Broccoli with potatoes and turkey in the casserole: stewed lentils and ham omelette; macaroni bolognese and nuggets of broccoli; chickpea soup and beef meatballs; and every Thursday, fresh fish from the market. These are some of the menus offered by the Sol Ixent school in Corbins (Segrià), for both its primary school pupils and those of the municipal nursery. All dishes are cooked on the centre's premises. Hot meals and, in many cases, locally sourced. And, since last September, it has also been an intergenerational meal.

—Martí, you have blood cancer.

Ciutadilla, Castellserà, Agramunt, Palacio de Anglesola, Bell-lloc, Bellvís, Alamús, Juneda, Bovera, Torregrossa, Torrefeta, and Florejacs… Bread ovens, especially small ones, have been proliferating in rural areas in recent years. Although still tentative, the opening of new businesses is counteracting a trend that seemed dramatic. "What was in decline until now seems to be a trend," says Toni Frias, the current president of the Bakers' Guild of the Lleida region. But this is no coincidence. At least, not in the eyes of the industry. "It was the result of time and a lot of dedication," Frias states. In recent years, the Guild has dedicated significant effort to promoting and organizing courses and training for new bakers and shopkeepers who have converted to traditional bakeries. "Now we are reaping the rewards," concludes the president of the organization.

After a long professional career almost always linked with Televisió de Catalunya, the communicator Mari Pau Huguet (Estopanyà, 1963) has been Recognized this March as an Emblematic Woman by the Hera association of LleidaShe has been working in the Audience Services Office for over fifteen years, but continues to participate in audiovisual projects and host many events.

Trini Porta, a 52-year-old resident of Montoliu de Segarra, lives alone with a dog and two cats. Last January, she suddenly lost Cupi, a powerful dog she adopted from the Cervera pound ten years ago. An irreversible liver disease forced her to have him euthanized to prevent further suffering. The void he left is still raw. She doesn't hesitate to compare this loss to the loss of a person. "I've lost a member of my family, and many people don't understand that," Porta admits.

One of the major problems facing Catalonia's primary sector is the severe lack of generational replacement. Although the demand for labor in this sector is very high, bureaucracy and the difficult conditions in which they work Farmers and ranchers seem to be discouraging younger generations from wanting to dedicate their professional lives to agriculture. The succession of family farms is at a critical juncture. At least, that's what this confirms. a technical dossier prepared by the General Directorate of Agri-food Companies in 2024 The study indicates that farmers under 40 years old represent only 11% of farms in the European Union (EU), while in Catalonia this figure plummets to 7%. "A combination of social, economic, environmental, and cultural factors affects the health of the agricultural sector and puts many current farms on alert, as they do not foresee a natural succession," the same study argues. And what is this natural succession? It's the children, who don't follow in their parents' footsteps.

Traditional Catalan is most evident in Lleida. It has almost never rained so much. The region has experienced an unusual winter. According to Aemet, the accumulated rainfall in Lleida since December 1st reached almost 200 mm, an amount four times the historical average. Almost the entire ground in Ponent is saturated with water, and all the reservoirs in the Ebro basin are technically full. The Ebro River Basin Authority (CHE) has estimated a total of 280 hm³ for this year.³ More water will come from snowmelt, an absolutely enormous amount compared to the amount recorded in 2023, which, due to high temperatures and evaporation, was reduced to only 20 hm³.³The water situation is not only good, but even exceeds what is desirable. Many recently planted cereal fields have been damaged by excessive moisture, and most farmers in the Pla de Lleida region do not plan to irrigate in the short term, despite the need to release water from the reservoirs for safety reasons. The water flows downstream, benefiting the sediments of the Ebro Delta. On March 8, the Urgell Canal irrigation community will hold a meeting to plan the next season and establish initial irrigation schedules, although the exact start date remains uncertain. "We are always dependent on the weather, whether it rains or not," admit technical sources from the community.

Alba Caño was born in 2003 in Puiggròs, a tiny village in Les Garrigues, where a deep passion for football grew from a very young age. She learned to play at the Les Garrigues Football School, later played for a few seasons with AEM Lleida, and at just fifteen years old, joined Barça, where she even played for the first team in the last two seasons. But to gain the playing time that the Barça stars weren't giving her, she decided to radically change teams. Since January, she has been a midfielder for Boston Legacy FC, a newly formed team in the American professional league (the NWSL)

"I have a school very close to home, but there are so many vulnerable students." "I've found a high school with resources, good teachers, and attractive facilities, but it takes in too many immigrants and children from dysfunctional families." "I'm interested in a school's educational project, but it's extremely complex..." Now that school pre-registration is approaching, it's no surprise to hear phrases like these, which contribute to the continued high level of segregation in our education system. The problem is not solved, even though the [report/document/report/etc.] was published in 2019. Pact against School Segregation, signed by the Catalan Ombudsman, the Catalan Government, and several city councils.

A musician from Lleida and, above all, a fighter. Joan Mesegué He's now 55, lives with his partner by the Utxesa reservoir, and is starting a new life. Since his twenties, he's teetered between life and death, art and madness, the deepest depressions and the most creative bursts of clarity, traveling all over Europe and returning home in frustration… Diagnosed with bipolar disorder and recently brought under control with medication, he's embarking on a tour of pubs and record labels, performing some of his new songs.

This week, the municipal budgets for Lleida for the 2026 fiscal year were automatically given initial approval. Lacking any support, the governing party of the Paeria (PSC), in a clear minority (9 of the 27 councilors), resorted to a legal avenue provided by the local government law to pass it. And they did so by risking their leader, at least in theory. The opposition parties had a full month to agree on a candidate to lead a motion of no confidence, an option permitted by the law itself. But they didn't even try. The arithmetic is what it is (a three-way tie with five councilors each for the PP, ERC, and Junts), and that left no room for negotiation. Mayor Fèlix Larrosa has managed to pass a budget for now without consensus, but with the uncertainty of what the city's politics will bring in the next fifteen months before the next municipal elections.

Culture and social services. Theater and inclusion. Two areas severely lacking in public resources. If we add to this the fact that we're talking about Juneda, a town of 3,500 inhabitants in Les Garrigues, one could say that its continuity (never interrupted) is its greatest success.

The Three Kings' Day parade in the city of Lleida will affect, albeit in different ways, the three central bridges that cross the Segre River during the five hours the event lasts on January 5th. Although the parade doesn't officially start until 6:00 PM, the three central bridges will be closed to traffic from 4:00 PM. The parade on the eve of Three Kings' Day will cover a two-kilometer route. The Three Kings, who as always will arrive by train at the Lleida-Pirineus station, will set foot in the city at 5:30 PM. However, the parade itself won't begin until 6:00 PM, and will proceed along Plaça Ramon Berenguer IV; Rambla Ferran; Avinguda Francesc Macià, Avinguda Blondel, and Avinguda Madrid; Plaça Espanya; and again Avinguda Blondel, until reaching the Paeria building around 8:00 PM.

According to the dictionary, the cugula is a plant of the grass family, similar to oats, that frequently appears at the edges of cultivated fields. It is generally considered a weed. And, surely because of this, the rural world often used the term "cugula" to refer to what a pregnant woman carried in her womb: a girl.

Just over a year ago, Núria Gil (Soses, 1981) left the Lleida Provincial Council to take up the position of delegate of the Generalitat (Catalan Government) in the Lleida district. At the provincial level, she was the coordinator of the PSC (Socialist Party of Catalonia) group, and she moved to the regional administration with little more experience than that of her hometown council.

African swine fever (ASF) was first discovered in Kenya in 1910 and arrived in Europe in 1960, where it remained for over thirty years. The virus entered via a flight from Angola to Portugal. Leftover catering from that plane, already infected with ASF, was used to feed Portuguese pigs, starting the epidemic on the continent. And also in our country. This caused serious economic damage to a sector that was already important in those distant decades. Eradication of the virus was long and slow, until in 1994 Spain was finally declared free of ASF. But from then until the virus's return to Collserola just a few days ago, the pig farming sector has never been free of the disease. In between, there was another one: classical swine fever (CSF).

The Catalan and Spanish pork sector (farmers, integrating companies, business associations, and slaughterhouses) claims to be well-prepared for the arrival of African swine fever (ASF). In fact, many predicted that the epidemic would reach Spain sooner or later. In any case, there doesn't seem to be any panic. Reference prices for pork at Mercolleida have fallen between 10 cents and 5 euros following the declaration of the African swine fever (ASF) outbreak detected in Catalonia, the Lleida market reported on Monday. The price boards for fattening pigs, sows, and piglets met in Mercolleida in an extraordinary session to analyze the market situation after the ASF cases.

The latest barometer from the Center for Opinion Studies (CEO) has confirmed a widespread feeling In inland Catalonia: the rise of Aliança Catalana (AC) on the Catalan political scene, positioning it as the third strongest force in hypothetical regional elections. But that's not all. In the provinces of Lleida and Girona—from which the party's two current (and only) representatives in the Catalan Parliament hail: Sílvia Orriols, mayor of Ripoll, and Rosa Maria Soberana, from Vinaixa (Les Garrigues)—it would become the leading party. But what are the reasons behind this apparent exponential growth of Aliança in the Girona and Lleida regions?

Àngela Mora (Maials, 2004), an athlete from Club Gimnàstic FEDAC Lleida, is making history. In 2021, in Pamplona, ​​she became the first athlete with Down syndrome to participate in a Spanish National Artistic Gymnastics Championship. After her recent triumph at the Special Olympics in Oslo last September, she now plans to participate in more international competitions, such as the one to be held in Atlanta, USA, next February.

A total investment of over sixty million euros and a hundred projects spread over the next seven years in the historic center of Lleida. This is the main headline that Mayor Fèlix Larrosa (PSC) announced on October 13th during the presentation of the new comprehensive plan for the neighborhood"The transformation of the historic center will be the largest undertaken by the city in the democratic era," declared Larrosa, citing "the restoration of livability, the increase in green spaces, the enhancement of public spaces and heritage, and the economic and social revitalization of the neighborhood" as the central pillars of this initiative, which aims to incorporate the Generalitat's Pla de Bar (Bar Plan). Despite the announcement, both some neighborhood leaders in the historic center and the main opposition political groups in the Lleida City Council have expressed skepticism. On paper, the new comprehensive plan, to be implemented between now and 2032, appears appealing. With projects to restore facilities such as the former Santa Teresa convent, the Mercat del Pla market, the Roman baths of Cardenal Remolins, and the Cervantes school, the Paeria (Lleida City Council) also plans the construction of 387 homes and up to 400 renovations, in addition to an urban forest of approximately 2,000 square meters. "We want to replace the current stock of aging and uninhabitable housing with new or renovated buildings that are accessible, efficient, and attract new residents, especially young people and families who want to live in a vibrant neighborhood," explains the mayor.