At Canoas City Hall's Popular Restaurant, in the Estância Velha neighborhood, 300 marmitas (lunch meals distributed in foam or aluminum food containers) produced by the Landless Workers' Movement (MST, in Portuguese) were distributed in less than an hour during lunch on Wednesday (22).
“These marmitas are a lifeline. If it weren't for this now, we'd starve to death," says Álvaro Carlos da Silva, one of the first people in line at the distribution point.
Silva is a driver currently unemployed and lives with his son and shelters two other daughters, who live in the Mathias Velho neighborhood, one of the neighborhoods in Canoas most affected by floods. “The girls are upset. They can't go home, everything is destroyed,” he laments.
Food produced in the movement's solidarity kitchens is distributed via helicopters and ambulances to those affected by the intense floods that have affected 2.3 million people so far.
Since the beginning of the tragedy until last Wednesday (22), the MST has counted 50,000 meals produced in agrarian reform settlements and distributed them to victims through partnerships with public authorities.
Carlos Alberto Barreto, a loader at Ceasa in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul’s capital city, also stopped by the People’s Restaurant, and took a marmita prepared by the movement. He has been sleeping in a shelter at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since the water tore down the walls of his house, in the Harmonia neighborhood, Canoas.
Although heartbroken by the tragedy, Barreto says he can't complain about the food. “If I said we were starving, I'd be lying. I have nothing to complain about,” he told Brasil de Fato.
Álvaro Carlos da Silva received a marmita produced by the MST: "If it weren't for this now, we'd starve to death" / Vitor Shimomura
Meals produced by volunteers who were also affected by the floods
The meals distributed at the People’s Restaurant in Canoas were produced by volunteers from the MST in the Capela settlement, in the town of Nova Santa Rita, in the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre. Many were affected by the flood and are still counting their losses.
One of these volunteers is settler João Carlos Vinque. “Yes, I was affected by it, but I'm still able to feed my comrades: the people, the brothers and sisters who lost more than we did,” he told BdF.
Another volunteer settler, Juraci Lima, says mobilizations of this kind are natural for MST members, whose work is rooted in solidarity. She recalls when the settlement where she lives was still a camp, in 1985.
“[In the camp] we had to share the little food we had. I know what it's like to see a mother crying because she has nothing to feed her child. Today, we're sharing the abundance we've got since that time,” said Juraci.
Cooking natural food without pesticides
The meals are prepared and packed in the court of the Nova Santa Rita Agricultural Production Cooperative (Coopan, in Portuguese), which organizes organic rice production by landless workers and sells it under the brand “Terra Livre” (“Free Land”, in a rough translation).
In the Capela settlement alone, an average of 1,300 marmitas are produced every day, with food from the agrarian reform and without pesticides.
Production line in the solidarity kitchen of the Capela settlement in Nova Santa Rita, Rio Grande do Sul state/ Vitor Shimomura
The production is coordinated by Sérgio Marques, known as Chocolate, who also works in the movement's collective health sector. “We start at 3 am,” he says. “Every day, we cook 120 kilos of meat, 100 kilos of pasta, 120 kilos of rice and 60 kilos of beans.”
The food prepared by MST is more natural and healthier due to the ingredients carefully selected and the production methods used.
According to Chocolate, a member of the movement, the ingredients come from the People's Agrarian Reform, which means that they are grown organically and sustainably in the areas belonging to the movement.
For example, they cook organic rice, grown in the MST's own agrarian reform areas. “The meat comes from local slaughterhouses, guaranteeing the quality and origin of the product. Instead of using vegetable oil, we use lard produced locally in the settlements.”
MTST and MAB also feed flood victims
In addition to the solidarity kitchen in the Capela settlement, two other MST solidarity kitchens are in full operation to help those affected by the floods. One of them is located in the Filhos de Sepé settlement in Viamão and the other is in the Armazém do Campo in the city of Pelotas, both in Rio Grande do Sul state.
The MST is not alone in this solidarity endeavor. Other social movements, such as the Movement of Homeless Workers (MTST, in Portuguese), the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB, in Portuguese) and Levante Popular da Juventude, among others, are also mobilizing their efforts to produce meals for flood victims.
“We lost a lot. I lost the shed, greenhouses, cabbage, lettuce, beets, herbs. But thank God I have my life to help those who need support more than I do,” says João Carlos Vinque.
Edited by: Nicolau Soares
