Healthy stores project moves ahead in Cambridge Bay

The Ikaluktutiak Co-op and the Northern Store have agreed to take part in a new program to make healthy food cheaper and more accessible to people in Cambridge Bay.

Dr. Joel Gittelson from the John Hopkins School for Public Health was in Cambridge for the second time last month to prepare community members to do groundwork for the program, called Healthy Stores.

The project works by asking grocery store owners to increase the healthy foods on their shelves. Then, in exchange for them agreeing to stock those foods, the project leaders agree to promote them through educational displays, cooking demonstrations, recipes, special labels, and the local media.

Gittelson is training two people to do interviews to help with planning the project’s first locations in Cambridge and Taloyoak.

If successful, the program could eventually be expanded to other communities in Nunavut.