Nunavummiut speak out to feed their families

[Oscar]

Nunavummiut speak out to feed their families

[ http://rabble.ca/news/2014/03/nunavummi ... r-families ]

By Feeding My Family | March 20, 2014

Two years ago, communities across Nunavut joined together to speak out against the shockingly high food prices in the north, protesting in front of local grocery stores. This was the first time such actions had been organized in the remote, fly-in communities of Canada's northernmost territory. Feeding My Family (FMF) is the movement that grew out of these protests. The Facebook site quickly grew to over 19,000 members, and FMF has provided a forum for Nunavummiut to come together to share personal struggles and expose the impacts of hunger in the north. Members have been posting photos of the exorbitant food costs in the north, showing prices as high as "$28 for a head of cabbage and $99 for a whole fish" [ http://www.feedingmyfamily.org/index.php/photo-gallery ].

Nunavut is the home of the Inuit, and its small population has survived from hunting, fishing and gathering. Traditional practices are strong and hunting for sustenance remains an important part of life, but a legacy of colonization (such as the permanent settlements and residential schools) is that Inuit cannot eat as their ancestors did. Many hunters cannot afford the cost of hunting equipment, and country foods harvested from the land must now be supplemented with store-bought foods.

There are many statistics on hunger in Nunavut, including estimates that 70 per cent of households are food insecure [ https://www.mcgill.ca/cine/sites/mcgill ... unavut.pdf ]. But beyond statistics, FMF aims to bring out the voices behind these numbers, serving as a space for Nunavummiut to speak out about how hunger is affecting their families.

Many describe their struggles to buy healthy food, children going to bed hungry and not attending school, and poor quality food (often past the expiry date) and limited variety in stores. A recent survey found that food prices in Nunavut are on average 140 per cent higher [ http://www.stats.gov.nu.ca/en/Economic%20prices.aspx ] than the rest of Canada, and the average cost to feed a family of four can reach almost $2,000 per month [ http://www.nutritionnorthcanada.gc.ca/e ... 9313809684 ]. With the extremely high costs of living in the north, many have to choose between buying food and paying bills.

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Feeding My Family

[ http://www.feedingmyfamily.org/ ]

The majority of people in the Northern Regions of North America are carrying enormous burdens, and are trying our best with limited means and resources to feed our families and to build a more sustainable future. We face complex challenges, systemic barriers and a slew of compounding factors that affect all living costs. We are not able to employ many of the usual fixes for food insecurity, especially in the short-term (such as greenhouses), due to extreme cold conditions, limited sunlight, remoteness of our fly-in communities, and mostly because of the blindingly high construction and maintenance costs. [ . . . ]