A price tag lists the price of a jug of orange juice at a grocery store in Iqaluit, Nunavut on December 8, 2014. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)
The Manitoba government is spending $193,000 to help alleviate food costs in northern parts of the province.
The funding to the Northern Healthy Foods Initiative (NHFI) and its five regional partners aims to ease food security pressures in the north due to the pandemic.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the challenges of accessing healthy food in northern Manitoba,” said Indigenous Reconciliation and Northern Relations Minister Alan Lagimodiere.
“Supply chain interruptions have driven-up food prices and caused shortages of healthy food options. This additional funding will help alleviate some of the strain placed on many northern communities and put food on their tables.”
The program works with communities to define their own food systems to access healthy foods in northern Manitoba with the goals of increasing food security efforts at the community level and strengthening community-led development.
The funding will be allocated to the five community-based regional NHFI partners: Bayline Regional Roundtable, Four Arrows Regional Health Authority, Frontier School Division, Food Matters Manitoba and the Northern Association of Community Councils (NACC).
