Soup Kitchen

The soup kitchen was an emergency food program that served prepared, nutritious meals for homeless individuals and families that were food-insecure during the leadup to the 2012-2016 mega-events in Rio de Janeiro, when the police were conducting a brutal ‘clean the streets’ campaign in tandem with dispossessing many people from their homes in favelas. The open-air soup kitchen was located in the Cinélandia Plaza in downtown Rio de Janeiro and served up to seventy people at any one time. Delicious meals of fresh bread with condiments, cheese, salad, water, cake and fruit for lunch, were followed by dinners consisting of beans and rice and fresh vegetables. The main materials for the kitchen consisted of a wood-fired stove and makeshift benchtops. This assemblage was augmented by repurposing discarded carnival decorations to create a festive and inviting atmosphere. The kitchen served the business district’s homeless community daily for more than two months in 2012, until it was permanently forced to dismantle (ironically to make way for a Yann Arthus Bertrand exhibition for the UN Summit on Sustainable Development).