At school one Monday, Aiko and Mateo picked up each other's lunchboxes by mistake. Aiko sat down on her usual bench, opened the lid and found three golden empanadas, still faintly warm, with a note in Spanish tucked underneath. Across the playground, Mateo found two rice balls wrapped in seaweed, each hiding a pickled plum in the middle. For a moment, both of them were shocked. Then they became curious. Then they took a bite.
It was the best lunch either of them had eaten in weeks. When the bell rang, they met at the bench to swap back, but neither of them looked especially eager. "What if we did this on purpose?" said Aiko. "Every Friday," said Mateo, who was already looking at the last empanada.
Other children noticed and asked to join. Before long the whole class had a "Friday Feast," and every child brought a dish from home, some wrapped in foil, some in cloth. One Friday the teacher tasted a classmate's grandmother's dumplings, and she had to look out of the window for a while.