In 1975, only two years into Pinochet’s regime, extreme and experimental economic reforms were put in place to encourage the country’s struggling economy. The cost of this ‘shock treatment’ was massive inflation and unemployment which hurt most the families who were already poor or living from paycheque to paycheque.
Responding to the needs of parishioners struggling to feed their families and the lack of government relief effort, church sponsored organisations set up children’s soup kitchens. Meals were prepared and children were watched over by a mixture of community volunteers and the local mothers whose children were fed, while ingredients often came as donations from shops and farmers connected to the church. Over 25,000 children received meals from more than 350 Vicariate children’s soup kitchens (Memoria Chilena).
This arpillera shows various collective strategies surrounding one such children’s soup kitchen in a poor neighbourhood. Young children wait outside the children’s soup kitchen with their spoons in hand, whilst inside one of the two women cooking tells the other that “There is no more food”. Despite donations which came through church sponsored organisations, food was still scarce and there were many children needing to be fed.
Other goings-on in the scene include a small community laundry and women filling buckets with water from a communal tap. The laundry might have provided employment and a small income to workers, or simply helped fund the soup kitchen. Collecting water was a necessary part of house management in poor neighbourhoods. In these communities plumbing was much less common, and where it existed water bills were still too high to pay. All water used for drinking, cooking, washing and cleaning had to be carried to the home to be used. (HM0425) | 
