“I was leaving here with some food for my family, and this woman comes up and asks me if I could spare something to eat,” said Vilma Solier, a 39-year-old mother who works at the Nueva Esperanza communal kitchen in Lima’s San Juan de Lurigancho district, one of the most densely populated areas of the country. “I gave her part of what I was taking home.” Inside the small wooden building, Carmen Rosa Méndez serves two young street vendors who sell notebooks under the scorching sun. Three large pots sit on a stove, surrounded by ladles, a small table and a few chairs.
It may be hard…
