plants.

Our work here means we’re regularly serving nutrient dense microgreens with fresh flowers that brings joy to our patients. We are making doctors, nurses, dietitians, chefs, farmers, and cultivators all part of our patient care team with a holistic approach to healing.

PARTNERSHIPS WORKING TOGETHER

Seedlings are harvested from UAF Experimental Farm and Extension Center land.

Seeds are then planted and grown into seedlings at the Space Farming Institute.

Vegetables are harvested and served to patients as part of our Traditional Foods Program.

Seeds are planted and cultivated at the APU Spring Creek Farm.

FISH RECLAMATION

For years, the commercial processing of fish has created usable food waste but not put it to use for people. Chef Amy has recently made giant steps forward in reclaiming sacred, delicious and nutrient dense traditional foods that have been historically discarded or not used for feeding our people.

Working with Copper River Seafoods, we were able to reclaim over 20,000 pounds of salmon heads and bellies in the first year of the program. It could be an even larger number but the ability to store frozen items of that volume is very limited in Alaska.

The impact of this reclamation

is 100,000 traditional meals for our patients and staff.

NUNIVAK ISLAND REINDEER

The NIMA Corporation (Nunivak Island Mekoryuk Alaska) is a private, Alaska Native-owned corporation representing the Cup’ig Eskimos of Nunivak Island. They are working to provide a commercial reindeer operation which would be the largest source of reindeer meat sold commercially in the state.

This partnership not only allows us to support a local business, but also to serve Alaska Native-farmed reindeer to our patients. We serve bone broth, reindeer potpie, tundra meatloaf, reindeer stew and reindeer soups.

PROFESSIONAL HUNTER PROGRAM

We have developed relationships with the Alaska Professional Hunters Association to reclaim meats by hunters and serve these to our patients. This partnership adds to our game donations and ensures meat is not wasted but returned to the First Peoples of Alaska. In honor of using as much of the animal as possible, we also take in bone donations we use for bone broth.

ALASKA VILLAGE INITIATIVES

Alaska Village Initiatives (AVI) is a nonprofit membershipbased company dedicated to improving the well-being of rural Alaska communities, families, and individuals. AVI has purchased experimental hydroponic cabinets to grow produce in remote areas of Alaska. All produce grown is donated to the patients to ANMC.

04. FOOD SOVEREIGNTY

THE RIGHT TO CONTROL OUR FOOD

Food sovereignty in the Alaska Tribal Health System ensures that people have equitable and just access to culturally appropriate, healthy foods in the place they live, work and play.

The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium defines food sovereignty as the right of Alaska Native peoples to

◊ Define what is sustainable

◊ Determine what is socially, economically, and culturally appropriate for distributing food

◊ Maintain ecological health

◊ Maintain a subsistence-based economy and way of life

This definition puts the people most impacted by the food systems at the heart of discussions and decisions related to access, protection, production, regulation, and commercial availability of traditional foods.

For NMS, food sovereignty means supporting these rights and participating in the process to ensure we are providing foods to our people that comfort and heal.

" We are free to be

who we are—to create our own life out of the past and out of the present. We are our ancestors. When we can heal ourselves, we also heal our ancestors, our grandmothers, our grandfathers, and our children. When we heal ourselves, we heal Mother Earth."

DR. RITA PITKA BLUMENSTEIN YUP’IK (1936-2021)

FIRST CERTIFIED TRADITIONAL DOCTOR IN ALASKA

FOOD SOVEREIGNTY PROVIDES

Cultural and Traditional Connections: Our Alaska Native communities have strong cultural and traditional ties to local food systems. Food sovereignty allows these communities to maintain and celebrate unique food traditions. It allows communities to define their own hunting, gathering, fishing, land and water policies.

Nutritional and Health Benefits: Food sovereignty encourages the production of locally adapted and nutritious foods. In remote locations, access to fresh and diverse produce may be limited. By prioritizing local food production, communities can ensure that diets are varied and nutritionally balanced, leading to better health outcomes.

Environmental Sustainability: Remote areas often have unique ecosystems that are sensitive to changes in land use and agriculture. Food sovereignty promotes sustainable farming practices that are tailored to our environment, reducing the risk of soil erosion, habitat destruction, and water pollution.

In Alaska, we have limited transportation infrastructure and are more susceptible to disruptions in supply chains due to factors like extreme weather events or geopolitical issues. By building local partnerships we’ve become less reliant on external sources, making us more resilient to shocks that could lead to food shortages.

In Alaska where access is limited, food sovereignty is a powerful approach to ensure connection to our land, culture and traditions.

05. GARNERING ATTENTION

FROM LOCAL ROOTS TO NATIONAL ACCLAIM

We’ve received substantial positive press coverage for our Traditional Foods Program. It's a multifaceted benefit that goes beyond just the immediate recognition.

This media coverage helps enhance ANMC’s overall reputation as a hospital committed to providing high-quality care beyond medical treatment. This program demonstrates our holistic approach to patient well-being which ultimately helps to improve patient outcomes. And positive press bolsters donations to our traditional food programs.

06. LOOKING FORWARD

OUR VISION FOR THE FUTURE

Our vision for the future of our Deliciously Indigenous Program is to continue our journey to nurture and comfort patients by providing foods that heal.

We will continue doing so in a sustainable manner, so all foods don’t need to be imported and by following the rights of Alaska Natives to food sovereignty. We look forward to playing an ongoing role in making sure our people are the healthiest people in the world.

The connection to traditional foods for our patients is not just about sustenance. It's about preserving culture. This connection has sustained our communities for generations.

As an Alaska Native-owned company, we are honored to play a part in this connection and are dedicated to sustaining it for generations to come.

When we embrace the healing nature of Alaska Native foods, we honor our heritage and nourish our future. At NMS, this understanding drives operations every single day. Our food service program is second-tonone and, above all else, Deliciously Indigenous.

BRAD KUUGNAALUK OSBORNE NMS PRESIDENT