When Weinberg sophomore Nur Yalinbas was in line for breakfast at Elder Dining Commons, she noticed a sign labeled “halal” over what she said looked like bacon. To her surprise, it was.
Yalinbas said she asked the dining worker whether the food under the “halal” sign was halal, and she said the worker confirmed it was. When Yalinbas questioned if the food was bacon, she said the worker confirmed that as well.
“That’s not halal,” Yalinbas recalled telling the worker. She said the response she received was, “Oh yeah, you’re right.” The worker then removed the sign, she said.
“We’re trusting the school to give us halal food, and the workers and the school should know when to, for example, put ‘halal’ on the right foods,” Yalinbas said. “I shouldn’t have to constantly double-check and make sure it’s okay because that’s not my job.”
Weinberg freshman Rayan Lahlou-Nabil witnessed a similar incident. He said he saw pork sausages labeled as halal in the dining hall and had to confirm what it was by looking at the screens above it.
Aside from mislabeling, Lahlou-Nabil expressed concern about cross-contamination of halal and non-halal items. He said he observed pork being placed directly beside halal chicken and saw workers at MOD Pizza using the same gloves to touch all toppings.
In response to these instances, a Compass Group spokesperson told The Daily that signage in the dining halls aren’t fixed in place, “meaning it can sometimes be unintentionally moved by guests.” The spokesperson added that to minimize these instances, the company is implementing “increased monitoring and exploring more stable signage options.”
Lahlou-Nabil suggested creating a separate area for halal food to prevent cross-contamination, as well as adding clear signage — such as placing a stick with a pig emoji in pork — to differentiate meats. He said these issues limit what some students can eat.
“I’m a student here, and I deserve to eat,” said Yalinbas, adding that there were times when she chose not to eat the dining hall food due to concerns about mislabeling or cross-contamination.
“There’s many different factors that food has on (students’) performance in school or on their mental health. … Northwestern believes in diversity and inclusion, and I feel like with this dining hall food, a lot of students aren’t feeling included, or don’t feel like they’re being cared about,” Lahlou-Nabil said.
Yalinbas and Lahlou-Nabil are both members of the Muslim-cultural Student Association at Northwestern. They said these concerns have been raised within McSA for years, but little has been done to address them.
“At this point, a lot of people lost hope because it’s been happening for such a long time, and people are like, ‘Yeah, we try every year, nothing ever gets done,’” said Sami Khan, Weinberg sophomore and Associated Student Government senator for McSA. “It’s pretty discouraging and this was just a lack of care from NU administration.”
Khan said McSA members met with NU dining staff representatives in October to address their concerns about halal food in dining halls. During the meeting, he said they suggested solutions like educating dining workers on halal standards and improving signage to separate halal and non-halal foods.
Both Yalinbas and Lahlou-Nabil noted another instance where foods labeled halal were stated to be cooked with wine in their recipes, a substance prohibited in halal diets. When the concern was brought up with dining representatives at the meeting, McSA members were told that the food didn’t include actual wine and that students could ignore the ingredient listing.
A Compass spokesperson said alcohol may occasionally be displayed in ingredient lists due to a “database error.” The spokesperson also noted that alcohol is not used in the kitchens and they are working to correct the error to prevent confusion.
Khan added that McSA would like to be given similar respect as other communities on campus that have food accommodations. For example, Allison and Elder dining halls both have separate Kosher stations.
While Khan said he thinks other communities deserve these accommodations, the University should implement “simple fixes” for halal students as well.
Lahlou-Nabil said there are many other groups on campus besides Muslim students, such as orthodox Christians, who have similar food restrictions and need “more representation and care.”
Yalinbas, Lahlou-Nabil and Khan are currently implementing their concerns into a piece of legislation within ASG, which will be voted on at ASG’s Nov. 13 meeting. Yalinbas and Lahlou-Nabil said that if their legislation passes in the Senate, they hope to gain support from the administration.
“If it’s just the students with dining, they can just brush off students and just be like, ‘We’ll try our best,’” Lahlou-Nabil said. “But if admin steps in and they say, ‘Here’s the deal, this can’t keep happening again,’ and they put some authority and show some care for their students and show that they’ll stand for us, I think that’ll put more emphasis on this issue.”
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