Today, I paid $6.59 for the tiniest box of blueberries and $4.19 for a single avocado. Other fruits seemed better subsidized; a bag of mandarins only cost me $4.89.
At work, we are given an additional $300 to help with the increased cost of food up north. Looking back at my monthly expenses on Expensify.com, this actually works out just right:
March $310.74
April $268.73
May $318.27
I don't buy any junk food except fair-trade, organic Camino chocolate at $4-5 a bar. My breakfast granola is made in organic and produced in Quebec, jam-packed with vitamins and keeps me full until lunchtime. I rarely buy processed food - although I admit I ate a frozen pizza on the weekend - and cook for myself nearly every day. My lunch was a bowl of soba* with some bok choy. Tonight I made my fried rice from veggie sausage, frozen peas and corn and an egg.
You don't survive well up here unless you take care of yourself. There aren't many restaurant options on these isolated reserves, unless you count the cafeteria or the cafe next to the airport. While you may balk at the prices, look at it this way - there is more value in the avocado than a $2 box of Kraft dinner if it means that I will finish eating my value pack of romaine hearts. I'll feel more energetic when I go to work. My health is not compromised and I'm proud to say that I've slimmed down to a healthier body shape since being up north the past three months.
Our diet is an investment into our personal long-term health. I just wished more people realized this!
(Maybe that's why Rob Ford got back onto his weight loss challenge?)
*Japanese buckwheat noodles
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