In last week's article, I discussed the ineffective Nutrition North Subsidy Program and how it has failed to solve the Northern Food Crisis

March 2, 2017/0 Comments/in Food Security/by Dawn Tabobondung

Welcome back!

In last week’s article, I discussed the ineffective Nutrition North Subsidy Program and how it has failed to solve the Northern Food Crisis.

Next up – our vision and mission.

VISION

The vision of First Nation Growers is to empower Indigenous communities with an opportunity to grow year-round fresh produce, fruit, herbs and traditional medicines from within our own communities, improving health, well-being, and social development in providing affordable, natural, nutritionally rich, fresh food streams for Generations to follow.

MISSION

The mission of First Nation Growers is to empower Indigenous communities, their members and their member’s children toward a healthier lifestyle in advancing a natural, nutritious, fresh foods diet. This in turn will provide each and every First Nation & Inuit community with a financially viable, opportunity to grow their own produce and other natural fresh foods for 7 Generations.

First Nations Growers is committed to improving the overall social development and well-being of Indigenous and Inuit Peoples through improving daily, year-round, healthy diets by providing continual access to affordable, fresh foods in every indigenous community where possible, that in turn will help unlock peoples’ true potential toward positive social development through better health through improved daily nutrition. First Nation Growers is a proponent of Aboriginal self-government as an important key to liberating the overall social development, economic, education, political, and well-being of First Nation and Inuit peoples across Canada.

We believe that the social development, values and well-being of Indigenous Peoples can be dramatically improved through dietary education that includes the regular consumption of fresh produce foods.

The social conditions of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada vary greatly according to place of residence, income level, family health and daily nutrition, cultural factors and Aboriginal classification (First Nations, Métis and Inuit). Areas of particular social concern include housing, employment, education, justice, health and nutrition, and family and cultural growth.

The federal Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AAND) is responsible and provides funding for nearly all the social programs and services to the registered Aboriginal population — First Nations people registered with status under the Indian Act and the Inuit.

In many contemporary northern communities, foods like fresh produce, fruit, vegetables, and milk must be transported long distances. This results in high costs, limited availability and poor quality of the fresh foods themselves. Natural produce and other fresh foods is mitigated by the availability of “country food” — wild foods like seal, caribou, duck, whale, and fish. A 2005 report found that 68 per cent of Inuk adults in Inuit Nunangat harvested country food.

Country food remains an important food source for many Inuit, with 65 per cent of households getting at least half their meat and fish from country food, and approximately 80 per cent of Inuit Nunangat families sharing country food with people in other households. The communal activities of harvesting, processing, distributing and preparing the foods emphasizes a traditional culture of cooperation.

Indigenous, Inuit, Aboriginal Peoples and other more remote non-Native Canadian communities are being deprived of fresh produce that is unreasonably priced, poor in quality and their communities and their members and their children are suffering a lack daily nutrition.

That’s all for Part Two. Please join me next week for Part Three, our “The Solution”.

Dawn Tabobondung is a proud member of Wasauksing First Nation and the Chief Executive Officer of First Nation Growers. First Nations Growers builds indoor “Community Garden Market Farms” that provide Indigenous & Inuit communities with a financially viable, year round opportunity to grow their own nutritionally rich fresh produce and foods. Be sure to follow First Nation Growers on Facebook.

“Indigenous indoor fresh foods farming today for a healthy tomorrow”

https://www.facebook.com/FirstNationGrowers/

https://twitter.com/FNGCanada

Fresh, affordable food should be a right, not a privilege. (Part 1)

February 22, 2017/0 Comments/in Food Security/by Dawn Tabobondung

Welcome to my first article of 2017! Over the past few months, we’ve been having conversations with remote First Nation communities across Canada. Our goal wasn’t to promote First Nation Growers, but rather to listen to the members of those communities and develop a deeper understanding of how the Northern Food Crisis is affecting them.

What we heard made us sad, angry and, more than anything, strengthened our resolve to help our brothers and sisters end this crisis.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing the thoughts and impressions that I’ve collected.

First up, a program that simply isn’t effective at addressing the problem – the NNC Subsidy.

What is the Nutrition North Canada (NNC) Program and Subsidy?

The NNC is a government program that is supposed to subsidize the high costs of transporting food to remote communities. I’ve been told repeatedly – by the people suffering the most – that the Subsidy Program simply doesn’t work well, has not for years and needs radical change in order to work properly for our most remote Indigenous communities.

There are 32 remote First Nation communities in Northern Ontario alone. This is more than any other region across Canada, yet only eight communities are eligible for the full NNC food subsidy! Another seven receive a partial subsidy ($0.05 a kilogram), while 17 communities are not eligible for any food subsidy at all – even though they pay up to four times as much as others do for fresh produce and foods across Canada.

This is outrageous!

It begs the questions … who decides which communities are eligible for the food subsidy, which ones are not, and why?

The program came under serious criticism in the 2014 Auditor General’s Report that found that the government could not verify whether the food subsidy savings were being passed onto Indigenous consumers in full, nor whether community eligibility was based on need.

Frankly, from what I understand, very little NNC food subsidy (and in some cases no subsidy at all) is being passed on to our more remote First Nation and Inuit Indigenous peoples.

It really is a sin that in our most remote Indigenous communities many foods are exorbitantly priced and primarily targeted to the area mining incomes, not the family incomes of our own First Nation and or Inuit family community members!

At First Nation Growers, we take great pride in being a friend of the Anishinabek, helping other communities where we can. Our mission is to work directly with various First Nation leaders so their communities can produce their own year-round fresh produce and other natural foods locally. FNG, along with our Canadian Manufacturing Partners, are so very proud our progress toward our goal of helping provide better year round nutritional streams to our most remote Indigenous communities across Canada.

Helping First Nation communities to produce their own fresh produce, natural foods, herbs, and other traditional indigenous medicines at year-round prices that each community family and their members can afford gives us incredible incentive to put our best foot forward, ensuring the First Nation’s future successes in their own indoor “Community Garden Market Farm” facility.

That’s all for Part One. Please join me next week for Part Two, our “Mission & Vision”.

Dawn Tabobondung is a proud member of Wasauksing First Nation and the Chief Executive Officer of First Nation Growers. First Nations Growers builds indoor “Community Garden Market Farms” that provide Indigenous & Inuit communities with a financially viable, year round opportunity to grow their own nutritionally rich fresh produce and foods. Be sure to follow First Nation Growers on Facebook.

“Indigenous indoor fresh foods farming today for a healthy tomorrow”

https://www.facebook.com/FirstNationGrowers/

https://twitter.com/FNGCanada

The Northern Food Crisis

November 9, 2016/0 Comments/in Food Security/by Dawn Tabobondung

Most Canadians take food security for granted. Living in Southern Urban areas means that you are surrounded by a surplus of food shopping options. From local Farmer’s Markets to Big Box Retail Chains, fresh produce is readily available at affordable prices year-round.

Just check out some of the prices in this week’s flyers from some of the large chains:

McIntosh or Gala Apples – $0.77 lb. / $1.70 kg
Carrots – 3 lb bag for $1.47
Beefsteak Tomatoes – $1.47 lb. / $3.24 kg
Bartlett Pears – $1.49 lb / $3.28 kg
Romaine Hearts – $3.49 for 3
Canada Potatoes – $3.00 for 5 lb. bag

Some good deals, eh? Unfortunately, for many of our sisters and brothers in remote communities, the reality is far different. The same bag of apples that costs $2.31 in Toronto takes $7.99 out of your food budget in Attawapiskat First Nation. Those nutritious carrots? $8.97 in Pond Inlet. Even something as simple as a bag of potatoes costs almost double Southern prices for residents of Fort Albany.

According to Food Secure Canada, food costs for Northern families are double those of families in Southern Canada. The gap is even more pronounced for on-reserve families.

“The average cost of the Revised Northern Food Basket (RNFB) for a family of four for one month in three northern and remote on reserve communities (Fort Albany, Attawapiskat, and Moose Factory) is $1,793.40.” – Food Secure Canada

Photo via Facebook

Food prices have always been an issue for remote Indigenous communities, but the problem has intensified in recent years. A lower Canadian dollar and weather conditions caused food prices to rise across Canada in 2016, worsening the crisis in the North. This past winter, a simple bag of grapes cost $28.19 in Sanikiluaq, while apples cost as much as $11.49 in Rankin Inlet.

As author Jean Ziegler noted to the United Nations, the right to food is a human right. “It protects the right of all human beings to live in dignity, free from hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. The right to food is not about charity, but about ensuring that all people have the capacity to feed themselves in dignity.” The Northern Food Crisis is an ongoing human rights violation.

The Northern Food Crisis is leaving Indigenous Communities in a State of Emergency and dramatically impacting the health of our people.

“Children who go hungry are more likely to experience asthma and depression…for adults, their physical and mental health are likely to suffer and they will experience higher rates of depression, diabetes and heart disease.” – Vice News

Indigenous peoples have the right to eat healthy, natural, fresh foods every day, regardless of their geographical locations, at prices all can afford.

Programs like Nutrition North Canada can’t and won’t solve the problem. The cost of shipping fresh food to remote reserves will continue to rise and negatively impact the health of our communities.

We founded First Nation Growers because we cannot stand by and wait for the government to solve the Northern Food Crisis. We are ready to empower our sisters and brothers with a solution.

Food access is a human right and essential to the health of our people. The time for reports, studies, and consultations is over. The time for results is now.

Dawn Tabobondung is a proud member of Wasauksing First Nation and the Chief Executive Officer of First Nation Growers. First Nations Growers builds indoor “Community Garden Market Farms” that provide Indigenous & Inuit communities with a financially viable, year round opportunity to grow their own nutritionally rich fresh produce and foods. Be sure to follow First Nation Growers on Facebook.