to be very suprised at the school letter about Halal meat?

[fromparistoberlin]

opended DS bag and read a letter with a voting slip basically saying

alot of parents have asked for Halal meat (fair enough)
The school dinner providers can only do Halal OR non-Halal (erm we are in London, slightly surpised)

so we either vote for ALL Halal, or non Halal

so basically an ethical dilemna!

Vote A, feel like a bigot

Vote B, feel slightly uncomfortable that something I dont really fully understand is being imposed

I am going to write and say this is a really unfair way to handle it and they should fucking change suppliers, we are in London FFS

nice little ethical mind fuck THANKS school!

Bet the halal is more expensive!! So will prices go up? That would be my only dilemma!

Wouldn't it purely be an issue of cost? If they provide a halal and a non-halal version of each meal they are effectively doubling their workload which would make it too costly to go with - I am sure you would object to the cost of school dinners being doubled, I know I would!

I suggest you read up on halal and make an informed vote.

YANBU
Nice swerve there by the school.
What do other schools do?

i thought all public services were halal now, hospitals, schools, council canteens.

I am with you, I think they should be looking for someone who can cater for halal but still offer 'normal' meat for others.

I would imagine providing both would be very expensive, plus the risk of cross contamination etc.

Depends how you feel about halal meat itself?

it would be cheaper to only offer a vegetarian menu. Probably healthier too surely?

How awful. I'd vote no to halal meat. Animal welfare trumps superstition. But then i'm a veggie.

Although I think asking parents to vote without giving a full breakdown of info is shitty.

at uni all chicken dishes are halal, other meat is not. Can't they do that?

I would have thought that providing two of the same dishes in different versions, ie Halal chicken burger or non-halal chicken burger would make things even more complicated.

I would point out - the meat is slaughtered halal - but the kitchen staff use the same pots and pans for everything. Which amuses me no end and makes the whole charade utterly pointless. We have one muslim pupil who eats bacon sandwiches every morning. I am also amused at that, inwardly. No one cares about the Jewish pupils.

I am feeling all yukky and daily mailish now

all I can find is racist blogs or muslim web pages!

Look if I go a curry/kebab I fully expect to eat Halal

its just the all or nothing-ness of it!

Google what halal killing means, then decide. I agree though that there must be another way - or would they also propose that as some students are vegan/vegetarian/kosher/allergic, there should now be vegan etc meals only for everybody?

this wasnt too hard to find on google

non Halal only for me. It's barbaric.

It's cross-contamination I think - too easy for the halal to get mixed up with the non-halal (although I take Holly's point that cross-contamination probably happens anyway).

But I agree, sucky choice to have to make.

I would vote no halal meat and if it came in my child would not be eating anything consisting of meat at the school. I wish halal were better labelled. suggest the school goes veggie that caters for everyone.

What's barbaric? I know nothing about this I now realise

I understand the schools dilemma. They've probably been approached by students or patents who want the choice of Halal meat.

They will be buying in bulk, so splitting an order in 2 and having 2 suppliers to enable them to provide both, will result in them losing the bulk order discounts they will currently get.

It's down to budgets I'm afraid.

They're doing the right thing by canvassing the opinions of the parent body, then they should go with the majority.

If the vote is for Halal and you object to the meat for animal welfare reasons, your child would chose the vegetarian option.

If the vote is non-Halal, anyone who objects can also have their child choose the vegetarian option.

I'm afraid in circumstances like this, the school if often damned if they do, damned if they don't.

"suggest the school goes veggie that caters for everyone."

This.

Going veggie doesn't cater for everyone though does it.

Vote for no halal, it is cruel