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De Beers Canada has provided space on employee flights to help donated food hampers get to remote James Bay First Nation communities at no cost to the communities or charity.

The hampers have been organized through the Relay for Hunger Project of True North Aid, a Canadian charity that has sent many truck and plane loads of supplies to communities along James Bay, Nunavut and Labrador. In all 30 pallets of food including cereal, soup and crackers from Tri-County Gleaners Food Bank in the Quinte Region of southern Ontario needed to be shipped to Attawapiskat, Moosonee, Fort Albany and Kashechwan from Timmins.

According to John Okonmah, Director of Economic Development for the Mushkegowuk Council, the food donations are critical to supporting people struggling with the high cost of food in the region.

“We commissioned a study in 2015 comparing retail prices in the communities to outlets in Timmins,” he explained. “We knew prices were crazy and found food costs about 45 per cent more.”

True North Aid, in partnership with Honouring Indigenous Peoples, a program of Rotary Canada, was able to ship the pallets of food to Timmins but needed a way to get the food into the communities, which are only accessible by air for most of the year.

De Beers flies employees to each of the communities every week and offered to carry the food into each community as space is available.

“We have provided a similar service to other charities for many years and we were happy to do so again for this worthwhile project,” said Sherri Lapointe, Superintendent of Indigenous Relations and Sustainability for De Beers’ Victor Mine.

Once in the communities, the food is handed out to needy families by volunteers from the community health and social services department. The shipments started in early January.