DALLAS – A Dallas woman, inspired by the woman who changed her life, gives back to her Pleasant Grove community.
Communal kitchens pop up all over North Texas when a person makes the decision to do something bigger than themselves.
This is exactly what Marah Suarez does with her communal kitchen, Maria’s Bodeguita.
“I saw one at Oak Cliff and thought we weren’t enough of it,” she said. “And I was thinking of an area that could benefit from it. We don’t want to put it somewhere where people don’t benefit and this place, even though it’s really noisy, has a lot of traffic.”
Suarez’s store is located at block 8700 on busy Lake June Road in Pleasant Grove.
“So the idea is that you take what you need and do what you can,” she said.
Marah named the pantry you-take-what-you-need-leave-what-you-can after her grandmother Maria.
“She was the one who really taught me to feed anyone who comes through your door. That is the language of love, ”she said.
Maria was not Marah’s biological grandmother. She “adopted” Marah and her teenage mother.
“And the love she showed my mother and me was inexplicable,” she said. “I cannot describe the love and compassion she showed for the 16-year-old with her newborn daughter.
The love shown for her Marah is shown to others as she honors her grandmother.
“My grandmother is only this light for everyone. Light and love,” she said. “And I think this seed was sown before I even knew it.”
The little shop is full of durable items. Someone built it for free.
“I painted it myself,” said Marah. “And on this page we have a list of things you could turn in.”
A childhood friend owns the property where the pantry is located.
Marah hopes to expand.
“I also work closely with the Dallas Liberation Movement,” she said. “We’re thinking about putting a refrigerator up, if not where. That’s okay, but not sustainable. We need products. We need meat.”
Marias Bodeguita is the harvest of a seed planted years ago by Marah’s Grandmother of Compassion that is now producing a harvest of food for the Pleasant Grove community.
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