Nunavut co-op offers new solution for food insecurity

Kivalliq Arctic Foods’ family pack has been a popular purchase by members of the Helping Our Northern Neighbours group. (KAF FACEBOOK PHOTO)

Igloolik’s Co-op store has prepared packages to feed different-sized families for a period of two weeks, as a way to respond to a recent interest in shipping food to Nunavummiut families. (IGLOOLIK CO-OP FACEBOOK PHOTO)

As the Helping Our Northern Neighbours movement grows in momentum, Dana Sheaves was wondering what she could do to help.

So the assistant manager of Igloolik’s Co-op store picked up pen and paper and wandered through the aisles of her co-op last week, jotting down the different ingredients needed to plan a menu to feed a family.

On Feb. 11, the Igloolik co-op launched its “We Care Packages” food program, which offers a selection of healthy food and staples designed to feed different-sized families for a period of two weeks.

Since then, the Igloolik co-op has sold 20 “We Care Packages” to southern groups who donate them to local families, and another four packages to the community’s brand-new food bank.

The co-op has even hired a new staff member to help process the orders.

“I’m backed up already,” said Sheaves, a long-time employee of the Arctic Co-operatives Ltd. in Nunavut. “And I’ve only been doing this for a few days.”

Launched last summer in southern Canada, the group Helping Our Northern Neighbours works to send packages of non-perishable food and household supplies to families in need, the majority of them in Nunavut.

But a growing number of sponsors have also struggled with the high costs of shipping those goods north.

By purchasing through the Igloolik co-op, the work of preparing and shipping the package is taken care of, while southern customers can see the full cost of what they’re donating.

For $250, for example, sponsors can purchase a family pack, designed to feed a family of six to eight people for weeks. It includes a variety of staples such as cheese, butter, bread, pasta, rice, char, fruit and toilet paper.

Other packages are tailored to smaller families and even single people.

Sheaves said the packages are also available for purchase by local shoppers in Igloolik.

“A single mom with seven kids might not have the time to plan healthy meals for her family,” Sheaves said. “So this is really providing the education and the help.”

The co-op store in Repulse Bay has already started preparing its own packages — and Sheaves hopes the initiative will spread.

Arctic Co-operatives Ltd. offered its support in a Feb. 13 release.

“The compassion and enthusiasm shown by the people is remarkable, and these contributions will make a real difference in Arctic communities faced with higher costs for shipping, hydro and construction, compared to counterparts in the South,” said the ACL’s Duane Wilson.

Another Nunavut business is benefitting from the Helping Our Northern Neighbours group; orders to Kivalliq Arctic Foods “have kept everyone hopping” at the Rankin Inlet-based plant in recent weeks.

One of just three food processors based in Nunavut, Kivalliq Arctic Foods purchases country food from local harvesters and Nunavut’s commercial fisheries and in turn, makes popular treats such as caribou mikku, quaq and pipsi.

With the growth of interest in sending food to Nunavut families, southern donors have been purchasing the plant’s prepared packages.

For $250, a family pack includes maktaaq, caribou stew cubes, ground muskox, char, pipsi, char candy nuggets, turbot fillets and shipping to anywhere in Nunavut.

“We’ve had an overwhelming response to our family packs, thank you to everyone who’s ordered and inquired,” the company said on its Facebook page. “We at KAF are very happy to be getting country food into people’s homes.”