Nutrition North Canada is a key Government of Canada program designed to strengthen food security and food sovereignty in isolated northern communities by making nutritious food and essential goods more affordable and accessible. Working with Northerners, Indigenous Peoples, and partner organizations, the program supports a broad range of initiatives that not only lower food costs but also strengthen local food economies and protect food ecosystems. Its approach combines direct subsidies, support for local harvesting, community-led food programs, nutrition education, and research to address the unique food challenges faced by remote northern communities.
The program’s food subsidy helps reduce the cost of food and other essential items in northern regions, while the Harvesters Support Grant provides assistance to local hunters and harvesters, supports food sharing, and helps maintain ecological balance within local food systems. The Community Food Programs Fund strengthens community-led food security solutions and local food economies, while nutrition education initiatives promote food knowledge rooted in Indigenous and northern traditions. In addition, the Food Security Research Grant supports research aimed at improving food access, food systems, and environmental sustainability in northern communities.
Nutrition North Canada also emphasizes the difference between food security and food sovereignty. Food security focuses on ensuring people have reliable, year-round access to sufficient, affordable, and nutritious food. Food sovereignty goes further by supporting the right of communities to design, govern, and sustain their own food systems in ways that reflect their cultural values, traditional knowledge, and relationships to land and environment. Similarly, the program recognizes both the food ecosystem—the natural cycle of producing, consuming, and regenerating food while protecting biodiversity—and the food economy, which includes the systems and activities that move food from production to consumption and support jobs, supply chains, and access to healthy food.
Since its launch in 2011, the Nutrition North Canada Subsidy has provided $1.4 billion in food subsidies, including $163 million for 2025–2026, and has supported the shipment of 470 million kilograms of subsidized products to isolated northern communities, with 42 million kilograms shipped in 2025–2026 alone. The Harvesters Support Grant and Community Food Programs Fund have provided $257.2 million to date, including $40.3 million for 2025–2026, supporting over 15,000 harvesters and hunters, more than 400 community hunts since 2020, and 700 food-sharing initiatives since 2022. The Food Security Research Grant invested $1.5 million in five projects during Phase 1 from 2022 to 2025, and Phase 2 is providing $2.3 million from 2025 to 2028 for nine projects announced in March 2026, with up to $275,000 available per project.
