La Historia de La Floresta

This soup kitchen (comedor) was started fifteen years ago. It is officially called “Centro Infantial La Floresta” or “Floresta Centro” (because there is also a Floresta Norte and Floresta Sur). The women I cook with every day were the same women who constructed the entire comedor, brick by brick.

It originally had a small orchard/farm in the back with vegetables, chickens, and even rabbits. However, over time, they weren’t able to keep it up and it made more sense to have the food delivered—for both greater quantities and most likely better quality.

The dining hall used to be the classroom and had paintings on the walls of Disney characters (ex. Woody the woodpecker and Simba) and basic numbers (1, 2, 3). The room in the back, where the outdoor kitchen is was a recent addition, constructed entirely by the volunteering mothers.

It also has recently received a paint job; recently in the sense that it happened in the past five years, since the “new” paint has already worn off in many areas. The bottom half of all the walls used to be blue, but is now a dark brown.

La Floresta has overcome many changes in the past fifteen years, and they still have plans to improve it. They want to install wooden bookshelves in the classroom to create a more “professional” library. They also want to install a door (picture a garage door) for the fourth wall of the classroom. Tomorrow and Friday, I plan to help Amalia put up pictures from the past years along the walls of the dining hall to compliment the mural.