The young Cuban Lauren Lotti (@laurenlotti_), a content creator from Matanzas, rallied her entire family to distribute lunches to vulnerable people on the street, in a charitable effort funded by a follower and documented in an Instagram reel that garnered over 31,000 likes.
"Thanks to a lovely follower, we went out to distribute these lunches. My grandma and my aunt cooked everything with love, my uncle helped us carry everything, and we provided special assistance to a woman we always see fighting and selling on the street," Lauren wrote in the video description.
The served dishes consisted of rice, chicken, and banana, prepared early at home with what Lauren herself describes as something that should be ordinary but is no longer: "Although it may seem like just a plate of rice, chicken, and banana, in today's Cuba, this is a meal that very few can have on their table."
In the video, the young woman also provides concrete figures on the crisis: "The truth is that the food situation here is very difficult. The package of chicken is already over 6,000 pesos."
That fact reflects a reality that has worsened in recent months. Following the approval of the Resolution 150/2026, which eliminated price caps on cut chicken and other essential imported products, prices surged rapidly across the country.
In the Island of Youth, a package of chicken soared from 3,130 CUP to over 7,000 CUP in just a few days during July, according to reports from various provinces. In Holguín, 10-pound packages were sold for between 5,000 and 5,300 CUP since April.
The average state salary in Cuba is around 7,000 CUP per month, which makes the purchase of a simple pack of chicken an expense equivalent to the entire monthly salary for a month of work.
The Food Monitor Program reported in April 2026 that 96.91% of the Cuban population lacked adequate access to food, and that almost one in three households had at least one member who went to bed hungry in the past 30 days. Matanzas, the province of Lauren, is among the five with critical levels of food insecurity.
This is not the first time that Lauren has turned the donations from her digital community into tangible help for vulnerable Cubans.
In April, he used funds from his followers to buy a basic food basket valued at 50.56 dollars; in May, he provided a bed for a family that was sleeping on the floor and gifted his grandfather a work tool purchased for 20,000 CUP; in July, he successfully purchased a larger house for his grandparents in Matanzas thanks to the contributions from his community.
Her account, which has around 400,000 followers following the viralization of a video about blackouts that reached seven million views, has become a channel of sustained solidarity amidst the worst food crisis the island has faced in decades.
"It's becoming increasingly difficult to find something to eat, even if it's the most basic," warned Lauren at the end of the video, before inviting her followers to share in the comments how much a pack of chicken costs in their countries.
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