Pozo Almonte Neighbors Successfully Complete Pampa Cooking Workshop

In order to revive age-old culinary heritage and promote one of northern Chile’s most important cultural expressions, a group of 22 neighbors from Pozo Almonte completed the Pampa Cooking Workshop, an initiative within SQM’s Corporate Social Responsibility Program.

The closing ceremony in the Pozo Almonte Performance Arts Center was attended by Mayor Richard Godoy; SQM’s Head of Community Relations for Nueva Victoria, Gary Mérida; and the president of the Creide Foundation, Norma Araya.

“This workshop is designed to boost our neighbors’ development, skills and knowledge. We hope they continue moving forward with their business ventures and that SQM can join them on their path of self-betterment,” the town official commented during the ceremony.

Gary Mérida added: “At SQM, we are not only reaffirming our commitment to local residents, but are also recognizing them as heirs to the pampa culture, where cooking is one of the most important cultural expressions.”

The six-month virtual workshop taught the participants about several dishes from northern Chile and pampa life. They then put into practice what they learned from the chefs and recorded videos demonstrating what they had learned. According to one of the participants, Guillermo Varela, “I learned things that I really didn’t think I’d learn, like cooking and food safety techniques, all with help from excellent teachers. I am very grateful for this opportunity.”

In the same context, Juan Torres, the coordinating chef for the initiative, said that it had been a very valuable experience, where for the first time we used technology to give a training course of this nature and treated cooking as cultural heritage that deserves to be conserved and passed on to future generations.”

Social Contingency and Crisis Management Workshop

The collaboration between SQM, the municipality of Pozo Almonte and the Creide Foundation also enabled close to 200 townspeople, mainly teachers and others related to the field of education, to participate in the Social Contingency Workshop with a Focus on Gender in a Crisis. The four-week workshop was designed to provide tools for emotional support and assistance to resume pre-pandemic schooling levels and minimize the psychological impact it has created.

“The pandemic made teachers’ work much more difficult and, in that context, as a company we considered it important to support these new educational processes, where we provide tools that can help them regain balance and approach this situation from a better place,” commented SQM’s Head of Community Relations for Nueva Victoria.

Finally, the president of the Creide Foundation, Norma Araya, highlighted the commitment of the participants, who discussed numerous topics such as self-esteem and emotional stability, sex and gender and how to solve their more immediate problems.

These initiatives are in response to the robust Community Action Plan that SQM carries out every year in diverse communities in the Tarapacá and Antofagasta regions, spanning four areas: Community Production, Education and Culture, Sports and Healthy Living and Recovering Heritage.