The aroma of grilled pork chops, jalapeños and nopales fills the kitchen at this South Bronx restaurant. Behind the door, a red sign reads: “no deportations”.
The Oaxacan dishes that are prepared here are not only for local customers, but also for the hundreds of hungry people in this neighborhood and other poor areas of New York City. The small restaurant, called La Morada, became a soup kitchen during the pandemic and currently produces around 650 meals a day which are distributed to the unemployed, New Yorkers who live without gas and cannot cook, the elderly or disabled.
The restaurant’s Mexican owners, who are also pro-migrant activists who, like themselves, lack documentation in the United States, describe the work of feeding poor Americans and migrants as rewarding. It’s a job they do with other groups and organizations that donate food and funds and distribute food.
“We always say activism is like our secret seasoning, so I think it was very natural for us to serve our community with what we have,” said Yajaira Saavedra, 32, who co-owns the restaurant with his parents. “It’s also something that takes us back to our native roots, when we all went to meals, brought in a few ingredients and cooked a large pot together.
The Bronx, a predominantly Hispanic and African American county, is one of the regions where COVID-19 has hit the most in the United States. The county sits in the nation’s 15th largest congressional district, with an average annual household salary of $ 31,061 in 2019, according to census data.
At the start of the pandemic, the entire Saavedra family exhibited symptoms of COVID-19 and La Morada closed for a month.
They applied for federal loans like the Economic Disaster Loan, but all were turned down due to their immigration status, Saavedra said. A spokesperson for the Federal Small Business Development Agency (SBA) told The Associated Press that loan applicants must be US citizens or “qualified” foreign nationals, including permanent residents, among others. . categories.
Saavedra benefits from a program known as DACA which provides temporary immigration assistance to immigrants, who were brought to the United States without their parents’ permission when they were children.
Her parents, Natalia Méndez and Antonio Saavedra, crossed the Sonoran Desert in Texas and arrived in New York in 1992. Saavedra and her brother Marco did the same a year later with relatives. Marco, now 30, applied for asylum in 2019 and is awaiting a decision.
Without help from the federal government, a friend launched a website to raise funds, which allowed the family to reopen the restaurant in April. La Morada also opened as a community food program because the Saavedra had accumulated food they didn’t want to throw away and there was too much hunger in the South Bronx. Word quickly spread: People started lining the street and around 200 soups were gone within an hour, the family said.
“We realized the need was huge. The next day, without thinking, we cook twice as much, ”explains Méndez, who is 50 years old and constantly makes do with the ingredients available.
One day, they can be “enfrijoladas”, that is, tortillas covered with black bean sauce; another day it will be beef soups and another day it will be chicken salad. Local markets, neighbors and friends also donate: anyone can come to the restaurant with a bag of rice or potatoes.
“I want to say thank you because a pound of rice when I’m cooking turns into maybe 20 dishes, with vegetables and meats that are available,” Méndez said.
During the pandemic, La Morada, which opened in 2009 and received several prestigious Michelin Bib Gourmand awards, partnered with ReThink Group, a non-profit organization that promotes access to food, to manage the popular soup. The restaurant also joined other groups and churches.
Food is distributed to poor neighborhoods and community fridges, a new project that involves filling fridges that plug into a business’s electricity and left in the middle of the street to feed those in need.
One recent afternoon, Antonia Morales picked up two bags of La Morada food from a community garden where they were distributed by volunteers. “It helped us a lot. In the pandemic, that was very important, ”said the Mexican immigrant, who has four children and has lost her job cleaning houses.
Inside La Morada, volunteers come and go constantly throughout the day, picking up small boxes of food to pass out. The restaurant was even able to hire staff to help with the soup kitchen thanks to local grants.
“It’s about the contribution of the community and the friends and allies who say, ‘We’re going to do this, we’re going to fight together and survive,'” Saavedra said.
Before the pandemic, La Morada was also a small center of book exchange. Images of demonstrations and immigrants with posters, calling for an end to the evictions of their family members, decorate the walls of the premises painted purple.
The United States has passed 10 million cases of COVID-19, making it the country with the most infections. New York, which months ago became the epicenter of the pandemic, is seeing an increase in infections again.
According to a report from the city’s comptroller, the pandemic could result in the permanent closure of nearly 12,000 bars and restaurants in New York City and, consequently, the loss of some 159,000 jobs over a period of six months to a year.
The La Morada community meal takes place from Tuesday to Friday. On Mondays, Méndez and his helpers prepare and clean the garlic, onion, tomatoes, lettuce and other ingredients to prepare them for cooking.
“It’s very pleasant for me, it fills me with peace, excitement, energy,” Méndez said, referring to cooking for people in need. “I am very happy because I cook for people who really need it, who cannot afford a meal.”
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