A Cuban in the U.S. showed in a video a cart filled with packaged bread that, he claimed, would be used to feed animals. The man compared the scene to the shortage of bread in Cuba and lamented the difficulties many families face in ensuring this food for their children.
The video, published on Facebook by the account "Pesca en Miami", has accumulated over 238,000 views and generated a wave of reactions among the Cuban exile community.
"These are the things that break my heart. Look, they are seeing here and in Cuba, there is no bread," the man laments. "This is for the chickens, for the animals. Look at this, all of this is what gets thrown away daily in this country," says the author as he shows the bread with his hand.
"A full cart of bread that I assure you is better than the bread from the store in Cuba," he claims. "And the children in Cuba haven't seen bread, you know for how long. I'm sure right now there are plenty of kids in Cuba who can't eat a little bun in the morning."
The shortage of bread on the Island is not just a perception; it is a documented and worsening crisis. In Villa Clara, regulated bread has been restricted since February 2026 exclusively to those under 13 years old and over 65, due to a lack of flour, fuel, and electricity.
In Guantánamo, the distribution is limited to prioritized children, hospitals, and social services. In several areas, the weight of the subsidized bread has been reduced from 80 grams to just 40, and some families have gone more than three weeks without receiving it.
The Minister of Food Industry, Alberto López Díaz, acknowledged in June 2026 that the flour mills were inactive or operating at minimal capacity, and that out of more than six wheat shipments contracted for 2026, only three had arrived in the country, one of which was from the previous year.
Cuba needs approximately 20,000 tons of wheat flour per month to produce standardized bread; in Ciego de Ávila, the province received only 32 tons at the end of May, enough for two days of distribution for over 430,000 inhabitants.
The same official admitted that more than 100,000 children were not receiving their daily milk ration.
A mother from Santiago de Cuba declared this Wednesday that four of her eight children are malnourished, that they sometimes go to bed without eating, and that she has gone two days without food to give them the little available food.
The Food Monitor Program revealed in May 2026 that 94.9% of respondents had lost some degree of access to purchasing food, while 33.9% reported that a member of their household had gone to bed hungry in the previous 30 days.
The food crisis also impacts Cuban schools. According to the World Food Program (WFP), 48.5% of students aged six to eleven do not receive meals or snacks at their educational institutions, as stated in the strategic plan for Cuba 2026-2030, which warns about the limitations in funding and coverage for school meals.
The video "Fishing in Miami" ends with a question that encapsulates the sentiments of an entire diaspora: "Holy God, when will my Cuba be free?". In the background, "Patria y Vida" plays, a song that became one of the anthems of the Cuban protests on July 11, 2021.
Filed under: