Venezuela’s Carúpano celebrates world Arepa day with food distribution
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In Carúpano, Venezuela, community members and organisations celebrated World Arepa Day by distributing 1,500 arepas to people in need.
The city of Carúpano, in Sucre state, joined the annual celebration, first held in 2013, with an event focused on social impact. Students from the Simón Rodríguez National Experimental University’s Endogenous Development program, specialising in Gastronomy, prepared the arepas with the help of workers from ten local restaurants.
Local fishermen provided the fish, including ray and cazón, to fill the arepas, while local businesses contributed other ingredients. Organisers distributed the food to patients in Carúpano’s hospital and geriatric care facility, outpatient clinics, senior citizens, and people in vulnerable communities. Approximately 50 people directly participated in the event, which took place at the Santa Catalina church. Students travelled from Marigüitar, in the Bolívar municipality, to assist with the preparation.
Amílcar Rivas, the gastronomy program coordinator, explained that the group aimed to contribute to those most in need during the celebration, noting the arepa’s deep roots in Venezuelan indigenous cultures, specifically the Cumanagoto and Caribe peoples, and its origins in the Cumanagoto word for corn, “erepa.”
