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For Maritza Ortega, every trip to the supermarket has become frustrating. Buying less is no longer an option. When you add an item to your cart, you will need to check the price and take out the item in order to carry what you need. The practice became routine. “When I go to the supermarket, I stick to the bare minimum. It’s frustrating to walk down the aisle, see what you need, and then have to take things from the cart,” she says. “Sometimes I think, ‘I can’t afford it right now.'”
Ortega, 53, has been adjusting his budget since the pandemic. If you have recently been diagnosed with cancer, you will need to follow a specific diet that includes snacks and fruits that you cannot usually afford. We had to choose cheaper, lower quality food.
What Maritza went through is repeated in many families in Puerto Rico. These are households that stop buying certain foods or rely on lower quality products. The cost of living has steadily increased since 2020. In June alone, food prices rose 3.4% year-on-year. This means instability for people who were already living with few resources. A recent survey by community-based feminist organization Tal’a Salud warned that more than half of adults on the island eat only two meals a day.
The influence of historical policies and the colonial context on Puerto Rico’s food structure has favored imports, which now account for approximately 85% of local consumption. This dependency represents a significant vulnerability, exposing the island to supply chain disruptions and climate change.
The origins of imports, inflation and natural disasters motivated Tarah Saroo to conduct research Food and Dignity: A Community Analysis of Food Insecurity in Puerto Ricobegins with the concrete experience of hunger. In addition to major disasters such as hurricanes, mariabut also due to rain, power outages, or low water levels that affect daily life.
“Everything has a disproportionate impact on children, young people and the elderly,” said Tania Rosario, the organization’s executive director. “Previously, there was no political awareness of hunger as a public health issue, but it emerged after the hurricane.” maria And the era of austerity we are experiencing. ”
The organization, which has more than 40 years of experience, collected data through surveys in Loiza and listening sessions in Saint Germán and Salinas in the west and south. Although the results are not representative of Puerto Rico as a whole, they caution about particularly vulnerable profiles, such as older women and heads of families of African descent.
During the research, it became clear that there was a lack of words to talk about hunger. “The majority of people associate it with extreme malnutrition and are not aware of it in their daily lives,” Rosario says. “There’s a taboo, there’s a feeling of shame.” Economist José Caraballo-Cueto says Tala Salu’s research makes an important point: agricultural self-sufficiency can help islands in times of global crisis.
After the pandemic, a “bottleneck” economy has emerged, characterized by delays in global production. “Add to that the war in Ukraine, which is a major exporter of agricultural raw materials,” he explains. “All of this has reduced global supply and driven up prices.”
For Jose Catala, 53, a resident of Bayamon, the increase has been difficult. “When the price of eggs went up, I stopped buying eggs,” he recalls. “I used to buy two packs of meat, but now I only buy one pack. I also cut back on juices and desserts so I can prioritize the essentials.”
In emergencies, we use online financial service Klarna to buy food and pay in installments. His experience is consistent with a Nielsen IQ analysis that found consumer prices rose 1.9% and inflation and import tariffs forced Puerto Rican households to change their spending habits.
However, according to labor lawyer Rosa Segui, the reality in the city cannot be compared to the reality in the countryside. “Facing a lack of public transportation and planning, many people commute from their towns to metropolitan areas,” he warns. “You can’t talk about food insecurity without talking about economic inequality and energy insecurity. People survive by buying what they can afford, often of poor quality.”
Collective work as a response to hunger
As needed, initiatives will be created by and for the region. one of them is super Solidario is a community supermarket that opens once a month in Caguas, a town in the center of the island. The project, led by activist Giovanni Roberto, focuses on local production and distribution. “We are replenishing our food supply. We get groceries from supermarkets and from people in the community who donate ‘gifts’ to those who need it most,” he explains.
The challenge with this project, in addition to inflation, is the inability to process payments with Nutrition Assistance Program (PAN) cards, which they see as an obstacle and want to resolve. “It’s a simple model, but it requires a lot of manpower and human investment,” he adds.
Platforms like AgroRecursos have also emerged to directly and equitably connect local farmers with food buyers and suppliers. Crystal Diaz, food safety analyst at the company, explains that a lack of collaboration between producers and consumers creates waste and missed opportunities. “AgroRecursos allows us to conclude contracts without intermediaries. It is a collaborative space where information about availability, prices and market needs is shared,” he says.
Both projects agree on the lack of coordination and support from the government. The Tallah Salou study recommends updating official data on hunger (the most recent is from 2013) and controlling basic basket prices. “It would be irresponsible to legislate with such outdated data,” Rosario warned.
At Super Solidario, community research revealed that people want quality in their products, and the project works to keep prices affordable. Next year, they plan to publish a book documenting a model for replicating it in other towns.
AgroRecursos’ goal is to strengthen local value chains, an important aspect in the face of global inflation and import dependence. “We have capable farmers, fertile land and interested consumers. What we lack is coordination, infrastructure and the will to invest,” Diaz emphasizes.
Meanwhile, Maritza continues to adjust her shopping to accommodate power outages that affect food. “I, freezer Small gas for cooking. “It was either you keep throwing away food every time the power goes out, or you keep throwing away food. It’s not about living comfortably here, it’s about adjusting each expense to make sure you have enough money,” he says.
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