People buy bread in Cairo. Government-subsidised bakeries can only go so far in addressing Egypt's growing nutrition crisis. Photograph: Shawn Baldwin/Getty Images
"The queues get longer every day. The rising cost of food in
Egypt is sending more people to the thousands of government-subsidised bakeries across the country offering a lifeline to
a population struggling to cope.
As they wait for bread, customers in Cairo's Sayeda Zeinab neighbourhood say they are feeling the pinch acutely. "Rice and beans suddenly seem so expensive," says one mother of four. "And the price of tomatoes is rising so fast you'd think there were none in the country."
As she joins the queue, another customer says she is having to avoid meat entirely now. "I have three children and I know they're lacking in protein. When I look at them, I see they're not growing properly," she says.
Levels of food insecurity in Egypt have risen significantly over the past three years, according to a report by the
World Food Programme (WFP) and Egypt's official statistical agency, Capmas. In 2011, about 13.7 million Egyptians – 17% of the population – experienced food insecurity, compared with 14% in 2009.........
Although Egypt's economy has foundered since
the 2011 revolution, experts say the growing nutrition crisis has
deeper roots. "This increase in food insecurity, malnutrition and poverty rates has not happened overnight, during this year or even during the past year," says WFP Egypt director Gian Pietro Bordignon. "People's inability to have adequate and nutritious food is largely attributed to rising poverty rates and a
succession of crises from 2005.""
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