Milk and food shortages in communist Cuba leaves children malnourished

The Cuban people are going hungry due to the failed socialist policies of the corrupt Castro dictatorship. Among those suffering are children, who are suffering malnutrition.

Cuban independent journalist Laura Sarmiento Perez explains in Diario de Cuba:

Child Malnutrition in Cuba: The Milk Crisis

“My grandchildren are very skinny, they don’t eat well. This has become a culture of rice with minced chicken. They don’t eat eggs, or beans, or meat, or fish,” one grandmother reports.

“Milk! One kilo, 2,000 pesos; five days of milk for 1,000 pesos!” shout two women in a Santiago de Cuba neighborhood. Both are single mothers and sell the milk designated for their children through the ration book in order to meet other needs. “I need to buy chicken, I have no protein to give my child,” one of them replies to a passerby who inquires. Such sales of milk are common among poor mothers, who do so in order to meet other needs.

In mid-July milk arrived at the city’s bodegas for children from 0 to 3 years old. They were covering the first ten days of the month with skim milk, which in Cuba is called “for diabetics.” Through the rationing system, the Government sells two types of milk: powdered and fluid, the latter mainly in milk-producing provinces and rural areas.

According to the Spanish Pediatric society: “milk, in addition to a balanced contribution of the three main nutrients – protein, fat and carbohydrates – provides calcium and some vitamins. (…) Calcium is one of the essential components of bones and teeth. The stage of greatest skeletal formation occurs in the early years, and at puberty, so calcium is important during these periods.”

Ever since the Communist government came to power, milk has been rationed in Cuba. Before losing the subsidies of the socialist camp, in the early 90s, it was earmarked for children up to 13 years old. Today it designated for children up to six years old, pregnant women, and sick people.

In March of 2024 the Cuban Government “requested assistance from the World Food Program (WFP) to purchase powdered milk in order to guarantee a supply for Cuban children,” the official press reported.

After this request for assistance from the WFP, milk distribution has been delayed. When shipments are short, infants are prioritized and the rest of the child population must wait for the rest of the milk to arrive. Milk for pregnant women and the sick suffers the greatest delays. According to one pregnant woman: “it can take two or three months, with us there is no hurry.”

Milk for the sick, although guaranteed, in theory, is not arriving. This is confirmed by Yunilka, who takes care of her 86-year-old diabetic father. “We just renewed his diet at the doctor’s office, but it hasn’t arrived for more than nine months. If you ask at the bodega, they have no information, and Consumer Registration Office (OFICODA) tells you nothing neither. I hope that when the situation in the country is solved, they will give him his milk… well, if he is alive, because we don’t know when this situation will end.”

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