La Canasta- Cuba

Cuba, the socialist experiment! Everyone had so many questions during the Cooperative Conference for the Cubans. What was the real deal on the standard of living? Did everyone have universal health care or what was housing standards like? How does adults monthly allowance work?

One thing that surprised me was the use of La Canasta for the monthly food allowance. At work, that's the name of our food buying club.  I was so surprise. La Canasta: oh, it just means the basket of food. That's what I was told. So, imagine how hyped I was to hear it in Cuba.

La Canasta now means the basket of allotted food. Every family also gets a "liberito" Which is stamped monthly. It shows how much of each ingredient they receive. This is based on who lives in the household. Every month they get ground vegetables, flour, salt, coffee, sugar as well as matches, oil. (I forgot the rest of the ingredients)Some months they do not get all the items listed. Although you can not trade with or at the distribution site, it is common that folks trade among themselves.