After nearly a two-year hiatus, kosher dining will return to the Freeman Center for Jewish Life in August 2005. FCJL's kitchen will serve five dinners a week, Monday through Friday, to University students.
Some Duke students have been searching fruitlessly for kosher food on campus. But now, their quest is over.
After nearly a two-year hiatus, kosher dining will return to the Freeman Center for Jewish Life in August 2005. FCJL’s kitchen will serve five dinners a week, Monday through Friday, to University students.
President Richard Brodhead encouraged the return of kosher dining to Duke’s campus when he became aware of its absence during discussions with the University’s Jewish community earlier this year.
The reintroduction of kosher dining—which mandates strict preparation and dietary guidelines—will help maintain balanced food options for students on campus, said Jim Wulforst, director of Dining Services.
“[Kosher dining] is an important program for Duke to have,” he noted.
Student leaders in the Jewish community said they have been fighting to get kosher dining back on campus since the FCJL kitchen closed in 2003 and are pleased the administration has responded.
Senior Rachael Solomon, president of the FCJL student board, said the return of a kosher kitchen will give Jewish students the opportunity to keep kosher if they choose to do so.
In addition, Solomon pointed out that a kosher option will benefit other students as well. “Muslim students [have] dietary needs that are sometimes similar to those who keep kosher,” she noted.
Solomon also said kosher dining in the FCJL may help students from different backgrounds interact more consistently.
“When you have students who are not of the Jewish faith coming in and out of the Freeman Center, learning about the dietary needs of Jewish students, you create a culture that is more tolerant, more knowledgeable, and more inclusive,” Solomon said.
Senior Amanda Zimmerman, executive vice president of the FCJL student board, said she believes a campus needs kosher dining in order to maintain a vibrant Jewish community, which can, in turn, support a successful kosher kitchen.
“You can’t attract observant students if you can’t offer them what they need,” Zimmerman said.
After the Spring 2003 semester, administrators closed the kosher kitchen at the FCJL because it was losing more than $100,000 per year.
Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs, said the new kosher dining program will be subsidized by University sources like other campus eateries.
The kosher kitchen is also considering serving lunches in addition to dinners. In addition, it may package kosher and organic foods that can be sold at the Great Hall and the Marketplace, which could target vegan and vegetarian students. Dining Services representatives said greater effort will be placed into marketing the kosher kitchen as a dining location on campus.
The FCJL’s kosher kitchen is also considering launching a catering service that can prepare food for events both on and off campus.
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