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Detroit School to Offer Halal Food for Muslim Students
DEARBORN, Detroit, July 2 (IslamOnline) - Starting this fall, students in the Dearborn School District can buy halal food for lunch, an American newspaper reported Monday. Dearborn is home to a large Muslim and Arab population.
The Detroit News, reported that halal food, which is prepared according to Islamic standards, will give Muslim students the chance to follow their religion in the school cafeteria.
"Parents approached us over the last 10 years or so, asking us to serve halal food," Bob Cipriano, director of business services for the district, told the Detroit News.
But the lack of large-scale USDA-approved distributors and the relatively high cost of halal food at the time prevented the district from offering it, the paper reported.
Still, Cipriano and members of the food services staff met on several occasions with members of the Muslim-American community to learn about halal food and discuss options. Then, Cipriano searched locally and around the nation for a distributor.
This year, Cipriano found a number of suppliers who offered halal meats and other products at a reasonable cost.
"We were able to bring this option to our students at no additional cost or personnel," he said. "One of the reasons this is possible now is that food items like chicken nuggets and hot dogs are prepackaged. This eliminates the need for us to be involved in the special preparation techniques."
The next step was to make sure the halal food would be prepared properly.
"The best way to explain it is that halal food is similarly prepared the way kosher is prepared -- involving the way the meat is cut and the way the chicken and cow are slaughtered," the Detroit News quoted him as saying.
"We worked with the community and went through proper preparation procedures, being conscious about it because it's a significant issue in the Muslim community."
Then the district started taste-testing the foods chosen, primarily chicken nuggets. Cipriano, members of the food-service staff and even a few students participated in the tasting.
Everyone liked them.
Then came the real test. On June 5, students at McDonald and Lowrey elementary schools were able to order halal chicken nuggets from the lunchtime menu. They, too, liked them.
"The halal chicken nuggets went over really well," said Velda Burks, the district's food services supervisor. "Some of the children did get really excited about it. We plan to serve the halal food in the eastern part of the district, where the Muslim population is the largest.
"The kids' comments -- Oooooh, halal,' -- didn't surprise me, because it really tasted good," she said.
Before the arrival of the halal offerings, Burks said many students repeatedly asked her to find a way to serve halal food. She responded by adding hummus and fatoush salad, both classics of Mideastern cuisine that meet Islamic standards, to the menu.
The district will try to expand halal food choices in the fall and offer it to other Dearborn schools that show an interest in the option, the paper said.
Among the options being discussed in providing more choices are halal hot dogs. A brand of halal hot dogs was taste-tested several months ago, but Burks said it didn't make the grade.
Student demand will determine how quickly the halal menu is expanded, Cipriano said. The district has at least eight schools in which the student bodies are at least half Muslim.
"If we begin serving more halal food and more students buy their lunch instead of bringing it from home and we increase our revenue stream, that will encourage us to expand it even quicker," he said.
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