PRINCETON, N.J. — Halal food is now available on a rotational basis in the residential college dining halls. So far, halal food has been offered two or three times a week in one dining hall each day, although a fixed schedule has not been drawn up yet.
The addition to the menu is a result of the work of the Undergraduate Student Government Dining Policy Initiative, which has been working with the campus Muslim chaplain Imam Sohaib Sultan and the Muslim Students Association since last semester to make halal food more accessible on campus.
Class of 2015 Senator Nihar Madhavan, who led the Dining Policy Initiative, said one of the goals of his project is to ensure that the dining options are meeting the needs of students on campus. Therefore, when President of MSA Sarah Qari ’16 expressed her concerns about the scarcity of halal options, USG started looking for ways to resolve the problem. Qari said that the goal is to make halal food available all days a week.
“Before [this project] there used to be, and actually still continues to be, halal food options available through the Dining Services in frozen packets. A student can go up to the chef and ask for a frozen packet to be prepared for them,” Sultan said. “But unfortunately for too many students this was a little bit tedious and also wasn’t necessarily very appetizing either. You know how packaged food is.”
Because of this, some Muslim students stopped eating meat dishes all together.
“I knew you could ask for stuff at the dining halls, but it’s pretty nerve-racking to come in when you’re a freshman and say ‘I want a special meal.’ Secondly, you have to wait at least 20 minutes for your food to cook, so it was unfeasible sometimes,” MSA social media