Tanka Bar was founded on the Oglala Lakota reservation, Pine Ridge, in South Dakota. Its founders set out with a purpose: to bring delicious, healthy, ethical grass-fed bison snacks to consumers, and to restore and reinvigorate their Native communities. Their vision is "to bring the heritage of wisdom from our traditional healthy lifestyle into the 21st Century and into the lives of those who share our vision." Their mission is "to heal the people and our Mother Earth by building a company that innovates new food products based on the traditional values of Native American respect for all living things by living in balance with mind, body, and spirit." They say, "Whether you're Native, white, black, yellow or brown, it is your ability to overcome, to extend a helping hand for those in need, to defeat racism, to protect our Mother Earth, and to love all others on our planet."

Tanka Bar supports the Tanka Fund, which has a goal of restoring "Healthy Lands, Healthy People, and Healthy Economies," for Native and non-Native communities alike. Thus, Tanka Bar was born to do real good in our communities and give economic power back to the Pine Ridge Reservation, the poorest community in our country. 

Then, along came Epic bars. Founded by two vegans who began using meat for endurance (source article here: https://newfoodeconomy.org/tanka-bar-general-mills-epic-provisions-bison-bars/), they eventually sold the company to General Mills for $100 million. General Mills has put Epic bars on the shelves of not only grocery Goliaths like Whole Foods, but now even our coops, thanks to distribution giants Shelfspace and UNFI, whose demand models essentially dictate that if the biggest players aren't selling a product, no one can get it easily, have devoted rows of shelf space to Epic at the expense of Tanka. General Mills copied Tanka's bar, undercut Tanka on price, and is pushing Tanka out of the market. The fact that our natural-food stores are accomplices in this is appalling; this cycle needs to be stopped. 

Please, sign below to tell Whole Foods, UNFI, local coops, and natural-food distributors to support Tanka Bar. Not only are they the original proprietors of the grass-fed-bison bar, they are committed to healing communities that are vibrant, productive, and deserving of economic opportunity. Grocery stores and Coops: Cut back on Epic, give Tanka bar a chance, and actually embody the values you give so much lip service to. Our Earth and its inhabitants deserve to stand a chance against the corporate culture that has decimated so many invaluable communities. We won't let that happen again.