ARGENTINA’S BIG SQUEEZE

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 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.