Ubluriak Society offers free breakfast and lunch in Sanikiluaq

A non-profit is offering free breakfast and lunch to hungry Sanikiluaq residents every weekday after the Ubluriak Society relaunched its food programs Monday.

“Free food twice a day — Monday to Friday,” said Isaac Mensah, the society’s operations manager, Wednesday in a phone interview.

Up to 70 people attend each meal, held at the Ubluriak Centre, which occupies the former hamlet building, he said.

The menus are simple, but filling.

Bacon and eggs, cereals and toast, and coffee are on hand for breakfast, while lunches include burgers and hot dogs, which two new full-time staff cook on portable grills. Two new full-time servers supervise the mealtimes.

On Wednesday, the society received by air from Winnipeg skids of frozen food that fill two freezers. The dry goods arrived from Montreal by sealift last month.

The society supplements its stock with other food purchased locally.

The lion’s share of the funding — $160,000 — was covered through the Department of Family Services’s Nunavut Food Security Community Initiatives Core Funding program.

Food Banks Canada, a national charitable organization that supports food security initiatives, chipped in another $18,000.

The breakfast program first began in April 2025, but meals were offered “inconsistently,” Mensah said.

“We were having issues with staffing.”

With that uncertainty gone, Mensah said the community can count on regular meals.

The crew is also adapting to challenges. For example, when the community experienced a power outage on Tuesday, the cooks and servers switched to cold foods without interrupting service.

Sarah Narlik, Ubluriak Society program co-ordinator, said “seeing the people happy” during mealtimes makes her happy too.

Meals are not all the society offers.

It runs an after-school program from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Friday, during which teens can play games, socialize over snacks, or just quietly do homework.

“We help them to identify their potential and we help them to build it,” Mensah said.

Four of the teens helped Mensah unload Wednesday’s food shipment.

Other initiatives include a six-week sewing program with free materials for 12 women to make mittens and parkas. The participants will be selected by a draw, and the program starts in October.

The society is sitting on a sea can filled with construction materials staff plan to use to build an elders cabin, Mensah said. Once windows and the rest of the materials arrive he hopes the building can begin in November.

On Thursday the society planned to lead a walk for suicide prevention awareness that would begin and end at the centre. It’s scheduled to start at 1 p.m. and finish with a barbecue at 2 p.m.