Giving Back to the Community

In a cor­ner of the Mashan­tuck­et Pequot reser­va­tion, four trib­al mem­bers work to grow pro­duce for the local trib­al com­mu­ni­ty to com­bat food inse­cu­ri­ty.

Mee­chooôk Farm is oper­at­ed by Michael Mar­tins, cul­tur­al super­vi­sor; Bryan Hold­er, hydro­pon­ics spe­cial­ist; Shi Spears, a labor­er, and Ema­neul Duran, a labor­er. They work the farm year round to grow let­tuce, kale pota­toes, onions, egg­plant, car­rots, squash, rain­bow chard, cucum­bers and more.

The project began in col­lab­o­ra­tion with UConn Exten­sion — the statewide edu­ca­tion­al out­reach arm of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Con­necti­cut —  with the goal of achiev­ing food sov­er­eign­ty for the tribe. The over­ar­ch­ing mis­sion is to ensure the tribe has “fresh pro­duce year round,” accord­ing to Mar­tins. 

Click on images to enlarge.

Pic­tured from left to right, Shi Spears, Ema­neul Duran, Michael Mar­tins and Bryan Hold­er stand in front of the walls of let­tuce of the freight farms on Nov. 10, 2025 at Mee­chooôk Farms.

Mee­chooôk Farm uses out­door irri­ga­tion, indoor freight farms and green­hous­es to grow pro­duce. As win­ter approach­es, the crew is fin­ish­ing up clos­ing down the out­door farm­ing and is pri­or­i­tiz­ing the indoor fright farms which are grow­ing let­tuce, basil and pars­ley at the moment. Dur­ing the win­ter the farm pro­duces maple syrup by tap­ping sev­er­al hun­dred trees in the area. 

Michael Mar­tins walks along one of the hydro­pon­ic green­hous­es that is grow­ing let­tuce under LED lights on Nov. 10, 2025 at Mee­chooôk Farms.

Once the crops are har­vest­ed they often will hold events where trib­al mem­bers can come and get some fresh pro­duce. The crew said it is very reward­ing to help their local com­mu­ni­ty. Mar­tins, Hold­er, Spears and Duran are all part of the Mashan­tuck­et Pequo tribe.

“It is very reward­ing to see the trib­al mem­bers come and get their food back,” Mar­tins said. “The corn that we grew this year was, oh my God, phe­nom­e­nal. Then the trib­al mem­bers were real­ly excit­ed about it too. It’s very reward­ing,” Mar­tins said.

Mee­chooôk Farm sells pro­duce to local restau­rants as well. 

At left, Michael Mar­tins showed how the basil is watered in the hydro­pon­ic green­hous­es on Nov. 10, 2025 at Mee­chooôk Farms. At right, let­tuce grows ver­ti­cal­ly on the walls of the freight farms, which are cli­mate-con­trolled units. The crew mon­i­tors these sys­tems dai­ly.

Shi explained that the let­tuce typ­i­cal­ly takes 4–6 weeks to grow and then they will har­vest an entire wall which takes around 3–3/1/2 hours.

Orga­ni­za­tions like the farm help rebuild inter­con­nec­tion and eco­nom­ic sov­er­eign­ty with native com­mu­ni­ties, accord­ing to Pro­fes­sor Grande. By grow­ing their own food, the tribe can cre­ate healthy ways of liv­ing and build trust in the com­mu­ni­ty. 

“The more inter­con­nec­tion, and the stronger and health­i­er and wider our webs of con­nec­tion are, and in indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties, the health­i­er and wealth­i­er you are. Projects like this help their eco­nom­ic sov­er­eign­ty. The pur­pose for that is for them to sup­port the com­mu­ni­ty,” Grande said.