Diénaba Diallo. Photo: Jacob Silberberg/Oxfam America

A few weeks ago, 2,000 government officials, ambassadors, and journalists came together in the capital of Burkina Faso to taste some local food. They were the judges of the second annual Koudou du Faso (“Golden Spoon”), a nationwide contest that awards prizes to the best dishes made with local ingredients like fonio, a grain native to the West African nation.

A cooking contest might seem ill-suited to a country that experienced a food crisis this year, leaving many families unable to afford even the essentials. As of the end of 2012, good rainfall and better harvests have provided some relief, though food prices remain high in many parts of the Sahel region.

But Diénaba Diallo, whose farmers’ confederation co-organized the Koudou de Faso with Oxfam’s GROW campaign, said the contest was about more than just food—it was about showcasing the people behind the cuisine.

“When we’re talking about transforming local products, we’re talking about women,” said Diallo, who wants to raise the profiles of the women who grow and prepare much of the country’s food, and to ensure their voices are heard. “[Women] play an important role in agriculture, but they don’t always participate in decision-making,” she said.

Diallo is president of the women’s caucus of Burkina Faso’s small-scale farmers’ association, and she believes that these women could, with the right resources, help prevent another crisis. “It’s really necessary to invest in small-holder farmers,” she explained. “[They need] access to seeds, to other technologies, and especially access to credit.”

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Women sign their names in support of Oxfam’s food justice campaign, GROW, at a World Food Day event yesterday in Sri Lanka. Photo: Sandun Thudugala/Oxfam

Sri Lanka is the latest country to join Oxfam’s global efforts around World Food Day. Oxfam’s Sandun Thudugala sent us this update about a World Food Day event yesterday in Colombo, which brought together leaders from government and local communities to talk about solutions to hunger:

“This week, we celebrate World Food Day (16^th October) at a time when world is facing one of its biggest food crises in history … [and] around 4 million Sri Lankans are undernourished. This is a great challenge in Sri Lanka where expectant mothers and children [are] the most affected by malnutrition. Almost one in five children has a low birth weight and around 500,000 children under the age of 5 are reported to be underweight. Global food price increases and extreme weather events are already having an impact on vulnerable communities in the country.

In a country like Sri Lanka, this is an unacceptable situation. Being a country blessed with all the natural resources necessary for food production, Sri Lanka has the potential to build a sustainable food system that can be a model for the rest of the world.

Oxfam in Sri Lanka is working with a large number of organizations, from grassroots level to national level, to support small scale food production … [and] the rights of and access of small scale food producers to resources and services.  Oxfam’s GROW campaign will support the efforts of women, men, community groups, and the government of Sri Lanka to build … a country without hunger.”

Nelly Velandia at a farmers' market in Des Moines. Photo: Ilene Perlman/Oxfam America

Nelly Velandia’s plans this weekend include a visit to an Iowa farmers’ market.

That’s not unusual; many of us stop by a farmers’ market as part of our regular shopping routine. I go to my local market for translucent gold tomatoes, earthy carrots still sporting their crown of greens, even locally-made Mexican-style chocolate.

But for Velandia, a community leader from Colombia now visiting the US, farmers’ markets are more than just a place to shop.

“I grew up on a farm,” in rural Boyacá, Velandia told me when we met in Washington, DC. “My parents cultivated a love of the countryside in me, so after [college] I came back to work the land.” There was not enough land to grow new crops on her parents’ farm, but she was able to obtain her own small plot. (A recent UNDP report found that about 80 percent of Colombian farmers’ plots measure less than three acres.) She earned extra money selling her farm-fresh cheese, eggs, and vegetables.

Meanwhile, Velandia joined with others to advocate for the rights of her fellow women and indigenous people. “It was always my dream to go back and work with the communities where I was raised,” she explained. “What we work on is influence: we want to ensure that rural women can influence government policies to resolve the problems that affect them.” That mission eventually brought her to the capital, Bogotá, where she joined the Communal and Small-Scale Farmers’ Committee for Dialogue (known by its Spanish abbreviation CICC).

Things came full circle for Velandia when CICC came up with a plan to organize farmers’ markets in Bogotá. Supported by Oxfam, these markets would help rural farmers sell directly to city consumers and earn better prices for their crops. Velandia’s group even convinced the mayor’s office to help cover the cost of setting up markets in parks and public squares.

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Here at Oxfam America we celebrated World Food Day early by hosting a potluck Sunday Dinner (or Wednesday Lunch, to be precise) at our office in Boston.  If you’re curious to learn what happens at a World Food Day Sunday Dinner—featuring recipes from chefs like Giada De Laurentiis, creative dishes from all over the world, and some very animated conversations—then check out these photos from our event. After all, we at Oxfam wouldn’t ask you to do stuff that we’re not happy to try ourselves.

Of course, Oxfam’s grassroots campaign against hunger is not really about us: It’s about you, the thousands of supporters nationwide who are hosting or attending events this fall. You are the ones who are hosting more than 200 Sunday Dinners for World Food Day, organizing Oxfam America Hunger Banquets on campus and in your communities, and coming up with your own creative ways to make a difference.

If this sounds like something you’d like to be a part of, check out our community calendar to find an event near you.  Afterward, share your event with others by posting your pictures and videos to Oxfam’s Photobook. We’ll be featuring photos and stories from your events on this blog in the coming weeks.

More photos from our Sunday Dinner:

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Malian rice farmer Moussa Ag Demba visited an Iowa organic farm last week. Photo: Sarah Peck / Oxfam America

I admit it: I’ve taken rice for granted. I’ve let it languish, starchy and plain, in neglected cardboard take-out containers. I’ve pushed it to the side of my plate in order to get to the good stuff.

But over the last few days, I’ve come to see this humble grain in a whole new light.

It all started during lunch last Friday at a brick-walled Vietnamese restaurant on the outskirts of Des Moines. With me were Minh Le, Oxfam America country representative in Vietnam; assorted staffers and translators; Moussa Ag Demba, a farmer from Douékiré, Mali; and Duddeda Sugunavva, a farmer from Andhra Pradesh, India.

Oxfam America, Africare, and WWF-International had invited these farmers to the US—along with a Vietnamese farmer, Le Ngoc Thach—to talk about the System of Rice Intensification (SRI). This innovative approach to growing rice produces higher yields using less water and fewer pesticides. All three farmers led their communities in introducing SRI, and were here to share their success stories with everyone from US government officials to agriculture experts at the World Food Prize Symposium.

But that day at the restaurant, the farmers were hungry. And they craved something more familiar than the meat-and-potatoes Iowa cuisine.

Then rice arrived, white and gleaming, each serving molded into a perfect dome.

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