Look around at any Jewish neighborhood and you’ll find families struggling. Not one or two, but dozens. I’m talking about families not being able to cough up the money to keep their homes heated. And some can’t even buy food. The food part is what troubles me most. It’s not a secret that inflation has taken a chunk out of everyone’s bank accounts. Everything we need to buy is more expensive; from cheaper items to large expenses, costs have soared for everyone. But this problem appears to be much more acute in the frum community. Take a look at food prices. The prices of eggs, chicken, meat, dairy – literally everything – has shot up way beyond the amount that prices have gone up in non-kosher supermarkets. Yes, everyone is paying higher prices, but why are we paying 20% more than the already inflation-affected prices in Walgreens, Walmart, and Costco? What really needs to be asked, and I don’t intend to create a firestorm, is: are Jewish food manufacturers using inflation as an excuse to jack up prices well beyond what they need to stay profitable? Have they found a way to enrich themselves off the backs of hardworking, struggling fellow Jews? I could be wrong. Perhaps they have no option, for whatever reason, but to raise their prices beyond what non-kosher stores are hiking them to. I can’t say for sure. But if that is true, I’d like to know why and I want to know how it can be fixed. There are too many families unable to put food on the table for this crisis to be ignored. There are too many families relying on Tomchei Shabbos for us not to demand answers. Chaim F. – Lakewood, NJ NOTE: The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of YWN. DO YOU HAVE AN OPINION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE POSTED ON YWN? SEND IT TO US FOR REVIEW. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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