In a small basement food bank, Cheryl Norgaard and her team of volunteers are packing up cans of soup, boxes of pasta and bags of rice to keep people fed in their community of La Ronge, Sask.
This week, they’re also adding potatoes and sauerkraut — high in vitamin C — after learning people in the area have been diagnosed with scurvy.
“We have been discussing what’s in our hampers, what we could put in our hampers that would be more useful, more nutritious,” said Norgaard, chair of the food bank.
People in La Ronge are raising concerns over access to fresh healthy food after doctors diagnosed 27 cases of scurvy over the past year. The centuries-old and largely eradicated illness is linked to severe vitamin C deficiency. Until now, it was so rare that a single case would often launch an entire study.
People in the community, 380 kilometres …