Fortrose Academy pupil Heather Urquhart, 14, visited Highland Wholefoods this week to pick up a food parcel for her trip to the Arctic Circle. Along with 12 other third and fourth year pupils Heather passed a rigorous selection process to gain a place on the academy’s exchange team with a school at Gjoa Haven in Canada’s Arctic Circle. The selection process was even more rigorous for Heather as she had to prove to the panel that she could survive for 2 weeks eating a vegetarian diet in a region that offers no vegetarian food and where the word “vegetarian” doesn’t even exist! The Inuit people of Gjoa Haven survive on a diet of meat and fish, with occasional seasonal berries. In addition to a financial donation, Highland Wholefoods came to the rescue with a food parcel containing a wide range of nutritious food to keep Heather healthy and energised for her 2-week trip. The food parcel included a range of nuts, seeds, dried fruit, tofu, soups, miso, liquorice and other foods and snacks to keep her going.

Heather, who was brought up in a vegetarian household and has been a vegetarian all her life, is a shining example that a vegetarian diet is a healthy one – she excels at sport, particularly hockey and basketball, and horse TRECs on a national level.

The Fortrose Academy group sets off on Sunday 18th October for Edmonton, Canada, spends a few days in Yellowknife, then moves on to the Inuit community of Gjao Haven. The pupils will learn traditional Inuit skills and crafts such as igloo building, ice fishing and drum dancing. The group also hopes to carry out environmental research studying the habitat that is under threat form the effects of global warming.

We are Highland Wholefoods were delighted to rise to this new challenge of supplying a food parcel to be taken to the Arctic circle… and Heather left Highland Wholefoods confident in the knowledge that she had plenty of healthy, nutritious and most importantly vegetarian food for her 2-week trip.

Read all about it in the P&J:
www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1442239

And see Heather on STV News 16 October (scroll halfway through):

news.stv.tv/video/aberdeen-north/stv-news-local-north-20091016/