In a small basement food bank, Cheryl Norgaard and her team of volunteers are packing up cans of soup, boxes of pasta and bags of rice to keep people fed in their community of La Ronge, Sask.
This week, they’re also adding potatoes and sauerkraut — high in vitamin C — after learning people in the area have been diagnosed with scurvy.
“We have been discussing what’s in our hampers, what we could put in our hampers that would be more useful, more nutritious,” said Norgaard, chair of the food bank.
People in La Ronge are raising concerns over access to fresh healthy food after doctors diagnosed 27 cases of scurvy over the past year. The centuries-old and largely eradicated illness is linked to severe vitamin C deficiency. Until now, it was so rare that a single case would often launch an entire study.
People in the community, 380 kilometres north of Saskatoon, are now trying to figure out how to tackle the larger problems behind the cases, including food insecurity.
Dr. Jeff Irvine, a physician in La Ronge who works with Northern Medical Services, investigated the cases. He said if people are not eating fruits and vegetables, there are likely other health issues to watch out for.
“Vitamin C is just sort of a canary in the coal mine, if you will, in terms of what else people might be nutrient deficient in,” he said.
Irvine said the easiest treatment is low-cost vitamins. But addressing the social issues behind why people are not getting the nutrients they need is much more challenging.
“A lot of research has shown that the education around is not the issue. People know what healthy food is. People know how to prepare healthy food If they have it. The issue more is just they don’t have it in the first place,” he said.
Traditional foods high in vitamin C
La Ronge is one of the largest communities in northern Saskatchewan, home to about 5,600 people across two municipalities and several reserves that are part of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band.
Chief Tammy Cook-Searson said she has learned that many of the traditional foods for Woodland Cree are high in vitamin C and other nutrients.
Cook-Searson said foods like mint and Labrador tea, rosehip, fireweed and certain animal parts are all good sources of the vitamin.
“Scurvy can can cause severe, like even critical illness, but it’s also an easy fix such as just choosing healthier foods or even like getting out and and harvesting the plants that are high in vitamin C, or consuming like some of the the delicacies such as the moose liver, moose heart and the moose kidneys,” she said.
If you thought scurvy was a disease from a hundred years ago, think again. A recent cluster of cases has people wondering how this can be happening in Saskatchewan in 2024.
‘Food is very expensive’
At the food bank, the volunteers deliver around fifty hampers – the most they can manage – each week, but the need is growing.
They’re at nearly 2,000 boxes distributed so far this year, up from about 1,500 total last year. The number of people they’re feeding has also increased.
Norgaard said the food bank is often having to turn people away.
“Food is very expensive. And I think people are just finding it really hard to make ends meet with what they have.”
Next summer, the organization is hoping to re-launch a community garden to be able to offer more fresh produce.
At La Ronge’s main grocery store, shoppers said they notice prices are considerably higher in the north due to the high transport costs, particularly for fresh fruits and vegetables.
They estimated that, on average, goods cost about 15 to 20 per cent more than in Regina and Saskatoon. The further north you go, the higher the prices.
Cumberland MLA Jordan McPhail, whose riding includes all of northwest Saskatchewan, recently shared pictures of $20 grapes in Stony Rapids and a $168 turkey in Wollaston Lake, which are even more isolated than La Ronge.
“Families are making impossible decisions. They’re trying to feed their families the most nutritious diet they can. But they’re not able to get the fresh produce that you and I or folks in Regina, Saskatoon, Prince Albert, might be able to,” he said.
Outside the grocery store, Shelby Savoie said the prices on the shelves are increasingly impacting what she buys.
“Fresh stuff — it’s got to be on sale,” she said. “It’s crazy. You’ve only got one grocery store, one large grocery store. So what do you do?”
Flora Ratte said many fresh items are now “just too expensive.”
“In the north meat is a staple for every meal, especially in the wintertime. And it’s just skyrocketed.”
What are the solutions?
Experts in food systems in northern Indigenous communities say there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for a community like La Ronge.
Andrew Spring, a professor at Wilfrid Laurier University and Canada Research Chair in northern sustainable food systems, works with communities primarily in the Northwest Territories on climate change adaptation and building sustainable food systems.
“We like to think of the food system in the north as stew. Where the main part of the stew has always been the traditional food, and it’s complemented by things like carrots and potatoes and onions that you can grow locally,” he said.
Spring said a community like La Ronge would benefit from having a conversation around food sovereignty and figuring out what it wants that mix of sources to be.
Some northern communities have found success with gardens and harvester support programs that encourage gathering traditional foods that are high in nutrients.
“I think the answer is, what does the community really value and what does the community want to see on their plate?” he said.