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.”