When Gjebar Beqiri’s father came to the United States from Albania with dreams of building skyscrapers, he didn’t imagine that he would become the architect of a family business instead. It was 1986, and he and his brother saw a great need for accessible halal meat in their community.
“Back in my father’s village, he had no problem purchasing halal meat because there were so many Muslims living in his area,” Gjebar explained. “But when he came to America, halal was fairly new here at the time. He couldn’t just go down the street to purchase halal meat the way he could at home.”
The brothers started Brothers Quality Halal Meat as a small retail shop in Paterson, which today has New Jersey’s largest Muslim community with 30,000 members. People who once needed to drive for hours to purchase halal meat could now get it right in their neighborhood.
“My father created a big impact on the community by providing halal meat,” Gjebar said. Today, his father is retired, and Gjebar and his four brothers have taken over the business. “And he’s passed that down to us. We’re trying to do the same now.”
Halal is an Arabic word meaning “permissible.” Halal meat is produced in a specific way according to dietary law derived from Islamic teachings.
In his own words: “Halal meat is produced more humanely, and it has more tenderness and less waste,” Gjebar shared.
As Brothers Quality Halal Meat continues to grow, producing meat to serve more community members in Paterson and the surrounding area, the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement (LFPA) has played a vital role. LFPA is a statewide, USDA-funded program that CFBNJ administers. The FoodBank uses LFPA funds from the NJDA to buy food from New Jersey farmers and producers for distribution in underserved communities in all 21 counties.
Thanks to the increased financial stability that LFPA provides, Brothers Quality Halal Meat has hired ten new employees. They’ve also been able to buy more inventory and expand their operation.
“Prior to working with the FoodBank, we had an issue where we would sometimes receive purchase orders from customers and we couldn’t provide the right inventory,” Gjebar said. “Now that we’re working with LFPA, we have the funds to buy inventory before receiving any purchase orders, so the inventory is ready to go right away, and the production team can start processing the product.”
This has had many benefits for the business.
“It’s led to on-time delivery and less confusion,” Gjebar said. “It pays our bills. The LFPA program has provided us tremendous help.”
Gjebar and everyone at Brothers Quality Halal Meat also find it meaningful that, through LFPA, some of their product helps struggling neighbors. Providing halal meat to food insecure New Jerseyans is part of CFBNJ’s critical work to provide culturally appropriate food.
“That someone who’s in need of halal meat can go to a pantry and receive our product really, really touches us,” Gjebar said.