Flour prices are set to rise 20 percent in Chicago, one halal grocery manager said.
“When the prices go up, they never come back down,†said Hamed Nabawy Hamed, owner of the Fertile Crescent grocery store in Brooklyn, New York.“Instead of buying five pounds of chicken, they buy four pounds of chicken,†Hamed said.ICNA Relief, which operates halal food pantries in 13 states open to anyone in need, said demand has spiked during the pandemic, and the need is great during Ramadan this year.“Halal meat has become too costly,†said Zahid Hussain, national director of hunger prevention at ICNA Relief USA.Because clients come from different cultural backgrounds and food heritages, the food boxes they distribute for Ramadan typically contain staples that can be adapted to multiple dishes.Middle-class families who lost jobs and income during the pandemic, or lost a head of household from a Covid-related illness, made increased use of ICNA Relief services, said Zak Sirajullah, field coordinator for ICNA Relief Chicago.“It was eye-opening because many of the vehicles, based on the vehicles alone you think they should be OK, but they needed food,†Sirajullah said