Why So Many Cubans Grow Their Own Food

Vilda Figueroa and José Lama live in a small ground-floor apartment a few blocks from the main avenue in Marianao, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Havana. There, the aging couple are surrounded by their work of the last two-plus decades: shelves of homemade food preserves; a table with dozens of publications; and photos of the two of them, on national television for their cooking show or teaching classes about food.

Lama and Figueroa founded the organization Proyecto Communitario Conservacion Alimentos (Community Food-Preservation Project) in 1996 with a goal to help the most vulnerable Cubans provide their own food and preserve it for consumption throughout the year. But they also hoped to change Cuban food culture through education on nutrition and all aspects of food production.