Cocinar y alimentar: entre la creación y la resistencia en contextos de precariedad. Estudio sobre la gestión y construcción de la alimentación por parte de mujeres en un barrio periférico de Sáenz Peña, Chaco (2022-2024)

Abstract

Este artículo se propone analizar cómo las madres construyen y gestionan la alimentación cotidiana de sus hogares con niñas/os con malnutrición en los barrios periféricos de Presidencia Roque Sáenz Peña, Chaco, Argentina (entre los años 2022 y 2024). Para ello, se emplea una metodología cualitativa flexible y etnográfica. Las técnicas de recolección de información son: observación participante en un comedor social y entrevistas abiertas con la referente del comedor social, las voluntarias y las madres que retiran raciones diariamente. El estudio permite describir las tácticas y resistencias creativas que diversas mujeres emprenden para saciar el hambre. Aquello que cocinan se resuelve entre la practicidad y los recursos disponibles, la composición nutricional de la dieta resultante contribuye a moldear cuerpos malnutridos. Se construye y gestiona la alimentación desde la precariedad, el azar y lo impredecible, pero también con organización y redes de apoyo comunitario que garantizan la supervivencia de familias que han sido excluidas por el mercado laboral y el sistema agroalimentario.This article aims to analyse how mothers construct and manage daily meals in their homes with malnourished children in the suburbs of Presidencia Roque Sáenz Peña, Chaco, Argentina (between 2022 and 2024). To this end, a flexible, qualitative, ethnographic methodology is employed. The information gathering techniques are: participant observation in a soup kitchen and open interviews with the soup kitchen coordinator, volunteers, and mothers who collect daily rations. The study describes the creative tactics and resistance strategies that various women employ to satisfy hunger. What they cook is determined by practicality and available resources, and the nutritional composition of the resulting diet contributes to shaping malnourished bodies. Food is constructed and managed from a position of precariousness, chance and unpredictability, but also with organisation and community support networks that guarantee the survival of families who have been excluded from the labour market and the agri-food system.This article aims to analyse how mothers construct and manage daily meals in their homes with malnourished children in the suburbs of Presidencia Roque Sáenz Peña, Chaco, Argentina (between 2022 and 2024). To this end, a flexible, qualitative, ethnographic methodology is employed. The information gathering techniques are: participant observation in a soup kitchen and open interviews with the soup kitchen coordinator, volunteers, and mothers who collect daily rations. The study describes the creative tactics and resistance strategies that various women employ to satisfy hunger. What they cook is determined by practicality and available resources, and the nutritional composition of the resulting diet contributes to shaping malnourished bodies. Food is constructed and managed from a position of precariousness, chance and unpredictability, but also with organisation and community support networks that guarantee the survival of families who have been excluded from the labour market and the agri-food system.