Le Lazzarelle is the name of the social cooperative founded by Imma Carpiniello to which, in recent days, the head of state Sergio Mattarella awarded the honor of Commendatore al Merito della Repubblica. From the cooperative was born a roasting company in the women's prison of Pozzuoli, to offer a job opportunity and redemption to the inmates. A winning experience born twelve years ago, whose success has also produced the birth of a bar-bistro in the heart of Napoli. Hence the recognition assigned by the head of state for civil commitment, dedication to the common good and the testimony of republican values.
The Lazzarellas
When Imma Carpiniello started this adventure, many were skeptical because they didn't believe in the idea of producing quality coffee according to the ancient Neapolitan tradition in a prison. Today her cooperative, “The Lazzarellas“, makes 10 quintals of coffee in a year: the product is appreciated and sold above all on the web, and can be tasted in the place that Imma opened in 2020, with some members of the cooperative. And with the contribution of volunteers, in the Galleria Principe di Napoli, in the city centre.
Here you can taste various 'typical' specialties, from lasagna to timbale of orecchiette with mushrooms, potatoes and caciocavallo, as well as delicious coffee. Imma, 49, came into contact with the prison reality as part of her commitment to the third sector. She graduated in political science, with a master's degree in gender politics and human rights, she dreamed of a training course that would initiate the inmates into the circuit of legality. An opportunity for redemption within a company that offered the market "an artisan product, ethical and linked to the territory".
The cooperative
Once the inevitable difficulties were overcome, also thanks to a loan from the Campania Region as part of support for start-ups, the cooperative started its activity. The coffees processed in Pozzuoli are organic and come from the southern hemisphere, where small quality producers risk being crushed by multinationals. The first ten adhering inmates themselves chose the name "Le Lazzarelle", and in twelve years 72 inmates worked at the roasting plant.
The vast majority of them, once out of the penitentiary female of Pozzuoli, has definitively left the criminal circuits. Coffee in Naples has always been a panacea, but that of the Lazzarelle has a truly special taste. The Lazzarelle are one of the flagships of the so-called prison economics. Together with them many other virtuous examples such as Banda Biscotti, Sprigioriamo Sapori, Le dolce evasioni.
(Source Ansa / photo of the Le Lazzarelle Cooperative Facebook page)
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