 with this small powwow here Friday afternoon seems to be the best time when the vendors are on site and setting up and getting ready for the evening crowd. 2002 I was invited to set up my frybread stand on the Washington Mall and I served 30,000 people a day. Generally in these powwows you know anywhere from 500 to 1500 people. We've been here for 20 years. Every year we've come here. We go to Arlie. I enjoy the people. Everybody is different. We've got people that come from New Mexico and they're here again this year and we were in a booth over there last year and the first thing they've done they come looking for us. Last summer I did four. I did Arlie, Hamilton, Newtown, North Dakota and Spokane, Washington. Well they say how goes your frybread? I said probably next to your mom and your wife it's the best in the world. Good food is an essential part of what makes celebrations and powwows so much fun but keeping food safe can be a challenge for those who prepare and serve food at special events especially when they're held outdoors. The Arlie powwow we had an estimated 20 to 35,000 people show up at that powwow there and the number of meals that are being served there. Food safety is of prime importance. That's what I'm here for is to make sure that everything is safe and that people know that the stands are being inspected on a daily basis. I belong to the Midwinter Fair Committee and we raise money you know to support ourselves. It would help us to learn how to handle food safely you know so no one gets sick and we can continue on with it. I think with the amount of visitors and the amount of prepared meals on site at a powwow could potentially affect a great number of community members and or visitors to that particular powwow. As a sanitary and I run the office of environmental health and it's my duty to inspect the concession stands. It's done on a daily basis and you do it like I said in a tactful way and you try to become friends with them and I usually do each and every year. I've done it for nine years now and it comes off like a pretty good partnership. I make sure we do have a health inspection so that I know that I'm following all the practices that are important to maintaining good sanitation and I just generally realize that you know if you have good sanitary facilities then you have good food. They want to sell food to the public they need to go to their local health department first to find out what's required and that would really help our job. Once they get there they cannot sell food until they actually see us. We go and check the the food vendors twice a day from Friday through Sunday and we check for a little bit of everything as far as food services go. Food safety is in your hands. As a food vendor it's your responsibility to help prevent foodborne illness. Let's look briefly at six areas of concern for vendors at temporary food booths. They include keep hot foods hot keep cold foods cold hand washing practices utensils and contact surfaces purchasing food from approved sources and storage of food. Hot foods should be kept at or above 135 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent the growth of foodborne bacteria which can cause illness. Since local standards can vary slightly please consult your tribal or local sanitarian for temperature requirements. Using a thermometer check often to make sure the food you're serving is hot enough to prevent bacterial growth. We've had people where they'll prepare the food at their home and then drive 50 miles to their stand and try to sell the food there and there's a lot of hazards with that because meat has to be kept hot well it's not being kept warm and they drive it out it cools bacteria growing it then they try to reheat it but it may have produced toxin in the food that will make everyone else. Cold foods also need to be stored at proper temperature to keep them safe. By keeping cold foods at 41 degrees Fahrenheit or lower there's less likelihood of bacterial growth and the food will stay fresher. Customers expect cold food products to taste cold not warm or lukewarm. Again since local standards can vary slightly please consult your tribal or local sanitarian for temperature requirements. Cold food holing is under refrigerated temperatures also in ice chests which can produce the same temperature but one of the concerns we have is that ice does melt so we have to make provisions for the food stands to keep their coolers drained and keep fresh ice on hand. The majority of them have thermometers, buys them to keep their meats on the bottom shelves and the vegetables up on top. The best way to prevent the spread of germs is to wash your hands properly wash before preparing food after using the restroom after eating or smoking after coughing or blowing your nose and after handling garbage or cleaning. Use plenty of soap to scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds including between your fingers and under your fingernails. Hand washing is a big factor and they do have some of the more modern rigs that you see here do have the one compartment hand washing sinks here. Some of them that are just set up here on the grounds here typically have just soap and water and disposable towels. I think one of the critical components that I believe is the actual of wearing of gloves and or washing making sure that your cutting areas or your meal preparation sites do not cross contaminate. Serving food properly will also help keep it safe. Utencils can be stored in the food with the handle extended above the rim. They can also be placed on a clean and sanitized surface. Use separate utensils for each food item and properly clean them after each serving task. Minimize contact with uncooked and ready to eat food by using gloves or tongs when serving. Well we do have a requirement which is to have a chlorine bleach solution mixed up on the grounds and changed periodically throughout the day and that they periodically change the towels that are in them and scrub down the surfaces there where food's being prepared and food's being served. Dust and flies can be a concern when trying to keep serving and eating areas clean. We have several programs to reduce insect infestation but what we have them do at the celebration is to obtain a netting which can go around the food service preparation area and sometimes they even extend that to where the diners will eat. We have fire trucks that come around two to three times a day to water down the ground to take care of the dust. Purchase your food products from sources that have been inspected and are in compliance with local, state and federal law. Check food deliveries for damaged products, leaky packages and dented cans which should not be accepted. Keep raw meat products separate from uncooked and ready to eat foods. Under the federal food code we require that the food that be brought to be served for celebrations is FDA approved or USDA approved and the packaging has to indicate that. We've had a situation with a vendor at one of the powwows where he didn't have his receipts for his meats and we're always telling the vendors that you know it has to be USDA approved. He had to get proof of his receipts for for his where he bought his products. Traditional food is a big thing on a reservation. Minuto, it's a big seller obviously. What I am thankful for is a lot of the people will buy it from the store. It's already been processed and cleaned. Some of the traditional foods that you're going to see at the powwow or tripe that's being served we like to have it USDA approved and a lot of times we could see the packaging that it does come from the store. Food should be stored in designated areas and rotated to ensure that the oldest product is used first. In the refrigerator store raw meat poultry and fish separately from ready to eat food. Keep the temperature of the refrigerator at 41 degrees Fahrenheit or below. Try not to open the door too often and don't overload the refrigerator. Refrigerators and freezers should be kept in shaded areas out of the sun. Food and dry storage should be kept away from the walls and at least six inches off the floor. Store cleaning supplies away from the food area. One of the best ways to learn about how to safely prepare and serve food is to take advantage of food safety training when it is offered in your area. We offer food handling courses you know on on proper temperatures and then how the food should be kept and as far as hygiene wise is that we work hand in hand and I think that's working out pretty good for us. Deb Haynes who is the Indian Health Services Field Sanitarian and I offer food safety training six to eight times a year depending on the need in a variety of locations around the Bighorn County. They're generally four to six hours in length and cover all aspects of the ServeSafe program as well as hassle. They're fun, they're free, we do lots of hands-on exciting kinds of things and you'll go away with more knowledge than you ever expected. My advice is that they should have some type of food safety training. They should be it should be a required thing before they before they set up at a at Apollo. Food handler training really helps increase food safety. The changes I've noticed in food service vending on the Crow Reservation are that the vendors are much more knowledgeable much more in compliance and provide a higher level of food vending for the public. A strong partnership between food booth operators sanitarians and food safety educators can help ensure that food is safe for the public. Teamwork is very important to have a productive and safe food stand at a celebration. I think we're living in a day where we really need to network and collaborate with each other. We don't always have the single resources you know so I think it's really important that we put our efforts together to educate ourselves and to educate our people you know when it comes to handling food and food safety. And they could all work together to prevent prevent a lot of these diseases from spreading or from happening during the policies. It's our our mission to protect the health of the public and it works two-fold for the vendor too. They're going to have more business if the public they're serving have food that they feel is safe for them to eat. If they make somebody set what's going to happen they'll be out of business. The biggest thing is to keep our people safe you know and people can continue to generate the money that they need you know to operate but at the same time keep the people safe you know so that it doesn't come back on us. Because there's so many people you've got to be safe. Because of the elderly and the and the tots the babies are so at risk as far as resistance to to being getting sick you know they enjoy their food and I think they feel safer when I'm around hopefully. For more information on keeping food safe at celebrations and powwows contact your tribal or local senatorian or extension office.