Lula visited the Brazilian Northeast earlier this year, met with supporters of the Landless Workers' Movement and learned about the Solidarity Hands initiative. | Photo: MST

Brasilia, October 16 (RHC)-- The former president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, met this weekend with social movements associated with the struggle for land, water and environmental rights as part of the contact activities of the former president with the bases of social support for the Workers' Party (PT).

Lula's meeting took place in the framework of the local commemoration of World Food Day, an event that takes place every October 16, and is a continuation of a visit made by the former president to the Brazilian Northeast earlier this year, in which he learned about the Solidarity Hands Campaign initiative.

The presence of the PT leader promotes the dialogue with organizations that produce healthy food and denounce hunger, which already affects more than 20 million Brazilians, with more than 116 million living in situations of food insecurity.

The initiative is an action of the National Agrarian Secretariat of the PT and the Agrarian Nucleus "Adão Pretto", of the PT bench in the Chamber of Deputies, in articulation with the organizations of the social movements of the Unitary Field, together with the Lula Institute. 

From the National Directorate of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) and the Coordination of Via Campesina International, Jaime Amorim says about the celebration and the presence of Lula, who in his time as president promoted the Bolsa Familia, that it is not enough to have food security for food to reach everyone; it is necessary for it to be healthy, to have a good relationship  with the environment, he said.

This Thursday, Via Campesina distributed ten tons of fruits and vegetables through the Solidarity Hands campaign to the Popular Food Banks that are distributed in the outskirts of the city of Recife, capital of Pernambuco.

Lula's act this Friday comes after Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro, warned on Thursday that his country will face food supply problems.