SPECIAL:
THE PEOPLE EDITION
MARIANA ALEIXO MARE DE SABORES BRAZIL
Having grown up in the Mare favela in Rio de Janeiro, Mariana Aleixo has channelled her knowledge and expertise in food and hospitality into a project that supports women of her community by off ering them gastronomy courses and entrepreneurial mentorship. “We enable women to be fi nancially independent and create a local food culture, while we discuss the importance of healthy food habits to improve the residents of Mare’s life quality,” she explains. Founding and spearheading Mare de Sabores earned Aleixo a place among the shortlisted people for the 2020 Basque Culinary World Prize, a coveted award for chefs who aff ect social change beyond the kitchen.
She founded the social project Mare de Sabores in collaboration with Redes de Mare, a civil society organization that promotes a sustainable development network in Mare favela where she was born. Mare de Sabores also provides a catering service for private and institutional events, employing the women, which gives them a wage while training.
“This increases their income and enables them to be fi nancially autonomous and refl ect on gender issues, encouraging women to break away from a cycle of dependency, which often is responsible for perpetuating domestic violence in the favelas,” Aleixo says.
Maré de Sabores was initially set up as professional training in gastronomy but, over time, has undergone several transformations and today has more sophisticated methods of impacting women. “Today we are very committed to all of our agendas, we know it is urgent to propose
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“We know it is urgent to propose solutions and focus on public policies to fight hunger, which with the pandemic has worsened even more in Brazil”
solutions and focus on public policies to fi ght hunger, which the pandemic has worsened even more in Brazil.” In Brazilian favelas, Aleixo explains, women have always been at the forefront of conquering the rights of these territories, and it is women who are guaranteeing food security for families and are those who are most severely aff ected by food insecurity. Today, she continues, women are in the process of reclaiming their role in creating a circular economy that is more inclusive and diverse and improves living conditions. “We, women of Maré, have the challenge of guiding these agendas crossed by social markers such as gender, race and class. Therefore, we know how important it is to
be committed to a positive agenda in public policies for women and to the structural confrontation of inequalities,” she explains. She was spurred on by early career
experiences, including work in the restaurants located in Rio de Janeiro’s wealthy neighborhoods, including the Cipriani restaurant kitchen, at Belmond Copacabana Palace and at the restaurant at the Fasano hotel.
“These professional experiences
motivated me to seek the academic universe and it was fundamental to look at the food and beverage sector and investigate how to act in it in a more inclusive way,” she says. “They were crucial to my education; they consolidated my eagerness to expand my gastronomic repertoire and made me refl ect and understand how social popular groups construct a food relationship that broadens its physiological sense.”
Building from her base of gastronomy,
Aleixo is determined to continue to work to empower and improve the lives of the women of the favelas – and the community around them.
“The future of gastronomy in Brazil
must be guided by the guarantee of rights for the population of slums and peripheries, and the main role must be played by the people from these territories – mainly by the women,” she concludes.
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