Selected Northwestern dining halls could be serving kosher food at no extra cost by Spring Quarter as a trial step toward a full-service kosher kitchen.
“Right now, we’re really in the planning stage,” said Rabbi Dov Klein, director of Tannenbaum Chabad House. “(But) I’m very happy that the university is putting a lot of effort and time into creating this.”
The first phase of the plan, which was discussed by students and administrators Wednesday and Thursday, would put “kosher centers” for lunch in as many as three of NU’s dining halls, said Paul Komelasky, director of dining services for Sodexho Marriott Dining Services.
A proposed trial period for the plan would begin Spring Quarter and wouldn’t cost extra for students who qualify, Komelasky said.
Kosher students are asking for the centers to be implemented at three dining halls: one on both North and South campuses and at the Foster-Walker Complex, said Mark Dredze, a McCormick sophomore who met Wednesday with administrators and religious officials to discuss the plan.
Students at the meeting agreed that having the centers at various points across campus would be helpful.
McCormick senior Larry Steinberg said having kosher food available only at Willie’s Food Court in Norris University Center doesn’t help him.
“I’m in (the Technological Institute) all the time, so just the distance is not that appealing — especially when it’s cold,” Steinberg said.
Komelasky said he expects the “vast majority” of the food to be non-frozen.
To find qualified students for the proposed trial, Klein said he will petition interested students on Hillel Cultural Life’s and Chabad House’s listservs.
Klein said he hopes 30 students sign up for the trial.
“We’re willing to do it if there’s less,” Klein said. “And if there’s more, we’ll be even happier.”
Dredze said he plans to take a walk-through of a campus dining hall this week in preparation for the trial.
In the second phase of the plan, hot kosher food would be offered for dinner at one dining hall on campus.
Komelasky said a new dining hall might be needed to institute the second phase.
But having an all-kosher dining hall may not be the best route for NU, Klein said.
“That would be a dream come true,” Klein said. “(But) I’m not sure an entire dining hall would be cost-effective.”
The University of Pennsylvania started a kosher dining hall in 1999 called Irv’s Place, which serves dairy lunches and meat and dairy dinners.
Students can eat there at no additional cost, except for holiday meals, which cost two dollars extra, said Kim Buchinsky, student kosher coordinator at Penn.
Penn created Irv’s Place from an old restaurant on the outskirts of its campus.
Pamela Lampitt, Penn’s assistant director of dining, said it cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to rebuild the kitchens and renovate the restaurant.
“It’s expensive to run a kosher operation,” Lampitt said.
Maintaining Irv’s Place requires staff for the meat and dairy kitchens and a staff member to inspect the food to make sure it meets kosher standards.
Muslim students, who follow a diet similar to kosher called halal, and vegetarians also take advantage of Irv’s Place.
“(Vegetarians) know, for sure, that there’s no chicken stock in their cream of broccoli soup,” Lampitt said.
At Penn, a 19-meals-per-week plan costs $3,200 per semester. At NU, a traditional plan with the same number of meals costs $3,233 per year.
NU trial organizers, who want a full-service kosher dining hall to be in place by Fall Quarter, are proposing that all students would be able to eat there.
“It’s not going to be seen as a dining hall just for kosher students,” Dredze said.
Kosher food also would attract more kosher students to NU, Dredze said. Some prospective students cross NU off their college lists because of the lack of a kosher meal program, he said.
“It’s an issue of diversity and making more people feel welcome,” he said.
