The characteristics and experience of community food program users in arctic Canada: a case study from Iqaluit, Nunavut

Food insecurity is a chronic problem affecting Inuit settlements in Canada. In Nunavut Territory, for instance, 56% of the Inuit population is estimated to be food-insecure [1], with community studies indicating prevalence ranging from 50 to 80% [2–5]. This significantly exceeds the Canadian average and includes high prevalence among children [6]. Food insecurity is reflective of, and in turn contributes to, the poor health status of Inuit, and has been identified as one of the major policy challenges facing northern governments [7–15].

The last two decades have witnessed a proliferation of research examining Inuit food systems, proving insight on food (in)security. Inuit food systems combine interdependence on traditional components based on subsistence hunting and fishing activities – which remain a major source of food [16] – and market based or store foods. Early food research in Arctic Canada focused on sharing in contemporary Inuit society, examining customary rules governing how traditional foods are produced, processed, distributed, prepared and consumed [17–20]. More recently, this work has examined how traditional food systems are changing and what this means for food security at a community level [21–27]. In the early 1990s research also began to examine contaminants in traditional foods and associated health implications, as it became clear that Arctic regions were accumulating contaminants emitted in the south; this remains an important focus of study [28–30]. Concern over contaminants, along with broader interest in dietary change, in turn provided impetus for research documenting dietary consumption patterns, examining change in dietary habits over time, and assessing the adequacy of nutrient intakes [5, 6, 31–44]. Some of these studies have utilized modified versions of the Radimer/Cornell and USDA household food questionnaire to quantify prevalence of food insecurity [1–5].

The literature develops an understanding of the magnitude of the food security challenge facing Inuit communities and the roles played by various factors. A preference for working in small, remote, and more traditional communities (population <1500) is discernible along with a focus on the traditional food component of the food system. Vulnerable groups including children and females have been the focus of a few recent studies [4, 6, 45]. The experience and determinants of food insecurity in the larger regional Inuit centers (RICs) (e.g. Iqaluit, Inuvik), however, have been largely unexamined. These regional centers differ significantly from the smaller communities that have been the focus of research, with their administrative functions, rapidly developing economies, transport links, and rapid in-migration, with livelihoods combining a strong dependence on the waged economy alongside continued importance on subsistence-based harvesting activities [46–48].

Employment opportunities in RICs and lower retail prices for store food relative to what is found in smaller communities which are more remote from larger food distribution routes are likely, on the one hand, to moderate food insecurity compared to smaller communities, where poverty and unemployment are major constraints on the ability to access food. Equally, research has indicated that social networks through which traditional foods are shared between and within households are often weaker in RICs, a function of demographics, predominance of livelihoods based on the waged economy, in-migration and transiency in habitation [47–49]. Moreover, the larger settlements, while increasingly prosperous, have significant pockets of inequality, characterized by high and persistent unemployment, poverty, and house overcrowding [50, 51]. For this ‘underclass,’ food insecurity is typically chronic and manifest in an inability to access traditional or store foods [48]. In response, community food programs (CFPs) have been initiated in some RICs, including the development of food banks and soup kitchens. Such support mechanisms are a recent development in the Canadian Arctic and reflect the challenges faced in the context of modernization, acculturation, and population growth.

While there is a well developed literature on CFPs in urban areas of southern Canada, very little is known in a Canadian Arctic context, or indeed the Arctic more generally. Who is using CFPs? How often? Why? Is use changing over time? How are food programs perceived? These are important questions, particularly in-light of stressors such as climate change, the rising cost of living, changing sharing networks, and population growth, all of which have the potential to increase demand for formalized food services. Policy makers and program coordinators have identified this knowledge gap as challenging service planning for this segment of the population, who have historically been neglected in food system initiatives [48]. This gap partly reflects the challenging nature of researching marginalised and transient populations using CFPs who are sometimes homeless and living in shelters or in temporary housing. These individuals are unlikely to be captured in research recruiting study participants randomly based upon housing lists and maps (e.g. Inuit Health Survey) or in qualitative studies using convenience or snowball sampling. Rather, they need to be explicitly targeted as a vulnerable sub-population. This paper is situated within this context, and employs a mixed methods research approach to document and examine utilization and the food security experience of users of CFPs drawing upon a case study from Iqaluit, Nunavut. In developing a baseline understanding of utilization and determining factors, we close by examining policy interventions to strengthen current food programming targeted at vulnerable community members.

Ninety four interviews were conducted. Socio-demographic characteristics of the sample population are provided in Table 1.

Community food programs in Iqaluit are widely used and valued

In 2008–2009, the food bank distributed food to 365 households (18.1% of total number of households in Iqaluit based on 2006 census). Peaks in attendance occur in early winter (November, December), while fewer clients used their services in the fall and summer (Figure 1). The soup kitchen had an average of 275 days of operation per year between 2005 and 2009, and serves an average of 9984 meals annually, primarily to adults (Figure 2). The soup kitchen had its peak attendance in 2005, receiving an average of 43 people per operation day during its first year of operation when it was open seven days per week for lunch and dinner, and every month of the year. In recent years the soup kitchen’s operation has been curtailed with a reduction of service from two meals per day seven days a week, to one meal per day five days a week. In 2009, it served meals to an average of 36 people per day. Tukisigiarvik received 3828 drop-ins in 2008–2009, an increase from the 3690 drop-ins that were made in 2004–2005. These drop-ins include stopping for counselling, sharing traditional foods, doing laundry and participating in cultural activities.

""When I come [to the soup kitchen], it reduces the number of people to feed in my house" (female, 35–44 yrs old, full time worker)"

""We don’t have a choice, we don’t have money to buy food" (male, 45–54 yrs old, unemployed)"

""The food bank is very helpful, especially having 2 small kids who don’t understand there is no food"(female, 45–54 yrs old, unemployed)"

""We can’t find people to help. If it weren’t for these services, we would go hungry" (female, 45–54 yrs old, unemployed)"

CFPs were highly valued among users, with 82% reporting that they regularly help alleviate hunger, while the absence of other options for accessing food during times of need was widely noted. Participants explained that these programs provide more than a source of food, increasing a sense of well-being by decreasing anxiety about not being able to afford food and reducing feelings of helplessness:

""I feel really bad when children are hungry, and I like knowing that these organizations can help them" (female, 18–24 yrs old, unemployed)"

""Makes it easier, because I have no money or work" (female,35-44 yrs old, unemployed)"

""When I get very depressed from hunger, they lift me up" (female, 45–54 yrs old, part time worker)"

""It would be really stressful if [the food programs] didn’t exist" (male, 25–34 yrs old, unemployed)"

""There would be a lot more social problems without these organisations" (male, 25–34 yrs old, unemployed)"

To our knowledge, this is the first study to document and examine utilization of CFPs in the Canadian Arctic, and the Arctic more generally. The data provide a snapshot of utilization at a specific point in time (May 2010), and while we interviewed all users over a 4-week period, we recognize that we will have missed those who use the programs at other times of the year. The study describes users of CFPs who typically have a low level of formal education, are unemployed, rely on social assistance, and have a low household income. This is not surprising, with utilization profiles similar to those in southern urban centres [54, 55]. Contrary to our expectation that new arrivals to Iqaluit would be overrepresented in utilization of CFPs reflecting the breadth and quality of their social ties, the majority of users were born in Iqaluit, and of those from elsewhere, the majority had been living in Iqaluit for more than five years. Lack of shelter is a challenge facing many CFP users, especially ‘hidden homelessness’ characterized by a lack of a secure and permanent dwelling, involving individuals and families moving from one temporary housing situation to another [51, 56]. These situations are typical for users of CFPs, and compound challenges of finding a job, getting an education, recovering from previous trauma, and achieving food security. Housing is a broader problem in Nunavut, where overcrowding in substandard houses is widespread [47, 51, 57]. While addictive behaviour was reported by 9% of participants as a reason why they had difficulties obtaining food, this likely reflects the nature of the research approach (i.e. formal survey/interview), with key informants and some users noting that addiction is major problem facing those using CFPs. We did not detect an association between employment status, place of birth, gender, age, presence of hunter in the household and utilization of CFPs. This is likely due to both low sample size, as well as low variation in the data.

The role of low income, limited educational achievement, unemployment, hidden homelessness, and addictive behaviour represent proximate causes of food insecurity and CFP use, and form part of what Coates et al. [58] describe as a ‘cluster of problems’ affecting food systems in multiple geographic and cultural contexts. These challenges are particularly acute in Arctic Canada where the cost of living and reliance on a limited number of economic sectors is high [59]. Food in Nunavut, for example, on average costs twice as much in southern urban centres with household income significantly lower [45, 59, 60]. Ultimately, these causes can only be understood in the context of sweeping socio-economic transformations that have affected Inuit society over the last half century as former semi-nomadic hunting groups were resettled into permanent settlements beginning in the 1950s and incorporated into a colonial relationship with the Canadian state, detailed descriptions of which are provided elsewhere [12, 17, 61–63]. Iqaluit was one of the first permanently settled communities in the eastern Arctic, beginning with the building of a US Air Force base in 1942 [47, 62, 64]. This was accompanied by rapid socio-cultural change with the associated development of the formal education system, relative decline in hunting, expansion of the wage-based economy, and rapid population growth [17, 65–69], with implications for how food is produced, processed, distributed, and consumed, and hence food security.

The nutrition transition is one consequence of these broader influences, with the rising consumption of store foods at the expense of traditional foods widely documented across Inuit communities [4, 33], access to which is determined by monetary resources in contrast to the moral economy of reciprocity and exchange that governed access to traditional food [17, 18, 70, 71]. There was historically little need for formalized food programs, as household sharing networks would ensure food access (except during periods when wildlife resources were scarce). Sharing networks continue to be important for Inuit – differentiating the northern CFP experience from that in the south – and the majority of respondents reported that they could access traditional foods through such networks, which is important given the limited number of participants who reported having hunters in the household. Nevertheless, as documented here and elsewhere, in a contemporary context in which hunting is expensive, harvest success is being affected by climate change, and fewer people are engaging in harvesting activities, increasing demands are being placed on diminishing supply of traditional foods [21, 61, 72–78]. Sharing outside of the household – the primary means of traditional food access for CFP users – is therefore often unpredictable and infrequent, especially for those with less to offer in terms of reciprocity (e.g. material resources). For the more vulnerable members of the community who do not have access to financial resources or have stable housing, this diminished social safety net leaves few alternatives but to use CFPs. The vulnerability of sharing networks is particularly apparent in enhanced CFP usage in November and December, times of the year when traditional foods are hard to access due to ice freeze-up and uncertain snow conditions on inland trails which limit the ability to hunt [73, 79]. At these times, sharing concentrates among those in the immediate household and for elders.

Another consequence of these broader changes has been significant acculturative stress among northern populations, linked to the rapid changes in livelihoods and culture, and experience of residential schools [10, 12, 80–83]. Many of the older respondents were born and raised in small hunting camps, resettled in Iqaluit, spent time at tuberculosis sanatoria in southern Canada in the 1950s and 60s, and now live in a modern community. The significant associated acculturative stress and intergenerational trauma provides the context for many of the social and health challenges facing Inuit communities including Iqaluit [13, 74]. Thus the financial constraints faced by many CFP users reflect more than the cost of food and unemployment; they are exacerbated by household financial management skills, problems of addiction, and poor living conditions associated with acculturation and recent development of the monetary economy [63, 82, 84]. Similarly, problems of addiction need to be situated in the context of past abuse and also changing relationships with the environment. The land is a fundamental component of Inuit culture and central to health and well-being – both through the act of hunting and being on the land, and also the act of sharing and consuming traditional foods – yet for CFP users this link was often lacking: few were able to afford to hunt, instead relying on sharing for traditional food access. This directly affects food availability, but also has broader ramifications for well-being [85].

In-light of the magnitude of food insecurity in the Canadian north, food policy is increasingly recognized as a central component of anti-poverty/community development strategies. Addressing the broader determinants of food insecurity is essential for such policy interventions, yet the pervasiveness and persistence of these causes despite recognition at a policy level is indicative of the challenging nature of intervention required. Moreover, at a community level, such ultimate causes are often beyond the scope of what can be achieved, necessitating broad-scale territorial and federal involvement [14]. In this context, while CFPs do not address root causes, they provide a valuable service for a community undergoing rapid change. While it has been argued in the general scholarship and among some northern commentators that CFPs can create dependency and thereby increase food insecurity in the long-term, users in Iqaluit have few alternative sources of food, and numerous barriers make it difficult for users to obtain waged employment necessary for food access. CFPs also provide much more than food. They offer a safe place to go, and in the case of Tukisigiarvik, provide access to culturally important traditional foods which many otherwise would not have access to. Herein, this work suggests a number of priorities for food policy in Iqaluit:

· Continuing support for CFPs. While the food bank and soup kitchen rely on donations, Tukisigiarvik recently lost most of their funding as their grant from the Aboriginal Healing Foundation came to end in 2010. The center represents an intervention developed by Iqaluit’s Inuit population after consultations identified the need for a wellness, counselling and advice center to help Inuit in Iqaluit cope with the health and social issues they face. It draws upon traditional approaches that recognize food insecurity to be representative of broader socio-cultural challenges, and as such provides more than just food for those in need including counselling, cultural activities, advice on life skills, and structure.

· Promotion of traditional foods at the food bank and soup kitchen. Many participants expressed their gratitude towards the foods offered at the food bank and soup kitchen. However, many also expressed desire to see traditional foods being incorporated in the menus of the soup kitchen, or being offered at the food bank because of the difficulty they have obtaining them otherwise, and more diversity of foods offered. Currently however, the food bank can not serve traditional foods harvested locally because of food safety regulations.

· Education on how to make the best of store foods offered at the food bank. Items offered through the food bank are through local donations, and users often reported not knowing how to make use of the food received. The development of cooking classes, pamphlets with recipes, and workshops that teach users how to get the most nutritional value out of the distributed foods were identified as important, and could be undertaken at little cost .

· In addition, a number of broader initiatives are needed to strengthen the traditional food component of the food system. Maintaining access to traditional foods is widely recognized as essential for secure food systems in Inuit communities, providing culturally valued nutritious food [14, 59].

· Enhanced support mechanisms to ensure that CFP users can access hunting equipment. Many participants reported having to sell hunting equipment to access money to buy food, resulting in short term access to material resources but loss of the means of harvesting in the long term, with associated food security implications. Many also reported having hunting skills but no equipment, or could not go hunting because of the cost associated with hunting. A number of hunter support mechanisms are available in Nunavut, and were reviewed by Ford et al. [73, 86]. The challenge for CFP users is that many would not meet the requirements for such support mechanisms, while in a community the size of Iqaluit demand for assistance significantly exceeds the resources available. An alternative intervention to the individual focused grants aimed at full time hunters would be a co-op system to allow community members without equipment to access hunting gear. This would provide access for those who want to harvest part-time, prevent people from feeling the need to sell hunting equipment, and spread limited resources around the community. As one participant said: "I used to be able to hunt before moving here, but not anymore, because I don’t have gear" (male , 25–34 years old, unemployed.

· Sharing networks to distribute country foods need to be preserved and facilitated: Sharing of traditional foods remains important in Iqaluit and for CFP users, although the long-term sustainability of such practices has been questioned in light of socio-economic transformations. Initiatives that facilitate the sharing of traditional foods are needed, with community freezers, reduced cargo cost for shipping of traditional foods between communities, support for the new traditional food market in Iqaluit, subsidies on traditional foods sold at stores, and subsidies to hunters to allow them to go hunting, all offering potential entry points.

Community food programs (CFPs) provide an important service to chronically food insecure households in Iqaluit, Nunavut. Users are among the most vulnerable community members, and typically have low level of education, are unemployed, have limited access to material resources, and have insecure housing. These challenges reflect a complex socio-cultural-political context reflecting rapid transformation in Inuit livelihoods over the past half century, combined with the high cost of living in the north. The baseline study identifies a number of community level priorities for intervention including continuing support for CFPs, promotion of traditional foods at the food bank and soup kitchen, education of using foods offered through CFPs, alongside broader policies to support the harvesting sector. Future research will examine policy interventions in greater depth, with the territorial and federal government increasingly cognizant of the challenges faced by the most vulnerable of Arctic residents.