Following the recent financial crisis and macroeconomic challenges in Sri Lanka, the people of the country faced severe shortages in fuel, and power supply, which disrupted agricultural productions and food supply chains. According to FAO and WFP joint report, “Two consecutive seasons of poor harvests led to a nearly 50 percent drop in production coupled with reduced imports of food grains due to foreign exchange constraints”. As a result, Millions of people in Sri Lanka have been facing high inflation and acute food shortages. The report notes that “immediate food assistance and livelihood programmes – including through existing social assistance mechanisms – are critical to enable households to access nutritious food – particularly moderately and severely acute food insecure ones.”
In June and July 2022, Equities 4 Equity, took the initiative of helping such vulnerable communities in Sri Lanka. With the help of our Sri Lankan volunteers, including some university students, we organized a food donation drive in Colombo city. We prepared and distributed food bags, with all products sourced locally. Each food bag included rice, dal, coconut oil, sugar and fresh coconuts, which happen to be the most culturally appropriate and also nutritionally beneficial . Like always, our focus was to reach out to children, single mothers and elderly who are at high risk. Below are some snapshots from our Sri Lanka food donation drive.
