Home ›› 14 Nov 2021 ›› World Biz
Fatima Gomez, Stefani Chinguely and Carlos Alberto Alvareza head every day to a soup kitchen in their working class Buenos Aires neighborhood.
When the government shut down much of the economy to stop the spread of Covid-19, they had to give up work and now find themselves impotent in the face of rampant inflation that devours their meagre savings.
“I’ve been coming to the soup kitchen for around five months. I always had work and earned good money,” said Chinguel, 23.
“But not any more. Every day I send out my CV but no-one calls me.”
She leaves with two meals in a box: one for her and one for her partner who works in a shop but whose salary is not enough to support them.
“Sometimes they increase my boyfriend’s salary, but 1,000 pesos ($9) is not enough to match rising prices,” said Chinguel.
Inflation this year is 41.8 per cent, one of the highest in the world -- a key factor at play in Argentina’s parliamentary elections on Sunday.
Since turning 18, Chinguel has worked as a carer for the elderly and as a car saleswoman, amongst other jobs.
She heads to the soup kitchen in La Boca also in the hope of finding work.
Those working in the kitchen are given a state subsidy worth half the minimum monthly wage of 32,000 pesos ($300).
“Many people want to work here but there are no vacancies,” said Edith Cusipaucar, 40, a mother of six.
She also receives 15,400 pesos a month in family allowance for her three youngest children.
But she still has to head out every evening to sell food on the street.
“Do you think you can feed a family with 15,400 pesos a month?” she said.
Soup kitchens run by social action groups with state funds have sprung up on practically every street corner in poor neighborhoods like La Boca.
