Cut to Yukon food program reveals flaws in funding rules

In the remote regions of Yukon, where food costs soar due to isolation and rising fuel prices, a critical lifeline for Indigenous children has been cut. The Yukon rural nutrition program fed nearly 900 children daily across 13 communities for five years.

Kim Rumley, director of the Yukon First Nation Education Directorate said families face tough choices: “Sometimes, it comes down to, am I putting a roof over my child’s head or am I feeding my child? In the Yukon, there’s no question you have to put a roof over their heads.”

The program provided two nutritious meals and snacks daily in communities like Old Crow, where fresh food often must be flown in, and grocery prices can be two or three times higher than southern cities. But this critical support ended abruptly weeks into the new sch