Rome (Italy). In the 13th video of CommTalkS – the initiative of the Communication Sector of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians with the aim of creating a shared vision of the culture of communication, has interviewed those responsible, the educators, and young employees of Pastificio Futuro (Pasta Factory), which is located within the complex that also includes the Casal del Marmo Penal Institute for minors in Rome.
Inaugurated on 10 November 2023, the Pastificio is a craft workshop in which pasta is produced with durum wheat, with the aim of offering a new opportunity for the future to some youth who, for various reasons, ended up within the criminal circuit already at a very young age.
Supported by the Italian Bishops’ Conference (with the 8×1000) and Italian Caritas, which donated the machines, as well as by the Department of Juvenile and Community Justice that entrusted on loan, a structure inside the prison, then totally rebuilt. The project is carried out by the social cooperative Gustolibero Onlus, founded in 2015, which has as its general purpose the human promotion and integration of citizens.
It is the result of the intuition of the chaplain, Father Gaetano Greco, to respond concretely to the exhortation of Pope Francis visiting the inmates of the Juvenile Penal Institute (IPM) on 28 March 2013: “do not let your hope be stolen! Understood? Always go forward with hope!”
“It is a pleasure to nourish hope” is in fact, the motto that reflects the style and values of the production and which appears on the home page of the website and on the infographics.
In the Pastificio Futuro some confined children near the IPM, or subjected to alternative sentences in prison, or who reached the end of their sentence, have the opportunity for a work experience, reducing the possibility of returning to crime. There are currently about 12 young people employed.
In addition to offering the opportunity to learn a trade, this activity supports and accompanies the path of re-education and maturation of young people, with a view to social and professional reintegration. For them, it also becomes an opportunity to rediscover the value of work and the beauty of doing it in synergy with others.
Why pasta? “Because it is something that unites Italian families, places them around a table, and makes them stay together, and it is an easy dish to prepare. Then we thought of dry pasta because it was simpler, more stable, and can remain in stock to be sold,” explains Alberto Machi Onori, Manager of the Pastificio.
In 2023, 10 years after the start of the project, Pope Francis returned to visit the Pastificio and, in addition to blessing a ‘trafila’, the machinery that “shapes” the pasta, he gave an additional contribution to cover expenses, providing a new incentive to hope.
In the team, as a volunteer partner, there is also a Daughter of Mary Help of St. John Bosco Province (IRO), Sister Aurora Consolini, who works closely with the young people, in full Salesian style.
“This place was called Pastificio Futuro precisely by the young people, who wanted to emphasize, not what is behind them, the experience of crime, juvenile detention, street life, but what there is after, because this place wants to be for them a place of hope (…) a place of the future, where they are given the possibility to work, to have a regular contract, and to learn what it means to have a real job”, emphasizes Sister Aurora. She specifies, “we try to do it in a very familiar style. We have chosen to work with them, so there is no boss, educator, psychologist who look at the young from afar and write their reports. We are a team, working at their level and this gives us the joy of creating a great family atmosphere.”
The project is expanding, both at the production level with new partners, and entry into small and large distribution, as well as at the educational level. The dream of the team, again supported by Pope Francis before his death, is to open a small community with employees, both to help them reach the workplace more easily and to accompany them more closely in the process of reintegration into society.
The video is available with subtitles in some languages (from the YouTube settings). All CommTalks remain available on the Youtube Channel CGFMANET and can be retrieved from the side banner on the home page of the Institute’s website.
