BUENOS AIRES (REUTERS)

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.

Poverty has been trending downward in Argentina, with official statistics ‌showing it dropping to 31.6% in the first half of 2025 from 52.9% in the first half of 2024, when President Javier Milei sharply devalued ​the peso and inflation spiked. The figures for the second half of 2025 will be published on Tuesday.

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.

Argentina declared the home of Maradona a national historic site ​in 2021.