Our History

LGBT+ Senior Center May 2019 - April 2020

Our team’s work began in early 2019 as a daily meal program in Vida Alegre, the first LGBT+ Senior Center in Mexico City, founded by Samantha Flores, an 85-year old trans woman from Vera Cruz.

LGBT+ seniors, many of whom don’t have children or other family support, are all-too-often forgotten members of our community who disproportionately suffer from loneliness and economic hardships in a Mexican society that depends heavily on the family structure to make ends meet. Our work with Vida Alegre thrived until the COVID-19 pandemic forced the senior center to shutter its doors in April 2020.

COVID- 19 LGBT+ Food Bank May 2020 - June 2021

Our team mobilized within weeks of the first news of COVID-19 sweeping the continent. While Mexico City shut down and citizens were forced into quarantine, our team launched Burritos Not Bombs!, a food pantry which operated out of the apartment of President and Founder of Manos Amigues, Brent Alberghini. Burritos Not Bombs! provided groceries to more than 300 people per week living in extreme poverty in Mexico City from May 2020 to June 2021. Our grocery bags were sufficient for a family of three to eat for a week and included only the healthiest of foods.

Some of the vulnerable populations that received our food pantry service are the following:

➢ homeless children and their families;
➢ people who were born in Mexico but grew up in the United States and who found themselves in Mexico due to deportation or forced return;
➢ transgender sex workers;
➢ senior citizens who lacked the support they needed to provide them with enough food; and
➢ LGBT+ migrants making the dangerous journey north in the middle of the COVID 19 pandemic.

LGBT+ Soup Kitchen and Cultural Center July 2021 - Present

In July 2021 we launched Manos Amigues Community Center, which includes a soup kitchen that serves 4,,000 meals per month every Monday - Friday and a vibrant cultural center which serves up food for the soul on a weekly basis. Thanks to your unwavering support, Manos Amigues been growing ever since.