Hunger in Cuba is worsening as the food crisis deepened this year after the US oil blockade and financial sanctions, and charity kitchens such as the Catholic project La Hermana Cazuela now serve lunches to 70 beneficiaries, funded mainly by donations from Cubans abroad. Sista Cabrera, 71, who lost her income after a partial building collapse in 2019, relies on these lunches, state-run dining halls and occasionally evangelical churches, and says some days she has no food at all. Volunteers say demand far exceeds what they can offer, and some people are reportedly eating from garbage. The state-run Family Assistance System (SAF), set up 30 years ago, operates more than 4,400 facilities serving over 66,000 vulnerable people, but in 2026 the crisis hit its centres hard, with meals reportedly little more than white rice and broth.
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