From Local to Global

Foodland Farm on Charles Street became Foodland Farm International Halal Market when it started selling international products and established a Halal meat department and deli in March. Owners Driss Raji and Abdellah Mahfoude, both from Morocco, opened the neighborhood convenience store in 2013, selling your typical candy bars and lottery tickets. However, after hearing friends talk about having to go all the way to Boston or New York City to find Halal meat and noticing that there weren’t many stores selling international and Halal products and groceries, the pair decided to do it themselves.

“We already had the store, and now we had an idea,” Mahfoude explains.

Now, Foodland Farm carries a variety of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean options from places like Morocco, Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan, and India: authentic spices, fresh-baked breads, verified Halal goat, beef, veal, and chicken meat, baklava and sweets, dried fruit and rice, plus products like porcelain tea sets and pottery.

The new market has been doing well and shows no signs of slowing: Mahfoude reveals that they attract customers from as far as Connecticut and Attleboro, MA. “There’s a big Moroccan population,” he says, “and it’s getting bigger and bigger by the day.” 638 Charles Street