CVRF provides support to Mekoryuk Reindeer Farmers

by CVRF Staff

Coastal Villages Region Fund (CVRF) has offered financial assistance to the Native Village of Mekoryuk in support of their effort to expand the sale of reindeer meat locally harvested on Nunivak Island to other parts of Alaska.

Following the announcement in December of 2016 that the U.S. Economic Development Administration would provide $1.8 million in funding for operational upgrades at the Nuniwarmiut Reindeer and Seafood Products reindeer farm in Mekoryuk, CVRF offered to provide assistance in purchasing additional equipment. CVRF is helping to fund the acquisition of four snowmachines to be used to herd the reindeer.

“We appreciate the timely financial support from CVRF,” said Daniel Olrun of Nuniwarmiut Reindeer and Seafood Products. “These machines will be dedicated to the herding of reindeer and their use will therefore benefit all residents and all communities in the region. I would like to thank CVRF Chair Richard Jung for traveling to my village and meeting with me on this important matter. I have known Richard for many decades and our relationship is based on a long-standing trust.”

CVRF has paid 40 percent of the cost of the snowmachines, with the Native Village of Mekoryuk funding the remaining 60 percent.

“I would like to thank the CVRF Board who made this special arrangement so that dollars earned from the Bering Sea can be used to provide the needs of our local reindeer project, the village of Mekoryuk, and the entire CVRF Region,” said Marianne Williams, CVRF’s Community Service Representative in Mekoryuk. “We all look forward to a cooperative relationship that will continue to make CVRF and our region strong in our unity.”

For more information about CVRF’s support of economic development activities in Western Alaska, please contact Nathaniel Betz at (907) 278-5151.

CVRF is a 501(c)(4) Alaska non-profit corporation whose 20 member villages are along the west coast of Alaska from Scammon Bay to Platinum. CVRF is believed to be the largest Alaskan-owned seafood company in history and is governed by a 20-member Board of Directors elected by the residents of its 20 member communities. CVRF is dedicated to providing economic development in its 20 member communities by creating sensible, tangible and long-term opportunities that generate Hope for residents who want to Fish and Work. CVRF is the largest jobs provider in its member villages and is the first CDQ group to own and control the vessels that harvest its CDQ allocations. For more information, visit www.CoastalVillages.org.