North Caribou Lake's community garden first step in food self-determination: Deputy Grand Chief

A successful hunter's festival, not to mention a plentiful harvest, shows a community garden has the potential to kick-start food self-determination for First Nations, said Nishnawbe Aski Nation Deputy Grand Chief Derek Fox.

The 26th annual Hunter's Festival in North Caribou Lake wrapped up on Sunday with seven moose, 40 partridge, one beaver, one swan and a boatload of pickerel and ducks. 

New to the festival was the inclusion of fresh vegetables grown in a community garden, which shows that the proper government support can reap huge dividends, Fox said.  

"The project in North Caribou Lake First Nation demonstrates how a small amount of funding can have major impacts on community food self-determination. Projects like this need to be developed and supported across NAN territory," Fox said.

Fox also said that there needs to be a re-tooling of the current system of food delivery.

"The Nutrition North Canada food subsidy program and other government initiatives need to support these on the ground community driven initiatives and work with us to find innovative alternatives to the current food subsidy," Fox said, "there needs to be a shift away from profit-driven models currently in place."

A small bag of baby carrots sells for $8 in North Caribou Lake First Nation and they are no longer fresh once they arrive into the fly-in community. 

"I stopped eating fresh vegetables because it became too expensive to buy them at the store," said community member John Kanate.

According to a press release from NAN, North Caribou Lake was able to develop their first community garden and the first harvest of vegetables was shared and prepared in moose stew eaten during the festival.

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