Takeaways from AP's reporting on Venezuelans' daily struggles to access food

CORO, Venezuela — Venezuelans are familiar with hardship — they have lived under a complex social, economic and political crisis for more than a decade. Now, across the South American country, they are finding themselves hungry and unable to buy food.

The Associated Press over the summer set out to understand how Venezuelans feed — or struggle to feed — themselves and their families. It found that the latest unraveling of Venezuela’s economy, changes to foreign aid, sanctions from the United States, and cuts to state subsidies and programs have made many necessities simply unaffordable to the 80% of residents estimated to live in poverty.

In the western state of Falcon, where state-owned oil refineries offered plenty of well-paying jobs before the country came undone in 2013, more than t