Monday 22 September
2008, San José, Costa
Rica
ARGENTINA:
Soup Kitchens
Feel Impact of Rising
Food Prices
By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Sep 20 (IPS)
- "It breaks my heart
because I know these
kids don't have anything
to eat, but I can’t
serve any more people,"
says Estela Esquivel,
talking about children
who have been turned
away at dinnertime from
the La Casita de la
Virgen soup kitchen in
La Cava, a slum
neighbourhood on the
north side of the
Argentine capital.
Today’s soaring food
prices are forcing
growing numbers of poor
people in Argentina to
turn to soup kitchens,
which can no longer keep
up with demand and have
no choice but to limit
how many people they can
feed. Some have begun to
draw up waiting lists.
Esquivel’s soup kitchen
in La Cava, a vast
shantytown in the
upscale Buenos Aires
suburb of San Isidro,
feeds dinner to 160
children and their
mothers every evening in
groups of 35, the
maximum number of people
that can fit at the
tables.
"Two years ago we were
feeding twice as many
people," she tells IPS.
"But it’s not that the
need has gone down, it’s
just that we receive so
much less food. Hardly
anyone donates any more,
and what the municipal
government gives us for
a month is gone in 15
days."
The inability of soup
kitchens to meet demand
also reflects the impact
of the rising prices of
basic food products on
the poor, whether or not
they are unemployed.
"Some of them work, but
they come here to eat
because they can’t
afford to buy food,"
says Esquivel.
In the province of
Buenos Aires, the
country’s most populous,
Minister of Social
Development Daniel
Arroyo said the increase
in food prices has led
to an expansion of the
provincial budget for
soup kitchens. "Since
March, the demand for
food has been going up,"
the official told the
local press.
The national statistics
institute, INDEC,
reports that the poverty
rate declined from a
record high of 54
percent in 2002, at the
peak of Argentina’s
worst-ever economic
crisis, to 20.6 percent
in March this year.
However, private
consultants are
sceptical of INDEC’s
figures. In response to
questions from IPS,
sociologist Ernesto
Kritz, with the Sel
Consultores polling
firm, said poverty began
to grow again in 2007,
to 31.6 percent of the
population in the first
half of this year.
INDEC was taken over 20
months ago by interior
commerce secretary
Guillermo Moreno, and
there is widespread
suspicion that its data
is meddled with.
Official inflation
figures are also widely
questioned. According to
INDEC, inflation has
stood at 9.1 percent
over the last year, and
at three percent for
food prices. But private
studies have concluded
that prices have risen
25 to 30 percent on
average over the past
year.
And the cost of some
staples, like flour or
cooking oil, has risen
above average, making
access to such products
difficult, but not
because of shortages. In
fact, Argentina produces
enough beef, grains,
cooking oil and fruit
for a population 10
times larger than its 38
million people.
An August report by the
United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organisation
(FAO) states that the
global rise in food
prices is threatening
the economic and social
achievements made in
Latin America in recent
years, such as steady
economic growth and a
decline in unemployment
and poverty rates.
The report, "Increase in
the Price of Food in
Latin America and the
Caribbean", available in
Spanish, says that
growing inequality of
income in a region where
it is already extremely
unequal is the main
impact to be expected
from the rise in food
prices, which endangers
the advances made by
several countries in the
region towards the
Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs).
Regionwide, average food
prices doubled over the
year up to July,
according to FAO, which
reported that while
average inflation in the
region stood at 6.3
percent in 2007, it had
risen to 8.7 percent by
July, and to two-digit
figures in some
countries.
The Economic Commission
for Latin America and
the Caribbean (ECLAC)
reported earlier this
year that the current 15
percent increase in food
prices in the region
would drive up the
extreme poverty rate
from 12.7 to 15.9
percent of the
population.
"We now have a set
number of 350 babies,
children, adolescents
and adults who we
provide with breakfast
and lunch every day,"
says María Rosa
Rodríguez at the "Casa
del Niño" (Children’s
House) soup kitchen run
by the Fundación Padre
Farinello (Father
Farinello Foundation) in
Quilmes, a working-class
suburb on the south side
of Buenos Aires.
"Luckily we receive a
lot of donations. Father
(Luis) Farinello is very
well-known, and we also
get financial assistance
from the government of
the province of Buenos
Aires," she tells IPS.
The Catholic priest has
worked for years among
the soup kitchens
catering to the
residents of poor
neighbourhoods in Buenos
Aires.
However, the assistance
does not help the
poorest families improve
their living conditions,
says Rodríguez. "I’ve
been working here for
years, and what I see is
that the neediest people
are unable to change
their lives."
"There are many women
and men who barely have
the strength to look for
a job, and if they do
find one, they are paid
so little that they are
unable to improve their
lot in life," she says.
Rodríguez says the soup
kitchen where she works
has enough food to serve
everyone who shows up
for lunch, but that she
doesn't know what they
do for dinner. "Maybe
they don't eat dinner. I
have noticed that the
children are eating
their breakfast more
eagerly than ever. Many
ask for two cups of milk
and more bread," she
says.
The activist, who is in
charge of educational
aspects at the child
care centre linked to
the soup kitchen,
expresses her concern at
another sign that needs
are increasing: Children
are getting involved in
informal garbage picking
at earlier and earlier
ages. Instead of
starting at age 12, as
in the past, "kids are
going out with the carts
at 10, and permanently
drop out of school," she
says.
Needs have also become
more pressing in other
parts of the country.
The Asociación de
Comedores Comunitarios
de Corrientes, which
groups soup kitchens in
Corrientes, one of the
country’s poorest
provinces, warned last
month that the number of
people coming in for
meals had gone up 30
percent since April, and
called for more
donations and government
aid.
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