Think of the hungry this sealift season

When you make your sealift order this year, volunteers at Iqaluit’s Niqiniq Nuatsivik, or Nunavut Food Bank, want you to think about the poor and the under-nourished.

They’re asking Iqaluit residents to add an extra case or crate of food to their sealift orders for donation to the food bank.

“We’ve been trying to raise funds for a sealift of our own, but we don’t have quite enough,” said Marje Lalonde, vice-president of the food bank.

Even in the summer, when fewer people come to pick up groceries that they can’t afford to buy, the food bank has trouble meeting everyone’s needs, Lalonde said.

“It’s a small town and there are a lot of people who are hungry,” Lalonde said.

Every week, 40 to 80 Iqaluit households go to the food bank, which is located on the first floor of the blue dome building.

“We don’t ask their names. We get their house numbers and then ask how many adults and how many children, because a teenager will need more food than the adults,” she said.

Lalonde, 79, was six years old in 1929, when the Great Depression began. It was a time when Canada’s economy was devastated and hunger stalked the land.

“We got by because everybody pitched in and helped each other,” Lalonde recalls.

She said Iqaluit residents who add food bank donations with their sealift orders should order protein foods like canned fish, canned meat, canned beans and Kraft Dinner.

“A bag of powdered milk would be great, too, as long as it’s shelf-food,” Lalonde said.

She said Iqaluit businesses such as Arctic Ventures and NorthMart have been “more than generous” in helping the food bank, and that the Amarok Hunters and Trappers Association have agree to help supply country food.