by AMY BOOTH
They had camped out overnight in front of the Ministry of Social Development in Buenos Aires. PHOTO/CAROL SMILJAN/NURPHOTO/PA
Why is hunger growing in a country known as an agricultural powerhouse?
It’s cool outside, but the kitchen is almost unbearably hot and sticky. Two volunteers in black aprons are deftly peeling butternut squashes while another uses a huge wooden spoon to stir a pan as tall as her thigh.
This is the community canteen run by gastronomical co-operative El Genesis in Buenos Aires. Operating from the kitchens of workers’ movement CTEP, the volunteers cook food here three times a week, for those who can’t otherwise afford to eat. It’s one of Argentina’s many volunteer-run soup kitchens, known as comedores populares.
‘If I have lunch, then I can’t have dinner,’ explains 73-year-old Stella Caliba, who has been coming to the canteen to supplement her meals for several years now. She hasn’t always depended on the comedor but times have got harder – she suffers from venous leg ulcers, and the costs of rent and medication are high. ‘Before, I was able to afford treatment,’ she says. ‘Now, I can’t. Medicine is very expensive.’
When the canteen first opened, it fed around 250 people each day – they were society’s most vulnerable: street vendors and people who scraped a living doing odd jobs. But now around 1,000 enter its doors daily, including a growing number of middle-class families who can no longer make ends meet. While Argentina remains trapped by debt, it’s hard for any president to come up with a long-term vision
This is due to a deep financial crisis that has pushed millions below the poverty line.
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