translated from Spanish: Common pots are mastified in the capital in the wake of the crisis and extreme health care measures

From 9 am, the staff of the restaurant “La Picá de Casas Viejas”, located in the west of Puente Alto, begins to prepare a colation that is not for sale. In a large pot and for more than three hours they cook rations to give away to more than 100 neighbors who, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, have become difficult to bring a plate of food to their table.
Behind the initiative is Manuel Montecinos, a 41-year-old man who in 2014 stopped being a taxi driver to open his place. Since his debut he gave food to those who needed it, but seeing the demand increase he decided to form a common pot system two months ago, when part of his neighborhood was already affected by the social crisis. In addition, the aftermath of the pandemic and now quarantine were added. It went from 30 servings in March to today delivering 130 dishes, which they hand out almost every day.
“Among the neighbors there are people with a degree, who were well financially, but now they are stickless. Some when they arrive they start to cry,” Montecinos says.
To guarantee food to those who need it, at their street premises 27 September #04390 they keep a list of the beneficiaries, to count them when preparing the rations. The inputs leave the restaurant, but they also receive inputs from neighbors and groups, which allowed them to create merchandise kits to deliver to infected families who cannot leave.
“On Friday a granny arrived with a shoe to donate. Those things mark me. Just like when we took the goods and the kids get excited to see a yogurt, because you couldn’t buy those things a while ago,” she says.
An upward realityAs in Puente Alto, the common pots have reappeared in several sectors of the capital in recent weeks, driven by private individuals and groups of neighbors, with some with municipal support.
Conchalí, El Bosque, La Florida, Maipú, Pedro Aguirre Cerda, Quilicura, Recoleta, San Bernardo, San Miguel, San Ramón and Santiago Centro are some of the capital communes where, through social networks, calls have been made to donate inputs that allow to produce rations for the neighbors. Locations and contact paths have been collected on the Twitter account @ComunOlla and on Instagram “Supportlaolla”.
In Renca, Mayor Claudio Castro says they have reached an agreement with the Government to make quarantine more flexible and allow the operation of these self-managed initiatives, but by taking extreme health precautions and keeping a record of those working in the preparation. From the municipality of Peñalolén, meanwhile, they indicate that a few weeks ago they began to deliver inputs for a community dining room created by an NGO, in which together with the elaboration of collations they have also opted to deliver them at home, to avoid concentrations of people.
“People who have less are super supportive and have felt the need to help others who are having a worse time. We have seen long lines waiting for a plate of food,” says Claudia Pizarro, mayor of La Pintana, another of the capital communes where these initiatives have proliferated during the pandemic.
The community chief says she sees this growing reality with concern, as she claims to have seen entrepreneurs have become street vendors because they cannot work, and have had to go to these aids to support their family.
Change of mindset Common pots have twice marked the recent history of Chile: first for the Great Depression of the 1930s and then during the economic crisis of 1982, when they were massed by the capital. Although they never quite disappeared, their res up this year differs from what they once represented. As Benito Baranda, executive vice president of America Solidaria, says, who explains that while in dictatorship these initiatives were seen as a political threat and a resistance board, today they are perceived with a greater sensitivity on the part of the community.
The social activist emphasizes that Chilean society “understands that this is a very hard period” that must be overcome “together, helping us”, so as not to repeat what happened in the 80s,’ when the result of “abandonment towards people” poverty deepened at levels that generated “a very great wound.”
It therefore states that in the current context those who lead aid have received cross-cutting support, from the poverty sectors that still have the resources to contribute, to those living in a well-off situation.
“With the pandemic people are changing their way of thinking. He’s putting his hand on his heart and he’s helping more,” Manu agreesMontecinos from their common pot at Puente Alto.



Original source in Spanish

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