Food Shortage, Rising Food Prices, and Greater Demand for “Mud Cookies.”

In all the 29 years that we have been living here in Haiti, we have never seen the food prices so high, and the health of the poor, so low. We have seen more malnourished children this past year than ever before. This has meant the demand for “mud cookies,” is greater than ever.

There are entire villages that make these cookies. They use special dirt, which is like clay, and it comes from deep down in the earth. You might say, “it is similar to a mine.” Once the load of “special dirt” is purchased, it has to be sifted to remove small grains of rocks. This is another big process. They add a little lard and have a special way of testing the consistency. The cookies dry in the sun and are piled high, like a “mountain.” Then, they are sold to “machanns,” ladies who sell in the market. They can come in decorated “cookie boxes,” so you would never believe they are selling “dirt!”

This “dirt” is not digestible and often forms a ball, similar to a “golf ball.” It then would require surgery. I have seen in our Mobile Clinics, what “mud cookies” can do. Other children eat small rocks or things you and I would never eat. We cannot do “everything” to feed the hungry, but every one of us can do “something!” Thank you, partners, for all your gifts for food!!

Bobby and Sherry