From traveling in my youth, I learned the ins and outs of staying in hostels. There is generally a lot of food waste in hostels where many people share one kitchen. People often leave or forget about their food and it just gets thrown out. I reached out to several hostels (in Buenos Aires) and found one close-by that was willing to give me whatever they had in their fridge at the end of the week which I would then turn into meals for people who needed them.
I free-styled with what I was given, occasionally adding in something from our fridge to supplement. I became an expert in a lot of the basic starches like pasta, rice etc. There were a few really neat concoctions like: oatmeal pancakes with an oat, almond, and honey sauce; a yogurt rice pear dish; pesto toast with pasta; & beet quesadillas.
When the food was ready, I put it on plastic plates with a fork and napkin, and we headed out to give it to people – often families that were living on the street. We started to get to know and recognize several of them and learned where they would be during the day/night. It kept me busy but I enjoyed every moment of it.
Naturally, I kept track of everything and took pictures of all the creations. We were able to give out 38 meals!
