"Mr. Officer, we have nothing to eat at home," said Miguel, 11, to the policeman who answered the emergency number last Tuesday.
It had been three days since the seven members of the family who live in an attic in Santa Luzia, near Belo Horizonte (south-east), fed only on corn flour diluted in water.
The officer who received the call sent police to the scene, believing it to be a case of domestic neglect.
But what they saw was an all-too-common scene: a mother unable to feed her children as inflation erodes the purchasing power of the poorest in Latin America's largest economy.
The police then went to the supermarket to bring food to the family, some paid for out of pocket and the other offered by the manager of the business, to whom they had explained the reason for their presence in the neighborhood.
When the local press told this gripping story, the tragedy of the Barros family moved all of Brazil and donations began to flow.
The cramped kitchen, previously devoid of any foodstuffs, has taken on the appearance of a convenience store.
"We received a lot of food, lots of different things, even foods that I didn't even know," young Miguel told AFP, opening a full cupboard.
- "Hunger hurts so much" -
Her mother Célia, 46, has eight children, six of whom she is raising alone today.
She survived thanks to odd jobs, but found herself idle during the Covid-19 crisis.
"We suffered a lot. The hunger hurts so much, I will never forget those moments," she sighs, holding in her arms a small baby, the youngest of her children.
"After a while, we don't even have the strength to get up. Miguel saw me in despair, in tears, and decided to act. Thank God, that changed everything."
The plight of this family has had a particular echo in a country where hunger has once again become a major problem, having been virtually eradicated in the last decade.
For the first time since 2014, Brazil reappeared on the UN's "World Hunger Map" this year, with 28.9% of the population living in a state of "moderate food insecurity". or severe.
Images showing starving people fighting over bones in dumpsters are increasingly spreading on social media.
In this distressing context, Célia is proud to be able to help neighbors in need to fill their refrigerators.
"We received so many donations that now, I who had nothing, can help others," she says.
