Soup kitchens in Argentina, the bitter taste of Milei’s adjustments

Under the rain and in the middle of the street, Mario Cardozo eagerly eats a stew from a plastic container that he holds in his hands. While he punctures the pieces of chicken that float in the broth, the 71-year-old retiree watches over the wheeled cart where he has kept other containers of food that he has obtained in the community kitchen in the Constitución neighborhood in Buenos Aires, in whose streets more and more people are rummaging through garbage containers. In a few hours they will be taken to several residents of Merlo, a town west of the capital.

The man said he is going “everywhere”gathering food. “From here I’m going to (look for) snacks in another dining room”he told The Associated Press.

For two months, a growing number of people have been going to these community centers, overwhelmed by the liquefaction of their income as a result of a spike in the prices of food and services generated by the adjustment measures of the government of Javier Milei, an ultra-liberal who took office. 10th of December.

The cost of living soared in Argentina after Milei pushed for a sharp devaluation of the peso in December. She later cut subsidies to public transportation and electricity and annulled price controls in areas such as education and health.

These are recipes that the president considers imperative to achieve fiscal balance and stabilize the economy, but that suffer retirees who receive the minimum pension and informal workers who do not receive the aid that the government provides to other impoverished sectors.

For many canteens, the growing flow of attendees became difficult to manage after the Executive reduced or suspended the delivery of food within the framework of the drastic cut in public spending and the review of the assistance model in force for years, which it considers onerous. for the state. The abrupt drop in supplies, maintain the social organizations that manage the picnic areas, forces them to juggle with food.

The situation has these leftist groups on a war footing, which on Monday called for different blockades in the capital and other parts of the country under the slogan “Hunger is the limit.”

Damaris Rolón, from the Coordinator for Social Change, said from one of the cuts in an access to Buenos Aires that “Precarious and formal workers are approaching our community spaces because things are very difficult, life is very difficult.” The woman called “put a stop to the chainsaw economic plan (adjustment)” by Milei.

At the doors of the dining room that assists him, run by the Union of Popular Economy Workers (UTEP), Cardozo complained that “The government lacks humanity and it is killing us retirees.” The man receives about 120,000 pesos (138 dollars) a month in pension and 45,000 (US$50) goes towards renting the room where he lives, which has increased in price.

Inflation in February was 13.2% while the year-on-year climbed to 276%. Although last month prices rose to a lower level than they rose in January (20.6%), continue to devour the purchasing power of Argentines and throw many into poverty. Six out of every 10 inhabitants of the country are poor, according to private estimates.

Marta Espíndola and Jorge Insaurralde go to the Constitución dining room three times a week. “From the food they give us on Monday we leave some for the next day and on Wednesday we go back to look for it and then on Friday”, explained Insaurralde, 66 years old. “We try to eat well at midday; At night we have a cup of tea or milk with bread,” the woman added.

While stirring one of the chicken, pumpkin and potato stews for the hundreds of people waiting in the rain, cook Vanesa López explained that she has to prepare more food with fewer ingredients.

López pointed out that those attending the dining room “They will always want a little piece of chicken or meat” but sometimes there is not enough and you have to compensate by increasing the amount of potatoes. “But proteins come with chicken, not potatoes.”he noted.

During the pandemic in 2020, when the crisis hit viciously, that community center cooked 50 pots daily, each of which yields 150 servings. When the economy recovered it dropped to 13 and since the new government took office it has prepared 21.

The Catholic Church has warned that “Food cannot be an adjustment variable” and asked “prompt assistance” for the dining rooms, which had already been suffering from shortages since the previous government of Alberto Fernández (2019-2023).

The Constitución picnic area only receives food from the city government. In a much more pressing situation are nearly 20,000 soup kitchens that received food from the national Executive and stopped doing so, forcing many to close, Nicolás Caropresi, from the general direction of UTEP, told AP.

The Ministry of Human Capital maintains that it detected discretionary maneuvers in the choice of food beneficiaries, that the costs for the State are high, that the control of the products once they left the state warehouses is null and that under the umbrella of social organizations there are false canteens.

Caropresi noted that the government has not filed a complaint with the courts regarding alleged mismanagement of the organizations.

The ministry promotes the Alimentar card, which considers “the most efficient policy” by reaching the pockets of 3.8 million people without intermediaries. This allocation was increased and mainly reaches families with children up to 14 years old and pregnant women.

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