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!

A school offering the choice would be ideal but the quality of the meals when so many choices r offered would be my main concern.

The hypocrisy of some of the posts on these thread!

I haven't read all the posts

and I'm sure that someone has already said this
but
in slaughterhouses all animals are stunned and throats are slit whilst they are alive

halal or not

its just the way it is done

Nail because its inviting a blanket of religion for people who haven't asked for it. What if Jewish people turned round and said "we'll, hang on, we want kosher food if there can be halal." And then Rastafarians wanted there way of eating respected too, what if every kind of faith wanted the way they cooked and prepared food respecting the cost of school meals would go through the roof!

If they go to a specific religious school then fair enough, but to expect a school to take on ONE religious method then they're asking for trouble. Costs would go up and why is that fair for families that don't practice religion. So in essence it's forcing people to take on the responsibilities of a religion they don't even believe in.

I wish people would leave children alone to learn and be educated in community schools. Religion and other issues should be left at the school doors .

No ones being forced to eat it and the kids won't have any idea. It's hardly pushing religion down throats? It is merely catering for dietary requirements.

So basically , what they don't know what hurt...

It's not my children's dietary requirements...

If you put mince in with the vege mince the vegetarian and vegan children wouldn't know either. Doesn't make it right though does it.

think I may move my family to north Africa and demand that they start
catering for my childrens moral and religious requirements.
I wonder if that would be met with such diplomacy?
except that if I emigrated to a foreign country I would accept their food,culture,religion and language.
if I didn't like it I either wouldn't bloody move there or id send my kids with a packed lunch.simple.

You do make a good point what however some religions cannot be left at the door because they are a way of life. Each and every part of their life revolves around their belief from eating to washing etc.

well said urtwistingmymelonman

Its a thorny one.

What if the religious mix of the school changes - fish on a friday for catholics, kosher for jewish kids, beef free for sikhs, vegetarian/vegas for whatever religion that may be (Jains?). Our schools biggest group is french - ok so not religious but - I'd have an issue with horse meat (fois gras, frogs legs and snails aside) being served to 'cater for' the french kids.

I don't think the pedigree if meat can be 100% these days anyway. Our local halal butchers was recently closed because the meat was poor/dodgy quality (well, that and the rats).

When business is involved, ethics often take a back seat

DMIL says it never would have crossed her mind to ask for halal meat when the kids were at school (as a muslim coming from a muslim country), as the british culture is not that of halal food/pork free. The majority of kids were jewish at their schools but ham was definately served. It wasn't at CofE/catholic school either. She says that anyone asking for pork on the menu in her country of origin would be shown the exit gate pretty darn fast, no hesitation.

Ah but urtwisting the UK is multicultural now and we're expected to be tolerant to all faiths and what they entail.

Urt - its not all immigrants though! (Some of) my nieces and nephews are British muslims (who eat veggie at school).

Ho ho yes I agree, but in community schools there has to be a limit so children that attend the school feel the same amount on inclusion, rather that it be "it's a community school but specially caters for catholic or Muslims or Hindus or ect " that's not community. That religion slowly creeping in.
Like I said if its a religious school then of course, but if you send your child to a community school and they have a specific religious dietary requirement then their parents have to manage it. Not every body else's .

The notion that they won't even realise what they are eating is really quite concerning, but the same applies back on the other hand... But that would just be so abhorrent , wouldn't it ...

crescent the whole ritualistic cutting and slow bleeding to death in pain bit.

All for the sake of some made up medieval mumbo-jumbo. I feel the same about Kosher meat too.

Ah but urtwisting the UK is multicultural now and we're expected to be tolerant to all faiths and what they entail.

And that's exactly why we can't let one faith dictate how our children eat there food .

Again, I agree what but who is willing to stand up and say 'we've done as much as we can to cater for your needs but we can't do any more' without one particular group kicking off about it. We'll never be able to please everyone.

Compos - bleeding to death isn't slow. When your throat is cut you will lose consciousness within seconds.
90% of halal meat is stunned first anyway.

I would say the chickens who are strung up alive on a machine and dunked in electrified water to (probably) stun them suffer more.

hohoho. I would never expect anyone to give up there religion.
my point is that I would not move to another country and expect it to change to suit my requirements.
I know that if I moved to the majority of muslim countrys I would not be able to live my life the way I do now so I would simply have to adjust my lifestyle to suit or I wouldn't move there.
halal meat is widely available in this country and families can feed there children this at home all the time so why cant they just send children in with a packed lunch?
I don't understand why this is such an issue?

I just hope that all these feelings can be put aside when around the children. No ones going to change the way any of us feel about this, but like it or not these children are going to be out children's friends. It would be awful if they were never invited round eachothers houses to birthday parties for fear of halal or non halal meat being served. There r always vege options.

Options are that school provides choices. I personally would prefer a good quality vegetarian option than several poor quality meat options depending on what schools can afford to provide. It's 5 meals out of 21 a week and it won't hurt if they are vegetarian and the kids can eat whatever meat pork and bacon u want the rest of the time.

It can take minutes to bleed to death, rather than seconds.

I don't doubt the chickens suffer, but then that doesn't make other forms of animal cruelty okay.

I know ho ho -- sarnies all round!!!!!!

My "d"sm gave me salmon spread sarnies for three years for pack lunch ... >

What - now that's child cruelty. My dads mum did the same with a 'jeely piece'. Years it went on.

Options are that school provides choices. I personally would prefer a good quality vegetarian option than several poor quality meat options depending on what schools can afford to provide. It's 5 meals out of 21 a week and it won't hurt if they are vegetarian and the kids can eat whatever meat pork and bacon u want the rest of the time. it's actually a bloody good idea. I for one wouldn't mind that.
May help toward childhood obesity.