Schools beef up kosher food options
By Ryan J. Foley
Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. — Heather Zucker ate mostly salad and spaghetti during her years in the University of Wisconsin-Madison dorms. Sometimes, her dinner was just a bowl of ice cream.
Zucker wasn't being picky. She keeps kosher, and she said there were "slim pickins" for Jewish students in the dining halls.
"It got old pretty fast," said Zucker, who graduated in 2005.
That's about to change. UW-Madison is opening a kosher meat kitchen in a residence hall dining room starting this fall. Muslims who follow Islamic dietary laws, called halal, also will be accommodated.
A growing number of schools are offering kosher dining options, but few have full kosher meat kitchens, said UW-Madison housing director Paul Evans. Other schools with the service include the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University.
"We know this is being talked about because it's fairly unusual," Evans said.
The goal is to make Jewish and Muslim students more comfortable and help the university attract potential students.
About 4,000 Jewish students attend UW-Madison, making it among the largest Jewish student populations at U.S. public universities, according to Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, a Washington, D.C.-based group that has foundations on many campuses.
Kashrut, or Jewish dietary laws, prohibit mixing milk and meat, and bar consumption of pork and shellfish. The kosher laws detail how animals should be slaughtered. Muslim dietary laws also prescribe how animals should be killed, and bar alcohol and other items.
The school spent $129,000 to buy equipment for the kitchen, which is expected to open in November as part of a renovated dining room in Chadbourne Hall. The university is hiring two mashgichim — Orthodox rabbis or those appointed by rabbis to monitor food preparation — to supervise the kitchen. Rabbi Sholem Fishbane of the Chicago Rabbinical Council reviewed the university's plans to ensure compliance with complicated kosher laws.
While the kitchen will be separated from other food preparation areas, the food will be served in a marketplace near other stations with traditional fare and have similar prices.
