[Xenocide]

So i walk into my dining hall today and guess what, no kosher food for passover.

Pretty much what i expected being in the south. I asked the dining hall manager: "Do you have any kosher food for passover?" She looked at me with a blank face, and i didn't say anything, while waiting for a response. She asked me to walk into her office. I followed and she started checking the daily menus for "Passover" Thinking it was a food item. Eventually once she said "No i don't believe we have that," I explained it was actually a holiday where people of the jewish faith cannot eat levend flower. She started freaking out wondering what i was going to eat and asked the Chef. He walked out and just laughed. "Guess your going to be eating steamed vegetables all week boy."

I looked right back at her and said, "Well, i want money in my food plan refunded to me, and you can pro-rate it at one week ($123.75 from what i calculated later after looking @ what i pay) for what i pay per semester , so i can go to the grocery store down the road and eat." She said, "Well i can't do that, your going to need to talk to Mr. XXXXX tomorrow in Aux Services."

I left it at that.

The problem lies here:

I really don't care about the kosher food, i was speaking up for a friend of mine. I AM jewish, but i do not practice the religion. In my view, it is the principle of the matter that they should have food for the jewish population on campus. I would rather eat at the grocery store anyways, because they food there is the worst college campus food i have ever experience out of all the schools i have visited. Usually our meals consist of 1 steamed vegetable dish, 2 meat dishes, 1 usually pork), and 1 vegetarian dish, and 1 side. Thats it, 5 choices + salad bar infested with fruit flys that i will not touch.

Do you guy/gals think i was in the right regardless of whether i practice my religion?

[Tyranos]

I'd say you're right in asking for a refund so you can go down and get kosher food.

I'm surprised that they don't serve grits and greens at mc donalds. Though I was like what the hell, when I first moved down to NC and saw MC D's sold sweet tea (BLEH) by the gallon.

[Bios24]

I'll play the devil's advocate here.......I wouldn't say you're wrong here, but I wouldn't say you're right either. Do you expect them to bend to everyone's needs? If there are only 5-6 people that need Kosher meals should they prepare a whole meal just for them? Or make everyone else eat Kosher? What about Vegans? Muslims? etc?

Either way that's pretty funny that they didn't even know what Kosher meant. Is this a small establishment? I would hope a dining hall manager at least knows what people need and try to anticipate that.

[Xenocide]

I wish i could find statistics of the jewish population but as of last spring our campus had 21,519 people enrolled in classes, obviously not nearly that many living on campus, and take a handfull for other religions, im willing to give a rough estimate of over 200 people, but under 1,000 jewish students living ON CAMPUS, probably 1-3 thousand off campus.

This is a horrible estimate fully based on my ignorance of statistics related to this situation. But im giving it a LOW guess since this is the South, and the jewish population is quite small.

Originally Posted by Bios24

I'll play the devil's advocate here.......I wouldn't say you're wrong here, but I wouldn't say you're right either. Do you expect them to bend to everyone's needs? If there are only 5-6 people that need Kosher meals should they prepare a whole meal just for them? Or make everyone else eat Kosher? What about Vegans? Muslims? etc?

Either way that's pretty funny that they didn't even know what Kosher meant. Is this a small establishment? I would hope a dining hall manager at least knows what people need and try to anticipate that.

Heh, devil's advocate

Actually, they SHOULD be accommodated. It does not matter what they eat, they have the right to have something to eat, given that it's usually mandatory for them to pay the cafeteria. As for the Uni I work at, even if it's one person, they will have a kosher meal, vegan meal, non wheat gluten meal, etc. if required for religious, health reasons or because it is their food preference. Also note that the Uni I work at is not a state school, but a public one.

[Xenocide]

that is good to know nerdlogic, i do go to a public institution. (UNC Charlotte)

Originally Posted by Xenocide

that is good to know nerdlogic, i do go to a public institution. (UNC Charlotte)

Pfft... then they have no excuse. I know how many students go there and you can't tell me that there aren't enough Jewish students to not know what Passover is at UNC Charlotte.

[Xenocide]

Well, i'm not saying the university does not know that. The only person i asked about it so far was the dining hall manager, she is not responsible for food services for the whole campus or what is on the menu, and i cannot hold her responsible for the decision made by the University. She is doing her job as she should be, and tried to help me to the best of her ability.

Originally Posted by Xenocide

Well, i'm not saying the university does not know that. The only person i asked about it so far was the dining hall manager, she is not responsible for food services for the whole campus or what is on the menu, and i cannot hold her responsible for the decision made by the University. She is doing her job as she should be, and tried to help me to the best of her ability.

She should have known, as a representative of the school She is responsible for the dining responsibilities. Universities hire folks so they don't have to worry about things like dining unless the students start to really complain.

[Xenocide]

Well there are other managers, dining halls and a dining office, she is a peon compared to them.

Originally Posted by Xenocide

Well there are other managers, dining halls and a dining office, she is a peon compared to them.

*shrugs* They're not going to care who she is because like I said, she should have known. You should still go talk to someone anyway. It's not fair because I know how expensive it is.

[b1029384756]

I never had any special dietary requirements for religious or health reasons. I'm not allergic to anything but scallops (which I eat anyway since it takes about ½ lb. before I have any reactions). However, I've always been picky about what I eat (no onions/onion powder for one, or anything cooked with onions where the taste is at all noticeable, which eliminates damn near everything), and when I depended on college food in grad school, there was usually something I could eat. They also didn't mind my large size and the amount of food I consume, which was even more unusual in Hawaii. A typical breakfast would be 6 eggs, ½ lb. bacon and/or sausage, ½ lb. of rice (they love that stuff over there, so every meal has it), and a big stack of pancakes or french toast. I remember in particular the time I had them make me about 5 lbs of burritos for lunch. I realize that isn't the same as a religious dietary need, where there's no gray area, either the food is acceptable or it isn't. These days, most colleges subcontract their cafeterias to Sodhexo. Find out if that's the case at your school, or if they still manage their own facilities, then you'll know who you need to complain to. A college-run cafeteria would mean there's more reason for them to fear bad publicity, but it wouldn't hurt to put some pressure on Sodhexo either.

[Malpine Walis]

Originally Posted by Xenocide

I wish i could find statistics of the jewish population but as of last spring our campus had 21,519 people enrolled in classes, obviously not nearly that many living on campus, and take a handfull for other religions, im willing to give a rough estimate of over 200 people, but under 1,000 jewish students living ON CAMPUS, probably 1-3 thousand off campus.

This is a horrible estimate fully based on my ignorance of statistics related to this situation. But im giving it a LOW guess since this is the South, and the jewish population is quite small.

Well, if you check the 2000 census, you would see that 0.3% of North Carolina self identified as Jewish. Of course being a fairly well known university, you probably have people coming in from out of state in sufficient numbers that you can't just go with census data. However, I come out to 65 students.

Even so, that should be enough to warrant reasonable accomodations. Perhaps if you have some type of campus society group, you can contact the other students and see if they are willing to make a stink.

Also, I don't know what your school is like but if you can get something out in public about it, you might get some additional help from other students. The motiovation could be anything from wanting to be honestly helpful through the "stick it to the man" types but I would not look a gofy horse in the mouth.

Heck, if I were down there, I would jump on this one. Even though I am mostly an athiest I often go for Kosher food when I travel. AmTrack/Airline food can't be as good as what you cafeteria offers but go for Kosher and you know that you will at least get food that is clean and safe.

[techun]

Originally Posted by b1029384756

I never had any special dietary requirements for religious or health reasons. I'm not allergic to anything but scallops (which I eat anyway since it takes about ½ lb. before I have any reactions). However, I've always been picky about what I eat (no onions/onion powder for one, or anything cooked with onions where the taste is at all noticeable, which eliminates damn near everything), and when I depended on college food in grad school, there was usually something I could eat. They also didn't mind my large size and the amount of food I consume, which was even more unusual in Hawaii. A typical breakfast would be 6 eggs, ½ lb. bacon and/or sausage, ½ lb. of rice (they love that stuff over there, so every meal has it), and a big stack of pancakes or french toast. I remember in particular the time I had them make me about 5 lbs of burritos for lunch. I realize that isn't the same as a religious dietary need, where there's no gray area, either the food is acceptable or it isn't. These days, most colleges subcontract their cafeterias to Sodhexo. Find out if that's the case at your school, or if they still manage their own facilities, then you'll know who you need to complain to. A college-run cafeteria would mean there's more reason for them to fear bad publicity, but it wouldn't hurt to put some pressure on Sodhexo either.

you must be a big boy?!!

..I can't wait till college

[seadave77]

There should be a dean of students there. Talk to the staff there. They are the ones that can make things happen down the chain of command.

[VinnyTAMU]

Most places accommodate Catholic's by offering non meat meals on Fridays during Lent. So I see no reason why they shouldn't be able to accommodate the Jewish population as well.

[jacheatamobits]

Did anyone see the "Hogan Knows Best", on E!?

He, also, did not know what Kosher was...

How about you take this all the way up? Go talk to some supervisors on campus.

I can only find marginal vegetarian food @ my campus, but if I talked to the right person (campus newspaper... hint hint), I bet I could get the word out...

[tenchi86]

Though I do think it would be nice for them to have Kosher food for the Jewish population on campus unless there is enough demand which it seems there is not then it's probably just not possible. I mean think of every religion, if they had to specially make food for all of those. It is also a private organization (Most likely) and thus they can choose to serve what they like, especially if they never claimed religious food in the first place. A refund however would be seem like a good way for them to go about this.

[Adragontattoo]

Just out of curiousity, did you by chance, ask ahead of time? Or maybe ask then and deal with a single day of off site eating?

Colleges are different from School systems in many ways BUT food services is generally the same all over. Most places will try but cant possibly remember or afford to have food for every religions every holiday. I am not saying that they shouldnt, I am saying that they cant unless they know ahead of time. The people in the Dining hall you spoke to, probably have no say in what gets made that day. The menu is sent to them and that is what they make. If you go to someone higher up (think, guy in suit, not uniform) and request stuff like this AHEAD of time, it will probably happen.

[Xenocide]

No, i didn't ask ahead of time, but that is such a major holiday, it appears on almost every calender. I have no problem eating off campus for 1 day, but its a 7 day holiday