Thousands of Muslims Children in New York State’s Public Schools To Be offered Halal Meal Lunch Options For First Time

Nearly 5,000 Muslim students attend Buffalo Public Schools, and most of them follow dietary restrictions as observing Muslims eating only Halal food. If Muslim students don’t bring their lunch, they’re forced to go hungry which inevitably impacts their academic performance.

The Buffalo School District and council members are working to start a “pilot program” to add halal-certified lunch options in some schools. Doing this will also help students improve academically since children learn better when they aren’t hungry.

Pictured: Will Keresztes

Will Keresztes, who is Buffalo school district’s Chief of Intergovernmental Affairs, Planning and Community Engagement, said the initiative is expected to begin at the beginning of the new school year in September. He said the district supports the initiative because it will support its students.

“Students must have their basic nutritional needs met on a daily basis in order to thrive in school,” he said. “This is also an equity issue for our District. All students, regardless of the dietary commitments they make, should be supported. We will support them.”

While the program is in its early stages, Keresztes said some schools will be offering a separate halal menu so parents know what will be served each week.

The next step, Keresztes said, is to survey parents that would like the halal option available so the district can get an idea of how many schools will include this initiative.

“Once we survey our parents, we will determine the schools with the greatest interest and start there,” Keresztes said. “This is a very important commitment for us so our goal is to eventually provide a halal-certified option for any child in the district who requests it.”

Image courtesy of Harvard Gazette

 

Imam Borhan Uddin of Halal Monitoring Services, a nonprofit organization, said there are some public schools in New York that have up to a 90% Muslim student population. It reviewed the different ingredients used in school lunches across New York City.

“It’s not a very complicated process,” he said. “They gave us a database of it, and we literally verified they’re either plant sources or synthetically produced,” he added. “There was very little that needed to be changed because we found that the mainstream companies that are providing to the school districts are providing usually nonanimal derivatives because of other concerns from vegans and different religious and ethnic groups.”

Once the program begins, Buffalo will be one of about 30 public schools in New York City to serve halal meals.