Ag-in-a-Box Traveling Classroom Expands from Online to In-Person
lovelyday12 | istock
In-Person Workshop
First Nations Development Institute (FNDI) of Longmont, Colorado awarded the grant. The money “expands our ability to work with our villages to create food security and provide agriculture education while generating new economic opportunities in rural Alaska,” says AVI President and CEO Charles Parker.
AVI began developing a broadly based online subsistence agriculture curriculum in 2020, partly in response to pandemic-related concerns about food security. “AVI can now expand our online program with in-person workshops in Southcentral Alaska through our new program, The Amazing Ag-in-a-Box Traveling Classroom,” Parker explains.
Over the next four years, the education team will deliver twenty-four agriculture and seventeen business and financial courses.
Current Issue
July 2026
Parker says, “AVI’s commitment is to help start, operate, and sustain community agriculture programs that provide locally grown, healthy, and affordable produce. Community gardens are a nurturing process requiring long-term commitments as the cycle matures while experiencing both success and failure. Education, outreach, partnerships, and continuing education will be necessary if Alaska’s native villages are to become food secure.”
AVI formed in 1968 to improve the well-being of rural Alaska communities, families, and individuals. The nonprofit focuses on increasing subsistence through hands-on workshops, utilizing a new video production studio and podcast to deliver business and financial curricula.
AVI also maintains the askAggie website, answering questions about agriculture or livestock, and the nonprofit’s agAlaska program is a resource for Native farmers and ranchers and Tribal Conservation Districts.
FNDI is a community development nonprofit that has been providing support and grants to Native American causes since 1980.
