Sawa Ramadan Kitchen official interview with Al Jazeera channel
Al Jazeera English published an article on the impact of the economic crisis on food security in Lebanon during Ramadan. In it, the official of the Ramadan Sawa Kitchen talked about the impact of the crisis on securing breakfast meals and ways to adapt to it.
Operating the kitchen has become very difficult; Food price inflation in Lebanon in less than three years has exceeded 400 percent, while diesel prices for electricity and gasoline for cars have skyrocketed.
Bread and vegetable oils - two main ingredients in the cuisine of the Levant - are becoming especially more expensive due to the country's mounting economic crisis and the war in Ukraine.
In the kitchen, 60-year-old Um Mohammed was among three chefs who took the lead. "We don't want to compromise on the quality of our meals, so we'll be preparing less than usual this year," she says, pouring minced garlic and cooking oil into large bowls.
Umm Muhammad, a Syrian who fled airstrikes and shelling in Daraya near Damascus in 2013, has been working in the kitchen for nine years. "Even people from Beirut are calling us, and there are more Lebanese families receiving our meals," she says. "I think their lives are almost as bad as ours."
More than three quarters of the Lebanese people live below the poverty line. The country's economic crisis has also had a ripple effect on nearly 1 million Syrian refugees, 90% of whom live in extreme poverty, according to the United Nations.
More Syrian refugees owe more to covering food costs, while over the past year health experts have documented significant changes in dietary trends among poor families across Lebanon, including skipping meals.
