Students discovered that poultry at G8 is not zabiha halal certified. // Megan Naftali / The Hofstra Chronicle.
For the past six years, Hofstra University Dining has outsourced halal products from Peter’s Wholesale Foods, a halal certified vendor, that provided Hofstra with a certification from the American Halal Foundation which is renewed yearly and posted at G8, the halal station in the Student Center, according to Lexis Meehan, the marketing manager of Campus Dining by Compass Group.
Last September, Asma Azam, a senior biology major and the president of the Muslim Student Association, began to question whether the food at G8 met zabiha halal standards.
Zabiha halal is the highest standard of halal. According to Azam, the animal needs to be hand slaughtered, certain recitations need to be made, and the process needs to be monitored, certified and cleaned properly.
Azam reached out to Compass Dining to inquire about the certification, to which they initially told her the food met zabiha halal standards.
“Closer to our last meeting in late November, they told us that the chicken is machine slaughtered, whereas the beef is brought from a company that only sells zabiha halal beef,” Azam said. “[But] in the kitchen, is there someone who’s watching over cross contamination and how the food is prepared? That’s also something that needs to be controlled when you’re making a statement such as, ‘We’re serving zabiha halal here.’”
After learning the poultry items were not zabiha halal, Compass placed signs at the G8 station stating the poultry is not zabiha halal certified.
“Hofstra Dining is continuing to explore options for zabiha poultry as well as plans for a dedicated Halal kitchen and will share more information as it is available. At our current Halal Station we have a designated workspace, refrigeration and chef that is familiar with Halal governance,” Meehan wrote in a statement.
The Muslim community at Hofstra was saddened by the lack of knowledge regarding the zabiha halal certification.
“The sign saying that the chicken here is not zabiha halal raised a lot of concerns amongst the Muslim students and Muslim community,” Azam said. “A lot of people were very hurt and disappointed by the situation because they basically [were] being fed food that does not meet their dietary restrictions.”
Azam believes an email should have been sent out to the Hofstra community as a whole to shed light on this mixup.
“I think that has been one of the most telling things to me. I’ve spoken to administrators that still don’t know about this issue. I’ve spoken to students and numerous other people and it’s really alarming to me that it’s something that is not talked about enough,” Azam said.
“This is a dietary restriction for a community that continues to grow on this campus. If you messed up, then you should take accountability for it and let everyone know what has happened instead of just trying to fix the issue in the background and just put a bandage on it, as it feels like it has been done now,” continued Azam.
Zaibis Muñoz-Isme, the assistant vice president of Student Enrollment, Engagement and Success, believes a mass email was not sent out to promote positive messaging.
“I would imagine that, once the situation was brought to light, we tried to address it as quickly as possible. Compass really took the lead on putting their signage out and working with Asma to get the message out to the community,” Muñoz-Isme said. “But I can’t tell you, we just didn’t send a message about that. I think it’s more we would focus on positive messaging of, ‘Hey, here’s what we are doing with our resources and how we are listening to students and really supporting you and what you need on campus.’”
The offerings of zabiha halal meals also prove difficult for residential students.
“At my house, there’s always home cooked meals. I think it’s the case for a lot of people of my ethnicity, not necessarily my religion, but they always have good home cooked fresh food in the house. I don’t have that luxury anymore, and I feel it more and more every day,” said Rayhan Ahmed, a senior computer science major. “With this whole situation, it hasn’t been easy because it’s not really practical. Thankfully in New York, there are so many halal food options for restaurants, but it’s not really sustainable to go out and eat every single day. It’s a waste of time. It’s a waste of money.”
Compass Dining is now outsourcing hot and cold grab-and-go zabiha halal options using the HFSAA and HMS website recommended by the Muslim Student Association, according to Meehan. One restaurant that provides Hofstra with the grab-and-go meals is Guac Time.
Additionally, Hofstra Dining will offer a program for Ramadan this year where students can pre-order hot zabiha halal food by filling out a Ramadan meal request form. The orders need to be placed before 10 a.m. on the day of pick up and retrieved at Dutch Treats between 6:30-7 p.m.
Suhoor retail items will be available at Dutch Treats. Frozen zabiha halal meals will be featured in the frozen section as well, according to Meehan.
“I feel as if nobody had inquired, they would not have been educated on this. There’s a need for greater representation of different communities in administration or faculty or whoever is making these larger decisions higher up because it would prevent things like this from happening,” Azam said. “If a chaplain was included in that decision-making process, or even a couple of Muslim students who could lead you to the people who are educated enough to make this decision, then we would have prevented this from happening to begin with.”