Emmanda McKenzie - May 16th

Today we got a little bit more amerced in the Cuban way of life. We were exposed to the harsh realities that are associated with feeding families. Cuban citizens depend on the use of ration books in order to provide majority of their food for their families. Our tour guide, Orlando, (seen holding up the ration book) tried to give us a brief rundown on how it all worked. Orlando explained a socialist system basically states that if you give the leaders the power that they will take care of you. Every few blocks in each providence, there are bodegas with all the allotted food for Cuban citizens. On the first day of every month, citizens can go and purchase food for their families at extremely reduced prices. The major items provided are rice, beans, and sugar. Sometimes there is noodles, maybe milk or fruit puree. But, there is a limit to the amount a single person or family can receive for the entire month.

In regards to ration books, there is a designated leader for each house hold. That person is responsible for making sure that every person, child or adult, is accounted for. Once everyone is officially represented as a member of the house hold, they are designated a certain amount of food. For example, each person can have 7lbs of rice a month, 5 lbs. of sugar a month, and 1 package of coffee a month. Depending on how large the house hold is, this could seem like enough to sustain a family. But it is barely enough. There’s also the issue about the age of the children and the providence the family lives in. Some places, for example, have different restrictions on how much fruit puree is allowed, or what age a child will stop receiving milk. You also have to consider fruits and vegetables. Those are not things that are provided by the ration books. Even though they may seem cheaper in price, or easier to come by, there are so many restrictions on who can produce what and who can sell to who for how much.

Today we got sort of a reality check on the Cuban way of life. This program has been awesome in regards to seeing sights and teaching us about global leadership, but today we encountered a more humbling experience. I know a few of us walked in expecting something similar to a grocery store you would find in America. So to come across something similar to a warehouse with a chalk board that listed all the available items and prices was shocking. Ultimately I think a lot of us will take this experience into consideration when purchasing things at grocery store or monitoring our food waste in the future.