Indigenous Food Lab
A professional Indigenous kitchen and training centerIndigenous Food Lab is a professional Indigenous kitchen and training center at the heart of our work establishing a new Indigenous food system that reintegrates Native Foods and Indigenous-focused Education into tribal communities across North America. We envision a future of developing and supporting multiple tribally operated kitchens bringing cultural and nutritional revitalization across North America!
We can be the answer to our ancestors’ prayers.
Indigenous Food Lab is a professional Indigenous kitchen and training center, located in the Midtown Global Market on historic Lake Street in Minneapolis. The lab is at the heart of our work establishing a new Indigenous food system that reintegrates Native Foods and Indigenous-focused Education into tribal communities across North America.
Indigenous Food Lab offers classes on Native American agriculture, farming techniques, seed saving, wild foods, ethnobotany, indigenous medicines, cooking techniques, regional diversity, nutrition, language, history, health and healing. IFL works with tribal communities in the region, and help them develop, implement, and maintain an Indigenous food entity themselves, which could be as small as a catering operation, or as large as a full-scale restaurant, depending on the means and resources of the community.
These satellite tribal entities will help directly influence community members by giving them access to healthy Indigenous foods that are designed to represent their tribe, in their language, using their regional flavors, and giving them the resources to grow community gardens, create permaculture landscapes, process and preserve foods, and create more Indigenous food leaders and food processors to plug into our growing network.
- Indigenous food markets in the US 3%
- Indigenous food restaurants in the US 1%
- Indigenous land in the US 100%
INTRO
Indigenous Food Lab
The Indigenous Food Lab Market is a kitchen and retail space that offers high-quality Indigenous foods and products to our community. We work to broaden access to Native-made goods and allow people to experience contemporary Indigenous offerings while empowering entrepreneurs to expand their audience.
LEARN
Why aren’t there more Native American restaurants?
When you think of North American cuisine, do Indigenous foods come to mind? Chef Sean Sherman serves up an essential history lesson that explains the absence of Native American culinary traditions across the continent, highlighting why revitalizing Indigenous education sits at the center of a better diet and healthier relationship with the planet.
Indigenous Food Lab
ROADMAP
PHASE 1
Indigenous LAB
- Urban location
- An Indigenous market and eatery
- A Native foodways classroom
- Research and development to create more curriculum and educational resources
NOW OPEN
PHASE 2
REGIONAL ACCESS
Creating regional Indigenous Food access
- Work with tribal communities to help develop satellite Indigenous kitchens
- Make Indigenous foods accessible to areas that need it most
PHASE 3
VISION
North American vision
- Replicate Indigenous Food Lab Centers which creates regional counterpoints for development of Indigenous Food Access and Education
- Develop Tribal Community Indigenous Kitchens everywhere
Indigenous Food Lab is a professional Indigenous kitchen and training center at the heart of our work establishing a new Indigenous food system that reintegrates Native Foods and Indigenous-focused Education into tribal communities across North America. We envision a future of developing and supporting multiple tribally operated kitchens bringing cultural and nutritional revitalization across North America!
The Indigenous Food Lab Market is a kitchen and retail space that offers high-quality Indigenous foods and products to our community. We work to broaden access to Native-made goods and allow people to experience contemporary Indigenous offerings while empowering entrepreneurs to expand their audience.
The IFL Market is a project of NĀTIFS and aims to promote Indigenous foodways education and facilitate Indigenous food access. We are deeply committed to our community locally, nationally, and globally.
The IFL Market in the Midtown Global Market is a first of its kind in Minneapolis; a pilot from NĀTIFS that will be replicated elsewhere throughout North America to support Indigenous food access and enterprise development in any interested region. The Indigenous Food Lab Market will further improve access to and educate about Native foods.
