On 15 September 2024, people stood in line outside a bakery in Havana. Reuters reporting and a dated photograph recorded the scene as Cuba reduced the weight of the daily rationed loaf from 80 grams to 60. A shortage of wheat flour had reached even the bread distributed through the country's ration book, known as the libreta.
The people in line were not waiting for a fashionable new product. They were waiting for the one loaf built into each person's daily ration. Bread sold privately was beyond many household budgets, leaving few practical alternatives. The policy change was measured in grams, but its weight was felt at breakfast and in family accounts. The bakery queue was where a national shortage became one person's meal.