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Where’s the Matzo???
5:03 pm on April 22nd, 2008 by Ariel Werner
By the first night of
Passover
this year, Providence supermarkets had already run out of
Matzo. To those of us planning on observing the holiday’s mandated eight-day abandonment of
chametz, leavened breads and wheat/yeast-filled products, this presented quite the dilemma. [Oy vey!] Ultimately, Ari and I found a secret stash of Matzo at the Shaws in Cranston but, still, the Providence Matzo shortage seemed pretty bizarre. What’s up? It’s not that there’s been an influx of Jews to Providence, or a rapid increase in the number of Jews who observe Passover, says Jennifer Steinhauer of
the New York Times; the problem is a national Matzo shortage.
Steinhauer explains:
From coast to coast, a shortfall of the unleavened flat cracker bread eaten by Jews during the eight days of Passover has sent shoppers scurrying from store to store in search of it. On Monday, Allison Mnookin circled the aisles of her local Whole Foods store in San Mateo, Calif., three times. There was no matzo to be found. […]
The reasons behind the matzo shortage range from manufacturing problems, decisions by some stores not to carry the product this Passover and vague talk of a possible work stoppage. […]
Phone calls and e-mail messages to the largest suppliers of unleavened bread products, Streit’s, Manischewitz and Yehuda, brought no response on Monday, possibly because executives were off for Passover, which began Saturday night. But Manischewitz officials have said that problems with a new state-of-the-art oven in its only New Jersey plant caused it to scrap this Passover’s supply of Tam Tam crackers, its little six-sided matzo morsels, as well as some less popular matzo varieties.
Having enjoyed my first Matzo Pizza of the season last night, I feel fortunate to have landed upon the five boxes Ari and I managed to nab from Cranston. But I wish luck and courage to those Jews who must continue their search for unleavened bread or, worse, eat chametz during Passover.
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April 22nd, 2008 at 8:35 pm
I don’t observe Passover,but I will bet you can find matzos at Davis Dairy on Hope and Braman.My wife,who’s not Jewish always seems to find it somewhere-she likes it,I don’t.