- Title: Maradona's former home is transformed into a soup kitchen in Argentina
- Date: 31st March 2026
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) SOUP KITCHEN COOK AND VILLA FIORITO RESIDENT, MARIA TORRES, SAYING: "Recently, poverty has increased too much because we see more people who said they would never go to a soup kitchen for a plate of food, and today they come for food and stay. If you're delayed four hours, they spend those four hours waiting for a plate of food. It's something that ma
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- Keywords: Argentina Buenos Aires Milei economy inflation poverty soup kitchen
- Location: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
- City: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
- Country: Argentina
- Topics: South America / Central America,Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA001870730032026RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Every week, people line up to receive a plate of food in an unlikely place: the humble home where Argentine soccer legend Diego Armando Maradona was born.
The house in Villa Fiorito, a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, no longer belongs to the family of Maradona, who died in 2020 after a heart attack, but for the last month, its current owner has lent its dirt yard to a group of volunteers who light a grill and cook for neighbors.
Last Thursday (March 26), Maria Torres stirred a stew in two large pots while several others peeled potatoes and chopped pieces of chicken.
A mural painted on the house's facade depicts the soccer player next to the words, "The house of god."
Poverty has been trending downward in Argentina, with official statistics showing it dropping to 31.6% in the first half of 2025 from 52.9% in the first half of 2024, when President Javier Milei sharply devalued the peso and inflation spiked.
The figures for the second half of 2025 will be published on Wednesday (April 1). The drop in the poverty rate has followed a substantial drop in monthly inflation, from double digits when Milei took office to 2.9% in February.
However, Milei's austerity measures have sharply diminished the public sector workforce and many say they have lost purchasing power as the government has cut transportation and energy subsidies.
Argentina declared the home of Maradona a national historic site in 2021.
(Production: Miguel Lo Bianco, Claudia Martini, Liamar Ramos) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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