Access to nutritious food is a huge issue across Canada, but the challenges that northern communities face are especially daunting and of significant concern for Food Banks Canada. Over 1 in 6 households in the Yukon, 1 in 5 households in the Northwest Territories, and over half of households in Nunavut struggle to keep healthy food on the table.
Across the North, food is something to be shared. It’s something that ties people and communities together. We continue to see the ongoing challenge of accessing fresh, nutritious food that has been made all the more difficult by the pandemic. With your support, Food Banks Canada will be able to continue to work and advocate on ways to enhance measures to reduce Northern Food Insecurity. We will be able to provide much needed tools and resources to northern communities and, help us partner with communities, governments and other change-makers to tackle the root causes of food insecurity. Working closely with our community partners, we will look to learn and champion innovative, community-led solutions, from improved access to traditional, land-based foods, to investments in northern agriculture.
Together, we can highlight the power of people coming together to take care of each other and ensure that every child, family, elder and community member has access to the nutritious food they need.
We acknowledge that the work of Food Banks Canada takes place on Indigenous land. As settles, we thank all the generations of Indigenous peoples who have taken care of this land. As settlers, this recognition of contributions and importance of Indigenous peoples must be clearly and overtly connected to our collective commitment to make the promise and the challenge of Truth and Reconciliation real in our communities.
