Things Became Scarce: Food Availability and Accessibility in Santiago de Cuba Then and Now

Global food security has become an increasing concern across the world. The World Food Program (WFP) states that rates of hunger in Cuba are “extremely low” (WFP 2009). Cuba has had a nationalized food rationing system since 1962, and has been lauded for exemplary food security innovations in the face of national financial hardship (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2009). This project examines the present day Cuban food system and how Cubans living in Santiago de Cuba experience the process of food acquisition. This article highlights individual struggles to acquire food products in the face of low availability and decreased accessibility compared to previous time periods in Cuba. In many ways this work revisits Benjamin and colleagues’ mission to “get beyond polemics and investigate firsthand the food realities in Cuba today,” over 20 years later and on a much smaller scale (Benjamin et al. 1984:302).