Terry Noah's country food business helps address food security in Grise Fiord

All the way up in Grise Fiord, one young man has been developing his own business while addressing food security within the small hamlet.

Terry Noah owns and operates Ausuittuq Adventures, a guiding and hunt service in Grise Fiord and has recently been selling country food online he hunted himself.

Noah also processes some of the food he hunts, making beluga jerky, smoked polar bear meat and other products for sale to the community.

His inspiration came from the activities he has already been doing for the past several years.

“Last few years now I’ve been processing and packaging country food for my family and I and during the last few years I accumulated some equipment," said Noah.

"Once I had everything I got the idea to put together a little butcher shop."

He isn’t too busy with his guiding business this time of year so Noah sought to make some extra income while keeping busy.

“During this time of year I’m not busy with any guiding and the ice is a bit too thin to go too far (out),” he said, “I enjoy hunting and working with the meat harvested.”

So far the business has been received well from both his community and family.

“There has been a lot of interest and positive comments since I started,” Noah says, “lot of support and encouragement from family and friends.”

Food security is an important issue within Nunavut as a whole and even more so in Grise Fiord where isolation from the rest of the territory and Canada is the norm.

“That is why I worked so hard to learn and practice processing country food,” Noah said. “Food costs up here has increased a lot and I realized that if I depend on the store we will struggle to keep up with all the other costs of living up here.”
Not only has the country food business made a difference in keeping up with costs, it has also allowed Noah and his family to have a higher standard of living than they normally would.

“Harvesting my own meat has made a dramatic difference which allows us to have a comfortable lifestyle up here.”

Looking to the future he hopes to expand his butcher shop to something bigger.

“I hope to have a proper facility one day and to provide jobs for other hunters hoping to make a living this way.”

If you would like to have access to the country food Noah helps provide, you can check it out on Ausuittuq Adventures on Facebook.