“I’m 25 and I’ve been working for the last six years in fast food, but I joined this team around a month ago looking for a better way of life and obtain a job that’s sustainable through the pandemic.

The past month was very volatile, back in February sales were increasing daily, but now they’re more than half the volume they were when I joined. It’s actually been our new, morning empanadas that have kept us afloat because the rest of the day is very quiet – the economy is taken a massive hit, we struggle to get our hands on basic imported spices, and some local products have become very expensive and the prices fluctuate even though they’re found in abundance, so we sometimes struggle to get what we need. Even when we thought things couldn’t get worse when Venezuela’s currency became the most devalued currency on the planet, the economy is still going downhill and our industry’s getting worse. What surprises me still is that some people in power haven’t felt this at all, and will always have priority over what the general population deems a necessity for their daily lives.”

Photo and tale collected @vill237

Reporting in from kitchens in Barquisimeto Lara, Venezuela!