When it really takes a village to survive

• Community kitchens and growing your own food 

That Sri Lanka is going through one of its worst economic crises in history is not new news. Lankans have been suffering the brunt of it for months now without much hope in sight and it seems like things are only going to get worse. 

In late May, our Prime Minister warned of a food crisis, urging the public to take note of the very real and dire nature of our predicament. The Prime Minister has promised to buy enough fertiliser for the next planting season to boost harvests, stating on Twitter: “While there may not be time to obtain fertiliser for this Yala [May-August] season, steps are being taken to ensure adequate stocks for the Maha [September-March] season.”

The reasons for this food crisis are plenty, and at their core link back to State mismanagement and short-sightedness, including the incredibly-controversial policy imposed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in April last year to ban chemical fertilisers, which resulted in a drastic drop in crop yields. The ban has since been reversed, thankfully.

So what should a population threatened with a food shortage actually do in such a situation? It would appear that human nature would have it so that the first step we take is to set up systems which feed the poor.  There are many who are already suffering the consequences of Sri Lanka’s bad governance and there are far too many debating which meals they can actually afford to eat. Community kitchens have started to pop up in and around Colombo, where people have gathered together in order to feed those who are struggling to feed themselves. 

The rise of community kitchens 

Speaking to Brunch, Thakshi Fernando of the Singularity Sri Lanka Crisis Management Centre shared her experience participating in the very first community kitchen they conducted in collaboration with Sarvodaya. 

She said that on 1 June, at Abeysinharama Temple, Panchikawatta those at Singularity, some volunteers and a few community members, gathered at the temple and started to cook at around 9 a.m. “We usually choose a temple or a church or some type of community-centric institute in the area where the kitchen is happening. This is mostly because we don’t really know the residents and often such a place would be able to offer us guidance,” said Thakshi. “The monk in Abeysinharama Temple pointed out several people in their community who may be able to support us and also helped in identifying those who are in real need.”

She said that once their work was done, they would serve dinner at around 7 or 7.30. “What we have is limited and it is primarily for those who truly rely on it. We have a general expectation that those who come to the kitchen actually come because they are in need of this help. However, regardless of whether one is in need or not, if you come for a meal we do not deny anyone,” she explained. “We usually ask that you eat your meals at the venue itself, however there have been some people with unwell family members who wish to take food home and we accommodate those requests,” she said. 

Thakshi spoke of Singularity’s collaboration with Sarvodaya, which is essentially their technical and financial partner. Sarvodaya has provided a database which has allowed them to reach much-needed communities. 

“We also have several social activists who have been doing the integral role of raising awareness. We spread our message through YouTubers and social media influencers,” she said. “Given the nature of the current times, we as an organisation do not wish to persuade people to make monetary donations. We just wish to encourage people to lend us their time and perhaps if they wish, to share some vegetables or other foods they can afford to spare.”

As for sustainability in the medium to long term, she stated that for now they had sufficient funds for about 10 programmes. “There have been many who have opted to take over a full day and fund programmes in their entirety, such as public institutes and certain corporates,” she said.

The next iteration of the Singularity Sri Lanka community kitchen will be at the St. Joseph’s Church in Grandpass. 

More than random community exercises

Voice for Voiceless Foundation Director Moses Akash De Silva also shared about their community kitchen initiative.

Voice for Voiceless Foundation launched its first community kitchen initiative on 1 June and has since given meals to those in need on all weekdays. Moses shared that what they offer is lunch and they prepare all the meals at the Bethany Church rooftop, where they cook using firewood. “It is no easy task to cook for so many people, like about 150 people per meal by firewood, but we are happily doing it so we continue to manage,” said Moses. 

The Voice for Voiceless Foundation has also partnered with Keells in order to gain access to their vegetables, those that are consumable but cannot be sold. “We go in the evening and collect those vegetables, so we are able to cover that aspect thanks to this partnership.”

Moses also said that Voice for Voiceless originally decided to launch this initiative because when it was looking into distributing dry rations to those in need, especially a children’s home that is near their offices in Rajagiriya, they found that many were unable to feed their families not only because they could not afford the dry rations, but also because they were unable to cook the donated rations. Some live in apartment-style homes with no space for a firewood stove and they simply cannot gain access to gas; considering the rainy season, there is a lack of firewood; and compounding matters is a scarcity of kerosene oil.

Moses shared that they originally utilised the foundation’s reserve of funds for the kitchens but since their first community kitchen, they had received many donations from Lankans living abroad who have taken it upon themselves to fund this project. 

Voice for Voiceless Foundation has since expanded the initiative, having already launched a community kitchen in Kadawatha and they hope to have one in Negombo soon. Moses said that they hoped to encourage volunteers who would like to participate in this community kitchen activity, with anyone more than welcome to join and encouraged to get in touch with him at any time. 

The CMC’s master plan 

Mayor of Colombo Rosy Senanayake also made reference to the emergence of community kitchens, adding that arrangements had been made to open soup kitchens within the city.

A soup kitchen, synonymous with community kitchens, is a concept where a meal centre is set up and food is offered to the hungry usually for free or sometimes at a below-market price. They are often located in lower-income neighbourhoods. 

Speaking to Brunch, the Mayor confirmed a statement made by Colombo Municipal COuncil (CMC) Deputy Director A.D.S. Rohana, where he said that the CMC was looking to carry out cultivation in all available lands under the purview of the CMC, which is a total of around nine-and-a-half acres.

Senanayake stated that there was a grave likelihood that Colombo City would run out of food by September this year and therefore the CMC was planning to start up an agriculture project to grow crops and start cultivating essential food crops in 450 acres of land within the city, while city dwellers would be encouraged to grow essential food crops in their home gardens.

She said that the CMC would be offering technical support to home gardeners and even offering potential incentives. “For example, there is a tax that is imposed on unutilised lands and perhaps we can look at waiving off that tax or tax at a reduced rate if it is used for cultivation.”

“The urban poor are affected more harshly than the village poor in situations like this,” added the Mayor, noting that they were engaging in dialogue with the World Food Programme (WFP), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), and other donor agencies to ensure food security of city dwellers. However she stated that while they would be conducting these programmes, they did not wish for the people to be dependent on the authorities and would rather they take the initiative. 

The Mayor also noted: “There are some 60,000 apartments in Colombo, each with balconies, so we have experts coming in who are trained trainers who will be going into the communities to teach them how to cultivate in the space that they have.”

The Mayor also made special note of the colossal amount of food waste in Colombo City, stating that according to recent data, 700 MT of food is wasted daily. “Even in the pola, when a vegetable is slightly off or has a bruise, it gets thrown away. We would like to utilise those and not contribute to the waste as we develop the soup kitchens. We also are hoping to look at alternative methods to store food, especially those crops that we have in excess – maybe to sun dry them, or dehydrate them, essentially to utilise methods that will enable them to last longer and be safely consumed,” she said. 

Finally, she noted that the CMC had requested technical assistance from the Agricultural Department, especially with regard to obtaining seeds and saplings, and added that the planning stages were still underway. She said they had also been in conversation with a number of agro-based private companies in order to further these initiatives. 

Information Box: 

Voice for Voiceless Foundation : WhatsApp 0772512374 or 0773206501

Singularity Sri Lanka: 0770493088

To participate in CMC projects: Mayor Rosy Senanayake or the CMC on (011) 2684290