Stephanie McDonald
Northern News Services
Published Monday, December 3, 2007

IQALUIT - At 10 a.m. every weekday, Hannah Stoney begins cooking lunch for the small children at Tumikuluit Saipaaqivik Inuktitut daycare in Iqaluit.

Three-year-olds Eunice Arreak, left, and Nutaralaaq Lonsdale enjoy caribou stew made by Hannah Stoney at the Tumikuluit Saipaaqivik Inuktitut daycare in Iqaluit. Starting a month ago, the children have been enjoying country food every lunch hour. - Stephanie McDonald/NNSL photo

On this day she uses her ulu to slice small pieces of caribou meat that she puts into a large pot for caribou stew.

She adds onion, potato and noodles and leaves it for an hour, allowing the aroma to waft around the room where the children play.

Country food lunches have been served at Tumikuluit Saipaaqivik for about a month now.

"We started the lunches because we wanted the children to be used to country food," said Looee Arreak, chairperson of the daycare board.

Just as the children speak Inuktitut, they eat food that Inuit have eaten for centuries.

It also ensures that the children are getting proper nutrition.

"We believe that healthy eating habits start at a very young age and it will stick with them for the rest of their lives," she said.

The seal, fish, maktaaq, caribou, ptarmigan and seaweed are donated or purchased from local hunters.

Bannock is made in the daycare kitchen.

If a whole seal is brought in, the children learn how it's skinned and butchered and what each piece of the animal is used for.

Arreak said the project was a challenge in the beginning, as the children weren't used to eating country food at the daycare. Yet, after only a month, they are asking for second helpings, she said.

"When the children are growing up, if we feed them country food, they will know what it is," Stoney said through an interpreter.

She has been noticing that the young people are eating more Western-style food than in the past. If they eat country food as children, they will eat it as they grow up, Stoney said.

At 11 a.m., 13 bowls are lined up on the counter, with stew in each. Stoney stirs the contents and waves her hands over them.

"It's too hot for little kids," she said in English.

As if on cue, the children wash their hands and help to place small chairs around the equally small tables.

They wait patiently to receive their bowl of stew.

Most eat it quietly. Some forgo their spoons and bring the bowl to their lips, tipping the broth into their open mouths. A few ask to have their bowls refilled.

"It keeps you warm all day. That's what the broth does," said assistant director Rosie Shaimaiyuk, as she sits with the children. As the children eat, mats are laid out on the floor, ready for the young ones to have a nap after a morning of play and a nourishing lunch harvested from the land.