Nunavut premier: too many in the territory go to bed hungry

Speaking in the Nunavut legislature June 3, Premier Eva Aariak urged all Nunavut residents to work together to find ways to reduce poverty and hunger in the territory.

“National Hunger Awareness Day is this week and it is another reminder that too many Nunavummiut go to bed hungry every evening,” she said in a minister’s statement.

Aariak praised the efforts of Iqaluit’s Niqinik Nuatsivik Nunavut Food Bank, which has been fighting community hunger “one person at a time,” and thanked its volunteers and others who have volunteered with food banks across the territory.

“Your services have helped so many, and sadly, the demand continues,” Aariak said.

The Government of Nunavut is committed to ensuring that the basic needs of all Nunavummiut are met, and to reducing poverty and its effects, she said.

However, “poverty is a complex problem that cannot be addressed effectively by government alone, or by any one organization,” she said.

That’s why she the GN is collaborating with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., hamlets, non-profit groups and businesses to discuss how to reduce poverty, by holding focus groups with elders and with youth and regional roundtables on policy options for poverty reduction, she said.

“Food security has been central to these discussions,” Aariak noted.

A joint Nunavut Poverty Reduction Action Plan will be decided on at a “Poverty Summit,” to be held in Iqaluit this coming November, she said.

“I ask my colleagues to take a moment tonight to consider what it might feel like to go to bed hungry,” Aariak said to her fellow MLAs. “Hunger is one of the few cravings that cannot be appeased with another solution. Hunger should not be an option for anyone. I encourage all Nunavummiut to work together for a solution.”