Community food program use in Inuvik, Northwest Territories

Background: Community food programs (CFPs) provide an important safety-net for highly food insecure community members in the larger settlements of the Canadian Arctic. This study identifies who is using CFPs and why, drawing upon a case study from Inuvik, Northwest Territories. This work is compared with a similar study from Iqaluit, Nunavut, allowing the development of an Arctic-wide understanding of CFP use – a neglected topic in the northern food security literature. Methods: Photovoice workshops (n=7), a modified USDA food security survey and open ended interviews with CFP users (n=54) in Inuvik. Results: Users of CFPs in Inuvik are more likely to be housing insecure, female, middle aged (35–64), unemployed, Aboriginal, and lack a high school education. Participants are primarily chronic users, and depend on CFPs for regular food access. Conclusions: This work indicates the presence of chronically food insecure groups who have not benefited from the economic development and job opportunities offered in larger regional centers of the Canadian Arctic, and for whom traditional kinship-based food sharing networks have been unable to fully meet their dietary needs. While CFPs do not address the underlying causes of food insecurity, they provide an important service for communities undergoing rapid change, and need greater focus in food policy herein

Diet and infection as predictors of stunting, iron deficiency and anemia in indigenous Panamanian communities

This cross sectional study evaluated if coffee, associated with reduced linear growth, anemia and immunomodulation could contribute to childhood stunting and iron deficiency (ID) and anemia in Indigenous Ngöbe Buglé children and mothers. Questionnaires on socio-economic status, health, diet, anthropometry, iron supplement use and coffee consumption and a sample of coffee, venous blood and stool were collected. Our best model suggests that coffee is an independent negative predictor of stunting in children along with having inflammation, higher Ascaris infection, lower meat consumption, being a male and having a shorter mother. Diet, iron supplements and chronic infections explained more than 50% of the variability in hemoglobin and serum ferritin concentrations of mothers and children, with coffee only negatively affecting mothers. This study will add to the limited knowledge of the impact of coffee consumption on child health, and determine other predictors of stunting, ID and anemia in this vulnerable population.Cette étude transversale a évalué si le café, qui est associé a l'anémie ferriprive, la réduction de la croissance linéaire et l'immunomodulation pourrait contribuer aux retards de croissance chez les enfants, à l'anémie et aux carences en fer des enfants et de leurs mères du groupe autochtone Ngöbe Buglé. Des questionnaires sur niveau socio-économique, la santé, l'anthropométrie, le régime alimentaire, l'utilisation des suppléments de fer et la consommation du café ainsi que des échantillons fécaux, de café, de sang ont été recueillis. Cette étude transversale permettra d'accroître les connaissances sur l'impact de la consommation du café chez les enfants et permettra d'évaluer si cette habitude nuit aux bénéfices des interventions de santé publique mises en place dans la région

The characteristics and experience of community food program users in arctic Canada: a case study from Iqaluit, Nunavut

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Community food programs (CFPs), including soup kitchens and food banks, are a recent development in larger settlements in the Canadian Arctic. Our understanding of utilization of these programs is limited as food systems research has not studied the marginalised and transient populations using CFPs, constraining service planning for some of the most vulnerable community members. This paper reports on a baseline study conducted with users of CFPs in Iqaluit, Nunavut, to identify and characterize utilization and document their food security experience.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Open ended interviews and a fixed-choice survey on a census (n = 94) were conducted with of users of the food bank, soup kitchen, and friendship centre over a 1 month period, along with key informant interviews.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Users of CFPs are more likely to be Inuit, be unemployed, and have not completed high school compared to the general Iqaluit population, while also reporting high dependence on social assistance, low household income, and an absence of hunters in the household. The majority report using CFPs for over a year and on a regular basis.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The inability of users to obtain sufficient food must be understood in the context of socio-economic transformations that have affected Inuit society over the last half century as former semi-nomadic hunting groups were resettled into permanent settlements. The resulting livelihood changes profoundly affected how food is produced, processed, distributed, and consumed, and the socio-cultural relationships surrounding such activities. Consequences have included the rising importance of material resources for food access, the weakening of social safety mechanisms through which more vulnerable community members would have traditionally been supported, and acculturative stress. Addressing these broader challenges is essential for food policy, yet CFPs also have an essential role in providing for those who would otherwise have limited food access.</p

Balancing indigenous principles and institutional research guidelines for informed consent : a case study from the Peruvian Amazon

Background: Current literature emphasizes the need to implement informed consent according to indigenous principles and worldviews. However, few studies explicitly address how informed consent can be effectively and appropriately obtained in indigenous communities in accordance with research ethics guidelines. Methods: This article uses participatory rural appraisal methods to identify and characterize community preferences for informed consent in two indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon, using Canadian federal research regulations and McGill University's Research Ethics Board as a case study to examine where institutional ethics guidelines constrain or support culturally appropriate notions of informed consent. Results: The study emphasizes the importance of tailoring informed consent procedures to community circumstances. Although both communities in this case study are located in the Peruvian Amazon, there were important distinctions between them, such as gender dynamics and social structure, which profoundly affected informed consent procedures. It is also important to consider the balance of collectivism and individualism at a community level in order to determine the role of individual and community consent. Conclusion: Research ethics guidelines generally allow for this contextualized approach. However, regulations still have the potential to constrain indigenous informed consent due to content requirements for informed consent forms, limited flexibility for modifications in the field, and requirements for individual consent