Demands from social movements, community leaders and civil society organisations are rarely made in isolation, but rather as part of a broader agenda in a struggle for equitable citizenship. The grassroots social innovations that emerged in the context of the pandemic in marginalised communities of São Paulo are good example of this. Besides dealing with the urgent issue of food (in)security, these initiatives added other actions that articulated demands for other rights, such as access to culture, education, and political representation.
Agência Solano Trindade was created in 2012 in Campo Limpo, an area of São Paulo known for its great social divide with low-income people living in slums (the peripheries) alongside middle and upper-middle class condominiums. Before the pandemic, its focus was on strengthening the local economy by encouraging entrepreneurship. In addition, it played a prominent role in the promotion of cultural events, such as soirees and music festivals. When the pandemic stroke, Solano Trindade reorganised its activities with a focus on food security in the peripheries.
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Leaders in the peripheries of São Paulo were able to gather intelligence around food security much faster and more effectively than the state or NGOs as they were closer to the people. Within a couple of days, by reconnecting to old networks and establishing new ones, the Agency became a key actor in the region. During the most critical period of the pandemic as well as in its aftermath, the Agency distributed around 300,000 healthy lunchboxes, 100,000 basic food baskets, along with 50,000 masks and 50,000 hand sanitisers. Coordinating a network that expanded the distribution of healthy food, including to riverine peoples and indigenous communities in the state of São Paulo, they reached around 100,000 families, numbers that are impressive for their reach – but they did much more than that.
Healthy eating and combating food insecurity
The idea of promoting healthy eating in the peripheries while combating food insecurity came a couple of years before the pandemic and was the main drive for the creation of Organically Rango restaurant. Seeking to promote healthy eating ‘in the hood’ while defending the idea that ‘food without poison is a right and not a privilege’, the restaurant frames the issue of food security as a fundamental dimension of citizenship. In Thiago’s words, “here those who have money eat. But those who don’t have money also eat, since our enterprise is totally linked to our dream of dignity.” Since the pandemic, Auntie Nice, the chef of the restaurant and Thiago’s mother, has participated in a series of events, such as workshops at SESCs and TV shows, sharing the restaurant’s experience with other community leaders. Along with that, the Agency created the Organic Warehouse, where it sells organic products from family farming and from the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST).
In addition to the fight against food insecurity, the promotion of the right to culture is in Solano Trindade Agency’s DNA. The very name of the Agency demonstrates this, as it pays homage to the poet, multi-artist, and black activist Solano Trindade. Since the beginning, the organisation’s actions have been guided by the promotion of local artists and the promotion of the Percurso Festival, a music festival held annually that brings together artists from the peripheries of São Paulo into the Campo Limpo neighbourhood.
Over time, the Agency increased its engagement with the state for instance, by participating in public edicts for the promotion of culture, such as the case of São Paulo’s Program for the Enhancement of Cultural Initiatives (VAI). Yet, this relationship varies according to who’s in power in government. During Bolsonaro’s regime, access to funding was curtailed, which made the Agency depend on other sources such as SESC, private companies, and institutes. But a bigger step was taken when members of the Agency decided to stand for office.
In the 2020 municipal elections, the Quilombo Periférico was formed, a collective mandate composed of leaders of the periphery across the city of São Paulo. Among the leaders who make up the mandate is Alex Barcellos, a member of the Solano Trindade Agency. Together, they were elected as co-councillors and occupy one of the 55 seats in São Paulo’s City Council. The focus of Quilombo Periférico’s mandate is the wellbeing of marginalised populations of the city. More broadly, the mandate has worked to promote municipal public policies to combat structural and institutional racism. In their own words, they try to ‘hack’ and ‘aquilombar’ institutional politics, promoting the occupation of politics with historically silenced communities.
Grassroot organisations
The work of grassroot organisations such as the Solano Trindade Agency during the pandemic was one of the factors that strengthened the connection amongst leaders of the periphery and made the trans-territorial nature of initiatives that emerged during the pandemic to spill over into institutional politics. Since elected, Quilombo Periférico has been active in several agendas, especially those related to marginalised communities, such as the issue of combating police violence in the peripheries, the inclusion of discussions on race in schools, demonstrating, once again, the intersectoral character of the demands for rights.
The fact that successful social innovations such as these have been led by organisations in the peripheries should not exempt the role of the state in the construction of public policies nor transform public issues into private ones. If, on the one hand, these initiatives had great contextual sensitivity while promoting effective solutions, on the other hand, they came up against difficulties related to their sustainability: after the peak of the pandemic, when they received many donations, financing has been challenging. State support also becomes essential so that lessons learned and the innovative ways of policymaking created during the pandemic by organisations in the peripheries can be scaled up. As the protagonists themselves point out, “no one wants to receive lunch boxes for the rest of their lives.”
