CUBANET ... CUBANEWS

August 26, 2002



FROM CUBA

Complaints about communal kitchen for retirees

José Izquierdo, Grupo Decoro

GÜINES, August (www.cubanet.org) - Retirees complain about the food in a communal kitchen set up for them near the Clodimira Acosta school, in Güines, a town south of Havana.

Here are the comments of some of the dozens waiting for lunch on a recent day:

Josefa López, 73, said: "We can’t swallow the stew they feed us here anymore. Look at the flies, at the lack of hygiene. But we have to eat here, because government restaurants are very expensive, and I only get 80 pesos (3.07 dollars at the current exchange rate) a month.

Oscar Núñez expressed jokingly: "I’m not going to get worked up about it; the food is swill, but if I get excited at my age (80) I’m going in the hole, and no one comes out of there."

Sarah Pérez declined to give her age, and said the personnel at the facility try, but the food is badly prepared. "They only offer you rice, watery peas, a vegetable sometimes, and a sticky something they call ‘flavored rice’. Also, don’t even dream about meat. In six months, only once have we seen soyburgers. This is horrible."

One of the employees said as he stirred a pot: "This is not easy, man. I’m here since 4 a.m. I have to be resourceful to cook, because the wood is green and wouldn’t burn and they don’t give us diesel fuel to light it. A while ago I had to go out to buy a bottle of diesel fuel for five pesos."

The retirees complain about food cooked without spices or grease. The employee said: "All of us who work here buy the spices ourselves, because otherwise we couldn’t insure ours, you know how hard the situation is. This way we insure at least the rice and beans for our homes. About the grease, I can tell you that the food doesn’t contain any because what they supply is only good for five days; there is nothing for the rest of the month."

The man, 53, asked fearfully not to be named, because he is afraid of being fired.


Versión original en español

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