Seafood Distribution Network

With help and donations from many partners and funders, we were able to purchase Alaskan caught seafood directly from Alaskan processors such as Seafood Producers Cooperative and Northline Seafoods. This locally caught seafood not only feeds families and communities, but also helps keep markets open for fishermen struggling to receive a good return on their product amidst the closures in restaurants and tourism due to Covid-19.

Other communities, such as Chignik, already struggling with the pandemic, also experienced diminished salmon runs and the closure of subsistence fishing by tribal entities to help protect the few fish returning upstream. Working with Northline Seafoods (which has a fleet of fishermen who are 90% Alaska Native), ALFA/ASFT coordinated the donation of 42,000 pounds of Bristol Bay round sockeye that was delivered to Tribal organizations for distribution to residents of the four Chignik Bay area communities. The tribal food pantry also provided seafood to community residents who had moved to Anchorage in search of work when local fisheries closed. These donations helped increase food security for these Alaska residents who value sockeye for its nutrition and deep cultural connections. The Chignik Bay communities wanted whole sockeye so families could process salmon as per cultural traditions—working as families and as a community to smoke, dry, and preserve as much of the fish as possible.