COCINA PODEROSA, DISEÑANDO UN SISTEMA PARA EL FORTALECIMIENTO DE COLECTIVOS ORGANIZADOS DE LIMA METROPOLITANA ANTE LA CRISIS AGROALIMENTARIA

Abstract

The Peruvian Food System (PFS) depends on socio-natural factors: agrobiodiversity and family farming produce food of high nutritional and cultural value. However, climate change, food waste, food insecurity, loss of traditional food knowledge, and the promotion of ultra-processed products that increase the risk of chronic non-communicable diseases are consequences of an ongoing precarious PFS. Considering this, diverse responses from society are emerging. Cocina Poderosa (CP) adopts a people-centered approach by facilitating the arrival of healthy and tasty food, food education and entrepreneurship training to communities in vulnerable situations with the articulation and economic reactivation of various actors of the PFS -farmers, gastronomic enterprises and ollas comunes (OC)-. Analyzing and reflecting on the case of CP allows to deepen the understanding of the PFS, its physical environment, its needs and the agency of its actors. Each CP training session brought together approximately 40 participants - OCs leaders, cooks and users- mostly mothers of different ages, origins and backgrounds, who assume the commitment -unpaid- in their communities to feed around 100 people in daily shifts of approximately 6 hours, 6 days a week. Spaces of reflection were promoted with the participants that contributed to identify problems and challenges of the OCs, their organizational goals, and tools were collectively built to strengthen their identification and sense of community, transcending the aims of the initiative and consolidating a valuable space to be analyzed, systematized and discussed from a multi-stakeholder strategy for its scaling up.