Scurvy is back and this northern Sask. town is searching for solutions

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 north of Saskatoon, are now trying to figure out how to tackle the larger problems behind the cases, including food insecurity.

Dr. Jeff Irvine, a physician in La Ronge who works with Northern Medical Services, investigated the cases. He said if people are not eating fruits and vegetables, there are likely other health issues to watch out for.

"Vitamin C is just sort of a canary in the coal mine, if you will, in terms of what else people might be nutrient deficient in," he said.

Irvine said the easiest treatment is low-cost vitamins. But addressing the social issues behind why people are not getting the nutrients they need is much more challenging.

"A lot of research has shown that the education around is not the issue. People know what healthy food is. People know how to prepare healthy food If they have it. The issue more is just they don't have it in the first place," he said. 

La Ronge is one of the largest communities in northern Saskatchewan, home to about 5,600 people across two municipalities and several reserves that are part of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band.

Chief Tammy Cook-Searson said she has learned that many of the traditional foods for Woodland Cree are high in vitamin C and other nutrients.

Cook-Searson said foods like mint and Labrador tea, rosehip, fireweed and certain animal parts are all good sources of the vitamin.

"Scurvy can can cause severe, like even critical illness, but it's also an easy fix such as just choosing healthier foods or even like getting out and and harvesting the plants that are high in vitamin C, or consuming like some of the the delicacies such as the moose liver, moose heart and the moose kidneys," she said.

At the food bank, the volunteers deliver around fifty hampers – the most they can manage –  each week, but the need is growing.