Cambridge Bay delivers on food hamper drive

With Christmas nearly here, the municipality of Cambridge Bay is running its annual food hamper drive.

“To see people’s faces lighting up when you knock on their door is just the most incredible experience I’ve had in a very, very long time,” Solomon Bucknor, the director of healthy living at the hamlet, said of delivering food hampers.

On Monday, the municipality of Cambridge Bay delivered personalized food hampers to residents throughout the community.

Those hampers included foods such as turkey and rice, as well as toys for the families that requested them.

Bucknor said that around 165 to 170 food hampers were delivered to people or families in Cambridge Bay this year.

But getting that amount of hampers ready required plenty of donations from individuals, businesses and organizations, Bucknor said. He added that some of the donors include the RCMP, the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, Kitikmeot Foods Inc., Food Banks Canada and Jago Services Inc.

The lack of good or affordable food among some residents is one of the reasons a food hamper drive in Cambridge Bay is critical, Bucknor said.

In its report for 2017 and 2018, Statistics Canada reported that 62 per cent of Nunavut adults were food insecure as were 42 per cent of children in the territory. It considers food insecurity to be when people experience a reduction in the food they eat or when their eating patterns are disrupted.

“Nobody should go hungry,” Bucknor said.

For those who cannot provide what they need or want for themselves or their families, especially during the holidays, the food hamper drive aims to fill those gaps, he added.

Planning for a food hamper drive is a year long process, but the work in completing it ramps up around Christmas, Bucknor said.

He added that there are 10 staff with the hamlet and five volunteers that help with the food hamper drive.
To get a food hamper, residents fill out a form and request what they want, then the hamper is delivered near Christmas.

The food hamper drive has its challenges, as Bucknor said there are residents who did not fill out forms that need food. Deliveries of some food hampers were also delayed as well. But through checking Facebook, Bucknor said he is seeing people are mostly happy about the food hamper drive.

Throughout Nunavut, other communities are participating in food hamper drives as well. The Kivalliq Inuit Association gave $15,000 to each RCMP station in the Kivalliq region for food hamper drives.

On Facebook, residents in hamlets like Kugluktuk are also posting happily about a food hamper drive.

“I think overall, it’s a great thing,” Bucknor said of his Cambridge Bay’s food hamper drive.