In Peru's slums, chicken off the menu as soup kitchens struggle with inflation

A woman is attended to in a soup kitchen in Pamplona Alta, a low-income neighbourhood on the outskirts of the Peruvian capital where soaring food prices are placing animal proteins out of reach for the most vulnerable residents, in Lima, Peru April 11, 2022. Picture taken April 11, 2022. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

LIMA (Reuters) - In the hilly slums of Peruvian capital Lima, soup kitchens struggle to feed some of the Andean nation's poorest and most vulnerable residents, cutting proteins and loading up on carbohydrates, as food prices soar.

"The rise in prices is huge," said Jenifer Mondalgo, president of the soup kitchen association in the Pamplona Alta slum. "The chicken that we used to buy ... is now inaccessible. For us as soup kitchens, chicken has ceased to exist."