After growing up in foster care, “Kelsey” returned home to her community, Kwadacha Nation (also known as Fort Ware) in Northern BC as a young adult. Like many others in similar situations, she wasn’t used to life in a remote village and felt unsure of how she fit in.
That gradually started to change once she started working for a local program that provided meals for Elders, helping to ensure they would have enough to eat and share with their families. “Week after week, she joined the health and wellness team in the kitchen,” writes Jennifer Burns, Director of Family & Social Development for Kwadacha Nation, in a report to Food Banks Canada. “She learned traditional recipes, laughed alongside aunties, and delivered meals door to door. The Elders welcomed her warmly, offering words of encouragement, stories of their own youth, and teachings about resilience, community, and self-worth. This youth began to see herself differently. She now speaks about how those afternoons with the Elders gave her hope, grounding, and a sense of belonging she hadn’t felt in years.”
A few years earlier, “Kelsey” would not have been helping to prepare the meals, because that job was done over 500 kilometres south, in Prince George. Then, in 2025, Kwadacha Nation built the capacity to prepare meals on-site with support from a Northern Food Security Fund grant from Food Banks Canada. “This allowed Elders to receive fresh, hot and culturally appropriate foods such as soups, stews, fish and traditional game whenever available,” writes Burns. “Elders reported improved nutrition, greater satisfaction with the freshness and taste of their meals, and a renewed sense of connection to community and culture.”
It wasn’t only the meal recipients who benefitted from the change. “It also created local employment and built new skills in food handling, menu planning, and kitchen operations,” Burns continues. “The staff who were hired gained hands-on experience that can now be applied in the new community kitchen currently under development.”
Through their connections with culture, community bonds, physical health, mental health, and the local economy, Elder meal services and other kinds of food programming meet many needs in Kwadacha — and in Northern communities more generally.
Food Banks Canada’s Northern Food Security Fund invests in these locally led initiatives, helping to empower enterprising people (“food champions”) to pursue their visions of what food security would look like for their communities.
Pursuing Health, Empowerment, and Food Sovereignty
Between 2013 and 2026, Sirivik, a local nonprofit in Inukjuak, Nunavik (Northern Quebec), went from a small group of volunteers delivering meals once a month to the community’s most vulnerable households to a well-equipped Food Centre with daily programming that is felt widely among the village’s 2,000 people. Sirivik now aims to help build a future where the entire region of Nunavik is healthy, empowered, and food sovereign.
Having started without a building of its own, the organization now operates out of a facility with a community kitchen, dining hall, and four-season greenhouse. In addition to emergency food support, it also runs an on-the-land program called Ulluriat for harvesting country food, an agriculture program, a drop-in program that breaks isolation and serves healthy snacks, cooking classes, and regular community meals.
“Our approach interconnects all our programs,” the organization explained in a report to Food Banks Canada. “Participants in one program might benefit from or contribute to another program. For example, Ulluriat might harvest country food that will be used or served in a cooking class or community meal.”
The heart and driving force of Sirivik — named for an expression used in Inuktitut to express gratitude and excitement before sharing a meal — is the people who run it and use it. Food Banks Canada, the Rossy Foundation, Enterprise Mobility and other supporters of the Northern Food Security Fund have also played a role in Sirivik’s evolution from modest meal-delivery service to reliable soup kitchen to ambitious food centre. The fund has been used over the years to supply Sirivik with snowmobiles for hunting, greenhouse equipment, and the procurement and transportation of food for its emergency food support, community meals, and drop-in programs.
Food Banks Canada staffers recently got the opportunity to visit Sirivik and meet with various leaders and community members, as part of ongoing efforts to build personal relationships in Northern communities and connect them with a broader community of support as they navigate challenges such as scaling up their operations.
“With the continued support of our partners, community, and funders, Sirivik is contributing to food security in Inukjuak,” writes the organization to Food Banks Canada. “We invite you to stay engaged and walk alongside as we continue this journey. Every contribution helps us move forward and grow our impact.”
