Reggie Frazier, a Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska citizen, grew up watching his father make hearty meals from scratch: steaming plates of fry bread, chili bursting with flavor, and rich stews. After losing his mother as a baby, Frazier and his four brothers were raised by their dad, who always managed to put a homemade meal on the table, even in tough times.
“We weren’t rich, he worked with what he had, and every day we ate well,” Frazier recalls. “Once I started cooking, I looked up to him.”
Today, Frazier cooks with that same love and care at R-Eatz, the restaurant he owns with his wife, Irita, on the Winnebago Restaurant in Nebraska.
His journey to business ownership began in 2022 at the Ho-Chunk Community Development Corporation (HCCDC) farmers market, which opened in 2019 as Ho-Chunk Village Farmer’s Market — or Nį̄šoc Wahāgi Hoci in the Ho-Chunk language — to provide access to fresh local food in the Winnebago community, a recognized food desert.
Armed with a hot plate, Frazier quickly built a loyal customer base at the farmer’s market with flavorful hot meals and ready-made lunches, including a spicy stew called birria pozole, beef and broccoli, Indian burgers, and more. Tony Wood noticed Frazier’s potential immediately.
“I could see right off the bat that they had a really good following,” said Wood, financial service coordinator of Ho-Chunk Community Capital, a Native CDFI serving tribal members in Thurston County with business lending, down payment assistance, credit building, and more.
“They would put on Facebook that they were going to be at the farmer’s market, and people would just flock down,” Wood said.
When HCCC received funding from the Native American Agriculture Fund for loans to food-based small businesses, Woods reached out to the Fraziers with a pitch: “Let’s accelerate your business.”
Encouraged by his wife, Frazier decided to turn his passion for cooking into a full-time venture.
“I do have a passion for cooking, and I figured, might as well do something that I love,” he said. “My wife pushed me — she drew up a business plan for me. One day, I woke up and she had it ready.”
With a $12,000 loan from HCCC, the Fraziers transitioned from the farmer’s market to a brick-and-mortar space at Ho Chunk Plaza, a commercial development.
Recently, R-Eatz closed on a $50,000 loan from HCCC for a food truck, allowing the Fraziers to expand across the tri-state area while keeping the heart of R-Eatz at home.
“The feedback I get from the community pushes me to keep going,” Frazier said. “Being a lifelong resident of the reservation, everybody wants me to stay in Winnebago, and that’s why I wanted the food truck — so I can have both.”
Wood said Frazier’s impact on the community at large and other aspiring business owners on the reservation has been monumental.
“As soon as we announced the loan for their brick-and-mortar restaurant, we got flooded with people saying, ‘Hey, I want to do that,’” Wood said. “They employ five people. That’s five different families that have been impacted.”
Every once in a while, Frazier likes to go back to where it all started: the Ho Chunk Village Farmers Market.
“I still like to go to the farmers market and sell beef and broccoli,” Frazier said. “It always sells out. Seeing how my customer base grew from coming every week was really special to me.”
Difference Makers 2.0 is a new yearlong series that highlights how Native community development financial institutions (CDFIs) work alongside their small business clients to accelerate change and create economic opportunities in Native communities. Join the Native CDFI Network and Tribal Business News as they shine a spotlight on the people accelerating economic change in Indian Country. Read the stories here and be sure to tune into the Difference Makers 2.0 podcast.