Yukon Employees’ Union is sharing this post on behalf of our brothers & sisters in northern communities. It’s impossible to comprehend grocery prices such as those shown here. We hope you will join the growing chorus of support and take action to change this punishing reality. It is the responsibility of the North West Company to pass on the savings provided through the federal government’s Nutrition North program. Feeding My Family is a public Facebook group started by Nunavut resident Leesee Papatsie. Visit the group’s informative website at http://feedingmyfamily.org/
Feeding My Family Boycott on North West Company Saturday January 31, 2015
Feeding My Family would like your help in boycotting North West Company (NWC) owned retailers and service providers located in Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alaska and southern Canada. We are asking you not to shop in any North West Company stores or use any of their service providers on Saturday January 31, 2015. Retailers owned by North West Company are; NorthMart, Northern, Giant Tiger, Quickstop, Valu Lots, Solo Market, Price Chopper, Cost-U-Less and Alaskan Commercial (AC) Value Stores. Wholesale and Services include: We Financial and Crescent Multi Food. Feeding My Family is about raising awareness of the high cost of food in the northern regions. When Minute Maid concentrated orange juice is selling for $5.15, you know something is wrong with this picture. There are lots of northerners who are unable to feed themselves and their families due to the high cost of food in the north. We have heard a lot of mothers who are not eating so their children will eat and how 70% of people in Nunavut have experienced hunger at one time or another. There are some northerners that live meal to meal, or if they are lucky, they will have a meal that day. Some families resort to food that are stomach fillers (pasta, rice, hamburger meat – the cheapest meat) to have food in their stomachs, forget nutritional food because they do not have a lot to eat that day. Please help us raise awareness of the high cost of food in the north! Tell your family, friends and others. Write to your MP about what is happening in the north. If each one of you refuses to shop at any of the NWC’s stores on Saturday January 31, 2015 you will be helping us beat the high cost of food in the north. If even 50 people refuse to shop at each store, we will make a significant financial impact! Each and every one of us can make a difference, every little bit helps. Stand with us and help us make a difference because we can. We HAVE to!
What can you do?
- BOYCOTT! January 31st is a good day to BEGIN, but it doesn’t have to end there.
- Visit http://feedingmyfamily.org/ to learn more about the issues northern families face. Great answers to your questions about the opportunities and challenges, lifestyle and more. Use their contact form to ask questions.
- Write your MP!
- Join or START a community action group. They have sprung up all over the country in response to THIS Huffington Post Article and one woman’s determination.
- Email those in control of the North West Company. Decision makers need to know how you feel.
- VOTE October 19th, 2015. Choose a government that considers the needs of its people FIRST.
- This link will take you to the North West Company`s 3rd Quarter Financial Report published December 2014. Shareholders were rewarded with dividends and sales were up up up.
In case you wish to communicate your concerns directly, here are email contacts for the President & CFO of the North West Company. They are the main food retailer in Canada’s northern communities. You can also read their 3rd quarter financial report to shareholders (dividends paid, sales up!) at the link below. Edward Kennedy, President and CEO, The North West Company Inc. Phone 204-934-1482; fax 204-934-1317; email [email protected] John King, Chief Financial Officer, The North West Company Inc. Phone 204-934-1397; fax 204-934-1317; email [email protected] This information is publicly available on the web, for anyone wondering about the “fairness” of sharing the email addresses. Let them know what you think about their profits on the backs of northern families.