Feeding Nunavut series, part 1 of 3

[1st place, Best News/Feature Series - Ontario Community Newspapers Association]
Northern News Services
Published Monday, July 9, 2012

Forced to make a choice between the essentials of life, Israel Mablick uses his money to buy food instead of clothing and shelter.

His mother lets him and his wife and four children share her two-bedroom Iqaluit apartment, where the dream of three square meals is just that - a dream.

"No breakfast," to start the day, Mablick said. "Lunch is either soup or cereal for the kids, or toast for me and my wife. We wait until supper time, which is, if my mother comes home for dinner, whatever groceries she bought from her pay. We try to spread that out until next pay. Steak or ribs, something we can afford."

Their situation is a snapshot of how food insecurity, which many Nunavummiut face, is inextricably tied to other problems, including poverty, unemployment and homelessness.

Failing to survive on a monthly $1,200 income support cheque, Mablick moved his family - his children are eight, seven, four and three years old - to Iqaluit from Pond Inlet so he could find work. He is underemployed, working two nights a week as a security guard, and delivering flowers at $10 per delivery, but the work is not steady.

"Sometimes I have to carve to get what we want," he said. "For example, my (two youngest) kids ran out of diapers this morning, so I have to carve and hopefully sell it before the store closes. They also ran out of formula a week ago, but they'll have to wait until tomorrow, my payday. We've been letting them drink water or ask my mother to get two-per-cent milk."

However, life was harder in Pond Inlet, he said. "All the groceries we got from income support only lasted a week and a half. After that, we had to call family members asking for groceries to help us out. It was tough for us."

Mablick's children are among the 70 per cent of Nunavut's preschoolers, according to the oft-cited Nunavut Inuit Child Health Survey, who live in homes where there is not enough food. Mablick and his son joined the small chorus of protesters outside the Iqaluit NorthMart on June 21. The pan-territorial protest, a followup to a June 9 event, was intended to draw attention to the disparities between food prices in the North compared to those in southern Canada.

"Our wish is for both the government and also the companies to come to some sort of conclusion as to how they can lower the cost of food that is being sent north," said Eric Joamie of Pangnirtung, the spokesperson for the Feeding My Family group leading the charge against high food prices. "The government already knows they're part of the problem. We want to work on the companies and airlines first, and once we have a general sense of where these businesses are, we'll go full force on the government."

For its part, the North West Company, which runs the NorthMart and Northern stores across Nunavut, maintains prices have gone down since the introduction of the Nutrition North Canada program. It keeps track of prices for a basket of food, including fruit, vegetables, bread, dairy and meat products. Their statistics show that since the end of the Food Mail program in March 2011, the basket in all communities has lowered in price by an average of 15 per cent. (For communities where an item was not available, Nunavut News/North used the average price across all stores.)

The communities seeing the biggest drop in prices are Hall Beach, Iglulik, Baker Lake, Kimmirut, and Chesterfield Inlet, all at 22 per cent.

On the other end, prices changed the least in Mablick's hometown of Pond Inlet (seven per cent), Pangnirtung (eight per cent), and Qikiqtarjuaq and Cape Dorset (10 per cent). Three of those communities continue to have the highest prices in the territory: the basket costs $243.18 in Cape Dorset, $232.65 in Pangnirtung, and $226.19 in Pond Inlet. Compared to Cape Dorset, prices are 23 per cent lower in Hall Beach, where the basket costs the least at $186.99. Rankin Inlet is next at $187.18, and Iglulik is third at $191.05.

In a June 27 statement, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) Minister John Duncan affirmed prices have gone down.

"Program audits show that the subsidy is being passed along to consumers," Duncan stated. "We are seeing that food prices in the Northern Food Basket for a family of four have dropped on average five per cent and as much as 14 per cent. Prices on some products, such as two litres of two-per-cent milk, have dropped by as much as 37 per cent."

"The program is achieving its objectives," said Stephen Van Dine, AANDC's director-general of devolution and territorial relations and the man responsible for Nutrition North Canada (NNC), "which was to increase access to nutritious and perishable foods to the greatest number of people living in remote communities across the North."

As Van Dine confirmed, Duncan insists retailers are complying with and not profiteering from the subsidy program.

"Monitoring of the food basket under NNC is far more comprehensive than under the previous program," Duncan stated. "Lower prices under NNC are driving increased consumption of healthy foods, with some retailers reporting (sales) increases of up to 19 per cent for dairy products and fresh produce. Almost 90 per cent of the subsidies go to produce, meat and alternatives, milk and dairy, and grain products."

And North West Company executive vice-president Michael McMullen says consumers are keeping an eye out, too.

"Some of the blogs said 'We're going to track you guys,'" McMullen said. "Healthy bundled products have gone down in price. I would love to have a process that would allow prices to go down. That's what we do every day.

"Nutrition North is a change in logistic system," he said, that removed Canada Post as an intermediary and allowed retailers to negotiate lower freight prices directly.

The system still does not work for people outside the major centres, says Jakob Gearheard, executive director of Clyde River's Ilisaqsivik family resource centre, because the availability of healthy food in Northern communities is so limited.

"In our Northern store here, there's one tiny section for fruits and vegetables," he said. "There are four rows and only two of those rows are dedicated to food, and an area maybe the size of a sofa is dedicated to (fresh) fruits and vegetables."

As evidence of the reality on the ground, Gearheard estimates the centre's various breakfast, after-school, youth, pre-natal, and cooking programs feed at least 500 people each day Monday to Friday. The hamlet had a population of 935 in 2011, according to census figures.

During the first months of the Nutrition North program, his costs went up by between 30 and 40 per cent, costs covered by a successful funding application. With the new subsidy rates, "food costs are pretty close to what they were before NNC began," he said.

Even if he were to try to buy the program supplies locally, the supply could not meet the demand.

"We would buy out the entire store in one day, and we would use that food in one day," he said. "It's just not there."

By ordering food from the south, he can get exactly what he wants, which is not possible with the Northern, as they have a limited list of products they stock, he said.

"There's a huge difference between Iqaluit and a place like Clyde River. You know how you feel living in Iqaluit when you go to Ottawa and you think, 'Wow, there's so much food'? That's how we feel when we go to Iqaluit. The prices are so cheap (compared to Clyde River) and I can actually get produce there."

When asked about Gearheard's experience at the Northern store, McMullen said it was news to him, and that he would look into finding a way to help Gearheard source his supplies locally. Gearheard later said he is looking into special ordering part of the weekly order to support the other local grocery store in hopes it will expand its healthy food options. Even if the food situation is getting better, as the federal government affirms, there's still a long way to go for Nunavut's most vulnerable residents.

"Our numbers are always increasing," said Jen Hayward, co-chair of the Niqinik Nuatsivik Nunavut Food Bank in Iqaluit, which has gone to serving 1,062 people in 2010 from just 45 in 2001. The food bank is open every two weeks because it would run out of food if the doors were open more often.

"The family sizes are increasing," she said of the food bank's clients. "The number of people living in houses is increasing. We used to give out a lot of family bags for families of four and under. Now we're giving out a lot more family and supplemental bags, which are for people with more than four in their families."

Seeing a similar need, Pond Inlet is working to create the Mittima Niqitarvik food bank, which will give access to donated country food and groceries for its residents.

"Most people here can't afford to pay bills or buy food," said acting community economic development officer Sam Arreak, who is taking the lead on the creation of the food bank, which will "at least help alleviate some of the hunger that kids and youth are going through right now."

As Arreak attests, a lack of employment opportunities aggravates the problem. Gearheard concurs.

"You might be the only person in your extended family who has a good nine-to-five job," Gearheard said. "There's so much homelessness, there's so many people living in one house, and there's so much poverty, that if you (someone in Clyde River) get food and take it home, everybody eats and everybody shares the food. That food might be gone in two days, and then what do you do?"

Eric Joamie is energized by the way Nunavummiut are standing up for a concern that affects them and their neighbours.

"People are getting a better understanding of how the system works," he said. "By their participation, they're getting more information about how the system is supposed to work, but is not working today."

Mablick wants to see improvements, which for him means lower prices.

"Not just on groceries, but everything, like clothing, rent, so we can afford to get our own place, to get clothes for our kids," Mablick said. "All the clothes they have are from donations or other peoples' garbage. Even though I have two jobs, I'm having a hard time living day by day. We don't even have a house or apartment because I choose food instead of paying for an apartment."