How to cater halal buffet food at a children's party?

[Feedingmybaby]

It’s DDs birthday party soon and just starting to think about catering. We are holding the party in a hall and will do typical buffet food for both adults and kids.

We’ce invited the whole class, and lots of children are Muslim and will only eat halal - I’ve never catered for this dietary requirement before.

Can anyone give any suggestions? There will be some cheese and jam sandwiches for the kids, but I was also planning on doing ham. Would the products containing pork need to be kept separately to everything else if the Muslim children are to eat them? I just don’t want the parents to not eat the food if I’m to do it ‘wrong’!

Quite a lot of jelly is veggie these days.

Even the 88% that is pre-stunned? Do you feel the same about Kosher meat?

Nasty.

There are nativity plays but they never appear to be particularly religious if that’s possible!

The RE is very limited and I suspect is the absolute minimum the curriculum mandates.

I don’t think the younger children would have any concept that there are multiple religions. They have a vague idea that some people think there’s a god but that’s about it.

As someone who has had literally zero exposure to religion as a child myself, I quite like it being no part of our or our communities lives.

I'd do this.

The trouble with starting a thread like this is that it just ends up falsely problematising the very existence of Muslims. It starts with posters virtue-signalling their readiness to adapt their catering - thereby centring difference and being unintentionally othering towards children at an event that has nothing to do with faith or ethnicity. And then, on cue come the full-on Islamophobic posts.

If you are catering a party at which some children may have a nut allergy, you don't need to canvas opinions about how to manage this. You just don't serve nuts, and you check the ingredients of other items in case nuts are present. Job done. Why is catering for observant Muslims any more complicated??

This is what I would do - in fact, it might be worth reaching out to the parents to ask for their advice and whether they would like to bring some dishes to share amongst their children to be sure that their needs are met? I was raised in a Muslim household but the only rules were no pork, the halal thing was not ever a thing at all and certainly not an expectation in any way in the late 70’s through to about 10 years ago, so I tended just to make sure there were pork free dishes on a separate table. It’s become much more rigid recently.

Serve vegetarian food?

Have a look in the world food isle and the ethnic section of the freezers- they definitely sell samosas and that sort of nibble.

Yep I agree with this.
its not hard to not serve pork based products / just do veggie.

Is booze usually served at a children's party? Not judging, I can see the appeal 🤣 but round here parties for kids tend to be 10am in a church hall, and it's tea or coffee if you're lucky!

Veggie pizza
Veggie quiche
Cheese / cream cheese and cucumber / jam sandwiches
Crisps, twiglets and breadsticks
Cherry toms, carrot and cucumber sticks
Cake

If parents are stopping it's not unknown to have wine.

Re OP's query - I would probably just not serve ham, nobody will die without it and saves the hassle of people worrying about the sandwiches getting mixed up.

We're a veggie household so we never serve meat at parties and never had any complaints yet. We usually do cheese rolls, jam rolls, a veggie platter (which is ignored), a fruit platter (which is licked clean), some sweets (gelatine free), crisps and birthday cake.

I clearly moved in the wrong circles it was tea coffee or a left over kwenchy cup 😀

Just do vegetarian. Halal is cruel.

Unlike non-cruel meat consumption, where the animals live long and happy lives and only get eaten after dying of natural causes 🙄

I think hot drinks might be more problematic.

It’s not just no ham though is it, it’s no mini sausages and no sausage rolls which are absolute buffet staples!

I’d just do some cheese pizza and some other veggie options and make sure they were kept separate but I wouldn’t be changing how I did the buffet otherwise

I'd also check if any of the children are lactose intolerant- and make sure there are some jam sandwiches with no butter/vegan spread for them.

All meat is cruel all of it ! There is nothing nice about meat production, you have just found a way to.be "comfortable" with it.by going after Muslim meat production which has been stated is generally slaughtered in the same way.

Chicken roll would be a good alternative to ham and easier than worrying about it.
not sure on the cheese though!
my sons friend was Muslim at school and he went to all the parties and no one did anything special, but obviously if there is a huge section of party goers that have a specific dietary requirement then it’s probably easier just to do one buffet that is fine for everyone.

Goodness some posters do like to get their knickers in a twist.

If you use the same bread then cut into different shapes, eg quartered squares for cheese, fingers for jam and mini triangles for ham. Label separate plates and place slightly apart. if you have multiple pork products I'd place these all together to make it clearer

if you have multiple dietary restrictions then I'd go down the lunchbox route to be easier

I would just stay vegetarian and check ingredients as others have said - gelatin shows up everywhere!

I was raised kosher (Jewish) and wouldn't have been allowed to eat from a buffet with ham on it. Little kids aren't exactly known for being careful!

Quorn mini sausages taste pretty much the same as basic buffet mini sausages. Honestly, buffets do not need sausages (and I say this as a meat eater and quality sausage fan). It’s far less hassle and far nicer for the kids to have buffet food that’s accessible to all. Why wouid you not?