Venezuela’s food situation is dismal. Shortages have people lining up for hours outside supermarkets to secure a few staples, and prices keep rising as demand outstrips available supplies.
What does it mean when 87% of households can’t afford to buy enough food, as a 2015 survey (pdf) by several Venezuelan universities found?
Children at a school in Caracas have drawn it with heartbreaking precision.
After students in Padre José María Vélaz school started fainting, their teachers asked them to make pictures of their most recent meals, according to Reuters. The collection shows the damage of Venezuela’s economic crisis at ground level. After the collapse of oil prices, the oil-rich nation is now poor in foreign exchange reserves needed to import vital supplies. And after years of economic policies that have effectively dismantled industry, local companies and farms are in no position to fill in.
For kids, this means less food on their plate.
Only arepas
Three paltry meals
Fruit and more fruit
Bread for dinner
