First Nunavut anti-poverty roundtable set to go next week

Iqaluit residents line up for a community feast in Iqaluit this past January that marked the end of a three-day symposium on food security. (FILE PHOTO)

People from around Nunavut will gather at the Frobisher Inn in Iqaluit next week for what organizers call the first official gathering of the Nunavut Roundtable for Poverty Reduction.

At the meeting, scheduled to be held from June 10 to June 12, participants will likely get a look at a strategy and action plan on food security produced by the Nunavut Food Security Coalition.

Monica Ell, the family services minister and the minister responsible for the government’s anti-poverty file, told the legislative assembly early this past May that the strategy would likely include:

• support for harvesters;

• nutrition education;

• development of budgeting and food preparation skills;

• ways of providing access to local food sources; and

• community food efforts like breakfast programs.

Much of that flowed from the work of a food security symposium held this past Jan. 24 in Iqaluit.

Next week’s roundtable will likely include representatives from government, Inuit organizations and non-governnment groups like Feeding My Family.