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Survey shows that Inuit preschoolers often go hungry
last update: Feb 03, 2010 10:46 AM
from a "Ottawa Citizen" article: McGill epidemiologist Grace Egeland found, after compiling results of a survey, that most Inuit preschoolers in Nunavut live in homes where there isn't enough to eat.
She found seven in ten children are either obliged to skip meals or go a whole day without because the family couldn't afford to buy food. It is a staggering number and Egeland didn't doubt the emerging portrait of hidden hunger and malnutrition. But one thing she also learned in the many years she has worked been in the Arctic: "Inuit don't complain." Egeland is the lead author of a major study by McGill researchers and the territorial government published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
She said "I knew we would identify a problem. I didn't understand that there would be children who would not eat for a day because there was no money for food." adding that interviewers told her that parents and caregivers were often "teary-eyed." They weren't looking for sympathy, just reporting the collective reality of life in the Arctic.
Food insecurity - defined as a shortage of food that is safe, nutritious and meets the requirements for a healthy and active life - is only part of the story for Inuit families, who are often living on income support in overcrowded public housing that is sorely in need of major repair Egeland said. "We need to find ways to enhance food security for families in the Arctic. Food insecurity is all too prevalent in homes with Inuit preschoolers in Canadian Arctic communities."
The study is the first publication of the Inuit Health Study, a comprehensive investigation conducted with major funding from the International Polar Year project.
Read more:
Ottawa Citizen, 1. February 2010
