NUNAVUT
"I know this is Sell/Swap but I need help with food. Haven't eaten. I'm getting stomach pains. Sorry," wrote someone on their community's Facebook page last week.

At the heart of this phenomenon called "food insecurity" - complete with statistics and charts - under those cold words and numbers, is hunger. No one should apologize for feeling hungry.

That need for food expressed by some Nunavummiut and the compassion of a woman who had barely even heard of Nunavut before she came across Leesee Papatsie's Feeding My Family Facebook page created a movement that took southern Canada by storm.

Jennifer Gwilliam of Victoria, B.C., started the page called Helping Our Northern Neighbours in late summer 2014. A life-long humanitarian, working in aid internationally, her intent was to provide temporary relief to hungry families who needed help. The page was manageable, with about 150 Northern families paired up with southern sponsors by Christmas.

Then the story received national media attention. Gwilliam explodes into laughter, remembering January.

"It was more than a bit of a shock," she exclaims. "We were expecting nothing like that. It was all manageable then, suddenly, when that (happened) I got over 12,000 messages within a 48-hour period. I didn't even know what to open or what to do. We weren't set up for it."

But over the next couple of months, with the help of others, the system got sorted out. Gwilliam is methodical and precise, and always made the rules clear. If she became frazzled, it wasn't evident.

When we spoke April 1, there were more than 1,000 families and individuals assigned sponsors. But there were many yet to match up that made it in before the deadline.

Gwilliam doesn't have a count for sponsors, partly because many have grouped up in various cities across Canada and partly because there are short-term sponsors and long-term sponsors. There are also sponsors already supporting food banks.

For Helping Our Northern Neighbours, the time has come to fully commit to the intended focus of providing goods for food banks. The group accepted its last request for sponsors from individuals and families, but there were many yet to match up before a March 31 deadline, so the deadline to sort out details and applications to the program was then extended by five days.

"We're continuing with all the families who are already in the pipeline. We'll also accept referrals from people like the community health centres or justice outreach workers, those sorts of people. I think it's better that we focus on the food banks and see that they're all stocked," said Gwilliam.

"But all the people that are sponsoring now will continue through the year and longer if they want to. And if any sponsors back out, we'll re-sponsor those families."

Gwilliam says it was always the intention to work through food banks, "because the people on the ground know people better, who needs help and don't let people slip through the cracks. And, also, they would have the means to help in emergencies, where for us it takes quite a bit of time."

But as Gwilliam points out, when she first started out, there were very few food banks in Nunavut.

"Most of the one that there were had closed down because they were unable to stock their shelves, which was why we started out having our main focus on helping individual families sort of get over the hurdle," she said.

Eloise Noble, community economic development officer in the hamlet of Whale Cove, echoes this sentiment. Food banks in Nunavut are not easy to maintain, she told Nunavut News/North in February.

"The food bank has struggled in the past for many reasons - lack of volunteers and lack of support being the main reasons," she said. "Local organizations and businesses are the main source for donations for all committees and organizations that require support for their fundraising efforts. The support can only be carried so far."

Lucy Immingark was on the ground in Kugaaruk to receive 13 boxes from the Edmonton chapter of Helping Our Northern Neighbours in February, the first of several shipments.

Immingark says the food bank in Kugaaruk was struggling.

"We recently started this food bank. We asked for donations, we did bingos and sold Nevada tickets, but couldn't keep up because of the cost of the food at the store."

Another reason to focus on food banks is to streamline, make the help more effective.

Gwilliam says there has been quite a bit of abuse of the system. Some families signed up twice, either by two members of the family providing different names and postal boxes or by signing up with the program but also "self-matching" with sponsors on the page, telling people they haven't received anything when they have.

"A few people have been caught selling the things that we've sent them when we specifically asked that if you get things that you don't need or don't like or don't want that you please pass them on free to somebody else who does need them."

She says several people have been running a business by collecting all sorts of things they think will sell and then selling them on the Buy and Sell. Northerners are the ones revealing abuse of the system.

"They think it's terrible people are taking advantage."

Gwilliam says most people in the communities agreed the shift to local food banks is the way to go.

But disarray is not only on the receiving end. There have been skirmishes on the Facebook page, misunderstandings, childish behaviour and heavy-handed racism. Sponsors, too, have been difficult to manage, some being matched with a family in need and not following through. Other would-be sponsors demand very specific types of people to help.

"Some want some very specific things, like a five-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl living in Rankin Inlet with a single mother ... or something. You wouldn't believe some of the things people want."

All in all, though Gwilliam, says she's familiar, from years of experience, with the variety in human nature.

"It's not a surprise to me," she says. "It's always interesting working with people because some people just want to help and they'll give anything to anybody, wherever they're most needed, and other people you can see it's sort of more for their benefit. You can see it's trying to fill something in them rather than fulfill something for somebody else.

"There's a role for everybody."

She stresses the bulk of people have been wonderful and that in many cases lifelong friendships have been formed between Northerners and their southern sponsors.

"The people are so close, saying that they're like sisters and they talk on the phone a couple of times a week. They're looking forward to meeting. We had one meet-up (a couple of weeks ago) in Edmonton between a sponsor and a family and they're just absolutely thrilled with each other," said Gwilliam.

Another example of matching Gwilliam offers is the situation of a recently widowed man with daughters.

"I try to match them with a sponsor that I know will be personally involved with the family, who will be able to support them and talk to the kids."

In the legislative assembly March 4, Repulse Bay and Coral Harbour MLA Steve Mapsalak recognized Gwilliam's work.

"I want to expressly distinguish a person from the south who has provided a tremendous amount of assistance to our fellow Northerners. Although she isn't from Nunavut, nonetheless, she has vastly improved the situation faced by people living on the poverty line.

"She provides assistance specifically to low-income families, especially parents who face a daily struggle to feed their children," he said, adding Helping Our Northern Neighbours had assisted many people in his constituency.

All Gwilliam had to say in response was: "It's amazing, really, that all this grew out of one little idea one morning."

Then it was back to work for her.

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