Every week, hundreds of people line up to fill a plastic container with food ​in an unlikely place: the humble home where Argentine soccer legend Diego Armando ‌Maradona was born.

The house in Villa Fiorito, a poor neighbourhood on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, no longer belongs to the family of Maradona, who died in 2020 after a heart attack, but for the ​last month, its current owner has lent its dirt yard to a group of ​volunteers who light a grill and cook for neighbours.

Last Thursday, Maria Torres ⁠stirred a stew in two large pots while several others peeled potatoes and chopped pieces ​of chicken. A mural painted on the house’s facade depicts the soccer player next to ​the words, “The house of god.”

Poverty has been trending downward in Argentina, with official statistics released on Tuesday showing it dropping to 28.2% of the country’s population in the second half of 2025 from 52.9% in ​the first half of 2024, when President Javier Milei sharply devalued the peso and inflation ​spiked.

While there has been a “very important drop” in poverty, Argentina needs to see more GDP growth in ‌labour-intensive ⁠sectors, such as mining, as opposed to capital-intensive sectors, such as agriculture, said Eduardo Donza, a sociologist at the Catholic University of Argentina.

The drop in the poverty rate has followed a substantial drop in monthly inflation, from double digits when Milei took office to 2.9% in February.

However, ​Milei’s austerity measures have ​sharply diminished the public ⁠sector workforce, and many say they have lost purchasing power as the government has cut transportation and energy subsidies.

Leonardo Fabian Alvarez, a ​pastor who runs the makeshift soup kitchen, said he has seen the ​demand for ⁠food in Villa Fiorito and other neighbourhoods grow as small factories have closed. Deregulation and a stronger peso have led to cheaper imports under Milei.

“People obviously lost their jobs,” he said, adding that “they come ⁠to ​the line, pick up food, take what we give ​them.”

Argentina declared the home of Maradona a National Historic Site in 2021.