Venezuela: Man cooks delicacies for the hungry in Caracas

An vertising executive in Venezuela has found a new lease of life after country's deepening crisis forced him to close company he ran in capital Caracas.

Andres Burgos, 55, was distraught when he h to lay off dozens of staff as revenue dried up and business disappeared.

And his world began closing in with many of his relatives fleeing Venezuela to seek a better life abro.

But he's w turned his own hardship into a mission to help some of capital's most vulnerable residents - by cooking food for people who live and sleep on streets.

Five days a week, he rises before dawn and goes into his kitchen at home to cook arepas, tritional corn-based pasties that are bre and butter of Venezuelans, particularly poor.

He piles pasties with tasty and nutritious fillings such as ham, chicken, lentils and carrots, and n sets out on his bike to distribute m.

For some people who rmally survive by rummaging through piles of garb for bits of food, it's only meal y'll have that day.

Burgos calls his project BiciArepazo, which translates roughly as Bike Arepas.

He started small with his own money a year ago, passing out a few arepas on his way to work.

But when strict quarantine measures were imposed to combat coronavirus in March, number of homeless and even well-dressed people he saw digging through garb increased.

That's when Burgos went from handing out 20 arepas a day to 150, boosted by support of family and friends from business community.

"I'm passionate about this," he says. "I don't get any money from it, but I do it always with a smile. That's all payment I need."

Burgos also brings a smile to people he meets every day.

Luis Miguel Yajure, who's 25, lost his job at start of year and has lived on streets for eight months.

He said two arepas Burgos gave him were likely to be only things he would eat that day.

Thanks to Burgos, he said, he wouldn't need to look for food in garb dump.

"That man doesn't ask us for anything," Yajure said. "An arepa like that, me with love and warmth."

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