A dining hall for people in vulnerable situations in Vedado receives a food quota from the Municipal Commerce Directorate that barely covers 10% of what its beneficiaries need, as stated to the official Granma by Mariuska Vega Dechamps, head of the small private enterprise Mi Reina Café, which manages the Family Care System Loipa, located at 23 and 10, Vedado.
The establishment opened on July 26, 2026, and serves 12 elderly individuals identified as vulnerable, providing them with daily breakfast, lunch, and dinner. To sustain the service with such a limited state contribution, the business relies on the solidarity of other economic actors: the bakery at 23 and 12 ensures the bread for the breakfasts, and the ice cream shop De La Cream also contributes.
"We do not see it as a burden, but we are still recovering from the significant investment we made in repairing the establishment, and for that reason, we cannot take on more beneficiaries. We would like more businesses to support us so that we can provide a better service," stated Vega Dechamps.
The SAF Loipa is one of the 11 establishments where the Ministry of Domestic Trade (Mincin) has initiated the experience of involving non-state actors in social services, distributed among Havana, Matanzas, Sancti Spíritus, and Granma, as reported by Grettel Portales Pérez, General Director of Services at Mincin. The stated goal is to extend the model to the 1,461 locations that make up the SAF across the country, although this expansion remains an ongoing objective rather than a completed transfer.
The legal framework supporting this opening is the Agreement 10418/2026 of the Council of Ministers and Resolution 14/2026 of Mincin, which allows SMEs and other non-state actors to manage dining facilities within the system. Pedro Blanco Guerra, the chief specialist in Gastronomy at Mincin, acknowledged that the proposal lacks fiscal incentives, although he presents it as attractive due to the administrative freedoms it grants to private businesses.
The gap between the state allocation and the actual needs of SAF Loipa is not an isolated case. In another SAF dining hall on Monte Street, Havana, which serves 269 people, chicken has only been served once in all of 2026, according to its economic manager. In September, images of a dining hall in Santiago de Cuba showed elderly individuals receiving a liquid described as "water with cilantro and chopped garlic."
The decline in supply occurs while demand continues to surge. The SAF serves around 70,000 people in vulnerable situations in Cuba, a number that continues to rise according to specialists cited by Granma. This network includes 1,250 community food households in rural areas and 3,000 meal centers from non-profit organizations and religious groups, all under the supervision of Mincin.
The demographic and food context exacerbates the situation: the Food Monitor Program estimated in May 2026 that 96.91% of the Cuban population lacked adequate access to food, and that 55.6% of those over 60 years old had completely lost that access, precisely the group that the SAF targets as its main audience.
At the SAF Loipa, meanwhile, a 61-year-old beneficiary succinctly summarized what the place means to her and her 85-year-old husband: "The best part is the care. Everyone who works here treats us with so much love and respect, and that is priceless in these times."
Related videos:
Filed under: