White Earth Market, LLC

White Earth Market, LLC, a Native American-owned, minority-owned limited liability company based on the White Earth Reservation in Ogema, Minnesota, supplies traditionally harvested wild rice for federal food assistance programs as a prime contractor to the Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service, and as a sub-recipient on federal grant work routed through the Minnesota Department of Human Services. The vendor operates under the Indian Incentive Program, which provides an incentive payment equal to five percent of contract amounts awarded to Indian organizations; five prime contracts with USDA FNS total $7 million in combined potential value, while 89 sub-recipient grant awards across human services, mental health, substance abuse prevention, nutrition education, and child welfare programs account for 95% of recent awards by count.

White Earth Market's contract footprint centers on wild rice procurement. Recent definitive contracts with USDA FNS include a $2.7 million award (November 2024) for delivery of 155,000 pounds of traditionally harvested wild rice packaged in 25-pound bags to support domestic food assistance programs, a $1.5 million award (February 2024) for 200,000 pounds delivered between April and July, and a $750,000 award (September 2023) for 30,000 pounds from the 2022 harvest. The March 2026 contract, valued at $1.8 million with completion by June 15, 2026, requires delivery of 160,000 pounds of mechanically parched wild rice (wood-parched only) to Henderson County, Colorado and Syracuse, New York across quarterly periods. All wild rice is sourced from the White Earth Reservation, packaged to commercial item specifications, and subject to Food Safety Modernization Act compliance and country-of-origin certification. These contracts are unrestricted acquisitions with no formal set-aside designation, won through competitive solicitation under the Web-Based Supply Chain Management System.

The vendor's grant sub-recipient footprint is substantial and concentrated with a single grantee. The Minnesota Department of Human Services acts as prime recipient across 59 sub-awards distributed to White Earth Market since mid-2021, spanning federal grant programs including the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant, the Mental Health Block Grant, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program nutrition education initiatives, the Community Services Block Grant, the State Opioid Response Grant, the Block Grants for Community Mental Health Services, and American Rescue Plan funding for adult protective services. Awards run monthly or quarterly, with most recent activity in January 2026. No dollar values are specified in the grant sub-award line items, but the source indicates combined obligated dollars across all awards ($20.3 million) significantly exceed combined potential contract value, suggesting substantial ongoing grant sub-recipient revenue.

Activity peaked in 2023 with 23 awards and has declined: 19 awards in 2024, seven in 2025, and two in 2026. The four USDA FNS contracts that have completed or will complete by April 15, 2025 represent recompete opportunity; the March 2026 award completing June 15, 2026 sits outside the immediate recompete window. White Earth Market operates as a primarily sub-recipient organization — 95% of awards are grant sub-awards flowing through the Minnesota Department of Human Services — with five prime contracts representing a specialized niche in domestically sourced, tribally harvested food commodities for federal nutrition assistance programs.