According to the Nunavut Food Security Coalition, food insecurity is an urgent public health issue in Nunavut. Nearly 70% of Inuit homes in Nunavut are food insecure.

This household food insecurity rate is over eight times higher than the Canadian average, and one of the highest rates for an indigenous population in a developed country.

The Coalition discussed six themes that need to be addressed to ensure food security is achieved. We aim to actively work on five of these six themes to eliminate food insecurity as follows:

1. Country food.  Their concern was local populations are eating less country food than in the past due to:

• Loss of traditional knowledge.
• High cost of harvesting equipment.
• Rapid population growth.
• Poverty that limits people’s ability to pursue traditional activities.
• Changing food preferences.
• Changing climate conditions that restrict access to harvesting areas and impact wildlife.
• Scarcity of wildlife due to population fluctuations.

We will help in this area by

• Assisting the coalition to examine sustainable commercialization of country food.
• Assisting in lowering the cost and increasing the reliability of shipping between communities.
• Providing local residents with more reliable and better equipment to fish and hunt.
• Working with communities to improve infrastructure such as places to store, prepare, share, and sell their harvests.

2. Store-bought food. Their concern was people eat more store-bought food than in the past and we must ensure they have healthy choices.

We will help in this area by working with shippers to improve shipping reliability and lowering costs. This will allow local stores to carry healthier choices in greater abundance.

3. Local food production. They said that in 2013, the greenhouse in Iqaluit produced 48kg of produce for the community. Their goal is to expand greenhouse production throughout Nunavut.

We will help in this area by

• Building community greenhouses. We will hire skilled trades for the construction and pay them to employ local residents as apprentices, teaching them how to build and maintain the greenhouses.
• Connecting local residents with existing northern greenhouses to learn how to grow, maintain, and harvest the plants chosen by the community.
• Repairing, upgrading, or expanding existing greenhouses as needed. 

4. Life Skills. Their concern was that many of the youth are not learning the ways of old with sufficient expertise. They recommended building a network across Nunavut for the development and transition of skills, including content experts and educators.

We will help in this area by using our charity network to bring people together using our charity’s funds, employing elders to share their knowledge with youth across Nunavut and beyond.

5. Programs and community initiative. They pointed out that community support programs such as school nutrition and food banks need to be enhanced and extended.

We will help in this area by

• Working with other charities and with shipping companies to make sure that goods can be delivered reliably to food banks.
• Using this enhanced shipping and community greenhouse efforts to enhance school nutrition.

The charity will obtain funds from private donations, foundations, sponsors, and through government grants. The projects will use donated or at-cost labour and materials. We will then turn the project over to the community at no cost.