Hunger drives children in Haiti’s poorest neighborhoods to eat mud cookies. They’re made with clay, water, salt, and vegetable shortening: the mixture is kneaded by hand and dried in the sun, without sanitary precautions.
Known as galette or bonbon té, they have been sold for decades and cost the equivalent of a few cents. They are neither a culinary tradition nor a new feature of the crisis: they help stave off hunger when food is scarce. Although some consider them rich in minerals, Haitian cameraman Yvon Villus said doctors say they are not good for you.
Lourdieunane Lambert, a displaced student living with her family in an improvised tent, said she avoids them because of the health problems. “But people who are hungry eat them”, she said. The urgency ends up putting mud in place of food.
