Two More Kosher Food Tables

Until recently, Jewish students who keep kosher have had to resign themselves to non-kosher dining hall fare for lunch. But this fall, students will be able to help themselves to new kosher tables in the Lowell and Currier House dining halls, as well as the already-existing one in Dunster House.

In response to student demand, Harvard Dining Services set up Dunster's kosher table last year. That table's success prompted Dining Services to open two more, said Harvard Dining Service Director Michael P. Berry.

"The student response to that was very good, so we opened two more this year, hoping to spread them out geographically to serve the largest number of students," he said.

Currently, the three tables together account for approximately 150 of the 5500 meals served daily at lunch, Barry said.

A Kosher Union?

Dining Services has plans to install a kosher table in the Harvard Union sometime before second semester, according to Barry. "Then, with the four dining halls combined, it should be about the right distribution so that everyone has access to kosher food at lunch if they want it," he said.

Harvard-Radcliffe Hillel serves kosher meals only during dinner hours.

According to Ed Hopes, unit manager of the Lowell dining hall, the house's new kosher table has been very popular, even among students who do not keep kosher.

"It happened that in Lowell there seemed to be a lot of students who expressed an interest in keeping kosher, so opening one here seemed like a smart thing to do," he said.

The kosher tables offer a variety of foods including knishes, bagel-dogs, bagel-pizza, cheese, deli meats and yogurt.

"It encourages people who are trying to keep kosher," said Lowell resident Brian H. Grossman '94. "It gives people more choices in terms of what they can eat, because it's really difficult to keep kosher when you're served regular food."