BUENOS AIRES: Argentina prides itself on its reputation as the beef capital of the world. Meat has long been a way of life here, with workers sizzling slabs of it on streetside barbecues and sophisticated restaurants serving succulent morsels with exquisite Mendoza wine.

As the peso has slumped to less than a third of its value throughout the 1990s, prices of basic food supplies, including flour and cooking oil, have risen by 35 per cent and the cash-strapped government’s school dinner budget buys less meat each month.

“We don’t know each day what food is going to arrive,” said a cook at another state school in Santos Lugares suburb. “Some days no meat arrives; other days the suppliers cheat us, so we weigh everything now, to check.” “Children are getting weak and hungry. Some are fainting in class and others vomit because they eat too fast on an empty stomach,” said Silvia Almazan, representative of a Buenos Aires teachers’ union.

After enjoying a European lifestyle for the past decade, Argentina has gone into economic free fall since the peso was devalued in January, two million people falling under the poverty line in April alone because of inflation. Half the country’s 36 million population can no longer afford basic food and household supplies, according to official statistics.

The country’s middle class is struggling to hold on to a way of life enjoyed in the 1990s when the peso was fixed one-to-one to the dollar and they could fly to Miami to do their shopping. Now many cannot pay their utility bills and 150,000 people had their phones cut off in the first three months of this year. Tourists from Chile, Brazil and Paraguay are flocking to Argentina to pick up bargains.

Hilda Duhalde, the President’s wife, launched a plan on Friday to keep the hungry at bay with a 150 peso (16 dollars) benefit for more than a million families. Critics point out that rising prices mean the sum no longer covers a family’s basic needs.

Growing poverty, combined with shortages of cash as the country’s banking system teeters on the edge of collapse, have changed the face of Buenos Aires, a glitzy, fun-loving city 10 years ago. Families now rummage through rubbish bags under the watchful eyes of doormen in smart districts.—Dawn/The Observer News Service.