Dining Guide: Students search for meal options to fit religious guidelines

Michael Fingerman said that when he began his freshman year at Pitt, he “thought it was interesting that a large school didn’t have large [dining] options.”

Now Fingerman, president of Hillel, a campus organization for Jewish students, finds it “a little unfortunate that they [Sodexo] don’t have kosher options,” and said that he did not keep kosher during freshman year because of it.

However, Pitt spokesman John Fedele said that the University does make accommodations for Jewish students to eat on campus.

In order to keep kosher, practitioners of the Jewish faith must eat dairy products and meat separately. Kosher food has to be prepared in a kitchen where only kosher food is prepared. It also requires a mashgiach, which is a kosher supervisor, to make sure the food is cooked properly.

Fedele said in an email that students can preorder kosher meals with their dining passes and that kosher food is sold at the Quick Zone convenience store located in Litchfield Towers.

Hillel and the Muslim Student Association have expressed different attitudes toward how Sodexo accommodates students’ religious dietary needs.

Fingerman, who is currently a junior and majors in economics and urban studies, said that he didn’t know preordering kosher meals was an option at Pitt except during Passover. For the holiday, students can preorder meals that cost one market swipe.

Fedele said that Pitt’s dining services wants to make more students aware that they have this option.

“We will work with Mr. Fingerman and others to enhance our marketing efforts to communicate the pre-ordering of Kosher meals,” Fedele wrote in an email on behalf of Sodexo.

Fingerman said that the kosher options at Quick Zone are often cold-cut sandwiches and are not available on a regular basis, and he personally thinks the sandwiches are unappetizing. To remedy this, Fingerman wants Sodexo to implement a plan similar to the one at Carnegie Mellon University, where kosher food is prepared off campus.

“CMU sells kosher chicken and falafel prepared at Congregation Beth Shalom. Students can purchase that as part of their meal plan. Hot food is shipped over multiple times a day and kept warm in a different section,” Fingerman said.

Fedele said that the University is currently looking into the necessary steps to provide kosher options.   

“We are working with a kosher vendor to determine what requirements are necessary to provide hot food,” Fedele wrote in an email. “Once that is determined, modification to the facility would need to be completed.”

Fedele said that space constraints have made it difficult to provide a kosher section in the William Pitt Union.

“A kosher kitchen would benefit Muslim students, too, because they can eat the meat we eat,” Fingerman said.

Mehvesh Memon, a junior health information management major and the secretary of the Muslim Student Association, said that Islam has guidelines for which foods are halal, or acceptable for Muslims. 

Similarly to Jewish dietary rules, pork is forbidden under Islam. There are two versions of dietary restriction. Zabiha, the stricter version, focuses on how the animal was slaughtered and treated. Halal, which the majority of Muslims follow, according to Memon, is concerned with having the meat be clean and not associated with pork. 

“The two main things about Muslim dietary restrictions are no pig and no alcohol,” Memon said in an email.

Two years ago the Muslim Student Association had halal food put in Market Central, where it is offered at lunchtime during the weekdays. When the halal section is closed, Market has made-to-order chicken patties and hamburgers. The Perch does offer halal food, though Fedele noted that those meals are prepared upon request. 

Memon said there have been attempts to offer more halal options and that canned halal meat was once available at Quick Zone. Neither of these efforts proved successful.

Memon said that the Muslim Student Association continues to work with Sodexo.

“We want them to have breakfast, but they need the numbers [of people who eat the food] first,” Memon said.

Mashal Wakilpoor, a sophomore and public relations chair for the Muslim Student Association, said that another way to ensure that one follows the halal guidelines is to follow a kosher or vegetarian diet. She said that the effort to maintain a diet according to Islam is important. 

Wakilpoor said that a relaxed diet is acceptable “as long as you have the right intentions and don’t go out of your way to eat the bad food.” 

The Muslim Student Association appreciates the halal food offered at Market, according to Wakilpoor.

“It is very commendable that they are going out of their way to have halal options,” she said.

Fingerman said he appreciates any improvement Sodexo makes that caters toward Jewish students’ dietary needs.

“Baby steps are fine. Any improvement is an improvement,” he said.