Soaring food prices make Ramadan meals a luxury in Lebanon

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.