Ramadan: Lebanon witnesses huge spike in food prices

This Ramadan, the pleas reaching the Lebanese Food Bank have taken on a new resonance.

Among the emails and calls it receives each day, an increasing number are coming from “educated people, people who used to be in the middle class,” according to executive director Soha Zaiter.

The changing demographic of those seeking help during the Islamic holy month is a study in how Lebanon’s free-falling economy is shifting the landscape for the country’s 6.8 million population. Where Muslims across the nation would once celebrate the breaking of the fast with an “iftar” meal with friends and relatives, preserving that tradition has become off-limits for many. So have the seasonal drinks and desserts.

The Lebanese pound has depreciated about 90% in the past 18 months, driving annual food inflation to 400%, erasing salaries and savings and pushing more than half the nation into poverty. And all this at a time when the country is battling the ravages of Covid-19 as well as the fallout from last year’s deadly port explosion.

The Lebanese Food Bank, a non-governmental organisation, has seen a jump in people seeking help. It’s delivering 5,000 food boxes and 1,000 vouchers to needy families and teamed up with charities running seven kitchens to offer iftar meals through Ramadan, which this year lasts from April 12 to May 12.

“People have reached a certain level where they can’t sustain themselves and are asking for food to make sure their children aren’t going to bed hungry,” Zaiter said as she was inspecting meal-preparations at a kitchen in Beirut’s Tareek Al-Jdideh district.

Bloomberg/Hauwa Abu