TUKTOYAKTUK - Tuktoyatuk residents want to see more local food in stores, and it's Melanie Keevik's job to make it happen. Easier said than done.

Stanton's employee Gloria Arnburg, left, and food security worker Melanie Keevik, right, discuss cooler space for traditional food in Stanton's Tuk store on Jan. 28, 2010. - photo courtesy of Marc Arseneau

However Keevik, a mother of four with a freezer stocked full of muktuk, geese, fish and caribou, is up to the challenge.

Keevik became a food security worker for Healthy Foods North early this year. Having been a part of the nutritionally focused organization for three years now, she encourages her fellow community members to eat better, taking surveys to find out why some of them don't.

"It was very hard for people to pass by me because of the way that I approached people. Everyone knows me and I'm outgoing so I'd say 'hey! Come over here and try this!" she said.

In her new position, Keevik is "promoting country foods and trying to make it more accessible and affordable to people in the community," she said.

As a result, Tuk residents may soon see muskox, char and maybe even reindeer in the freezer aisles of the Northern Store and Stanton's, but it's not as simple as a hunter bringing his catch back to sell in stores - food, especially meat, needs to be inspected and is subject to certain regulations before it can be sold.

"This is kind of a difficult job because when I go out there and I talk to people, asking them 'how can I promote traditional foods in the community?' a lot of them (ask if I can) put geese in the stores," said Keevik. "Here in Tuk, we have everything. We have the muktuk, the fish, reindeer, caribou, geese, everything. And it's just difficult because we don't have a place where we can bring our food to get cleaned up, like a market."

But she's not getting discouraged.

"I am excited about it," said Keevik. "It's interesting and I'm hearing it's the only job like this in all of Canada. It's a challenging job but I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get country foods promoted and work with the people in the community to try and promote them.

"For now we're just trying to do things locally, trying to get input from local organizations, working with store management, with the school and people in the town trying to do images" for posters promoting traditional foods.

And Keevik practices what she preaches. She makes sure her family eats well.

"I have muktuk and geese and fish and caribou in there and every year we go picking berries. I know for a fact that my kids will not eat properly if they don't eat caribou soup," she said, explaining her partner is a hunter but not everyone has the equipment or the ability to go hunting.

"Not very many people in this town have access to stuff like that - the guns and the gas - it's expensive," Keevik said.

That's why, when she hears from someone who just tried out her new bannock recipe, switched from coffee whitener to skim milk powder or quit drinking pop, Keevik knows she's making a difference to people in her community.

"It makes me feel good, special. Makes me more determined to do my job. The more comments I get, the more I want to work harder to get it going."