‘Angels Falling From Heaven’ JDC Supports Non-Sectarian Soup Kitchen in Argentina

Twelve years ago, Alicia - a squatter and a mother of three in Buenos Aires - started feeding hungry and sometimes homeless children out of her own kitchen and soon started a soup kitchen at Villa 31, a run-down building in Buenos Aires.

When, in late 2002, JDC launched its non-sectarian program in Argentina, Alicia was in charge of feeding nearly 150 children on a daily basis. JDC, which has been tending to the needs of the hard-hit Jewish community, could not ignore the plight of hungry, non-Jewish children in the area.

"At first, Alicia was skeptical," says JDC Welfare Director Schulman. "She told us that she was tired of people ‘sightseeing’ poverty with promises of assistance, only to disappear with no support. Clearly, she was afraid JDC would fall into that category."

After surveying and analyzing Alicia’s feeding program, local JDC staffers promised that by that Christmas they would have a present for her. True to their word, construction and refurbishment of "Villa 31" started a week before Christmas.

JDC refinished the second floor of the building to accommodate Alicia’s surging lunchtime crowds. At the same time, JDC started applying its micro-business development model, which is working in the Jewish community of Buenos Aires. Through this program, women at "Villa 31" are starting their own bakery and 60 other adults are being professionally trained as seamstresses. Additionally, the parents whose children eat at "Villa 31" have started to attend free classes to finish their primary school education.

The upgrade of the facility has also benefited "Villa 31’s" Big Brother program, started three years ago by Jewish teens from the local Hebraica Jewish community center.

"I can’t describe my feeling when entering the soup kitchen wearing my kipa, and seeing the sign they had made stating that the Jewish Community is helping them," declared Sergio, a local Jewish teen. "They made a beautiful party to inaugurate the new facility and we were invited. Alicia described us as ‘angels falling from heaven.’"

Today, "Villa 31" is recognized as one of the largest projects of its kind in economically devastated Argentina. The city, which once tried to shut her down, now supports Alicia’s operation and even lends some assistance.

When asked why he was helping out at a non-Jewish soup kitchen, Sergio smiled and pointed to his kipa. "I’m a Jew. This kind of work is a very Jewish thing to do."

Please click here to learn more about JDC's non-sectarian projects.