'None of the Muslim kids can eat': Illinois to provide halal and kosher meals to schoolkids

As a student at Sullivan high school in Chicago, Ridwan Rashid frequently skipped lunch and was distracted by hunger, even though his school offered free meals to all students. Rashid is Muslim, as are a growing number of students at Sullivan. But until recently, none of the meals served at the Sullivan cafeteria were halal, which meant they were off limits for most of the school’s Muslim students.

“We go to school and it’s like, OK, some of the kids can eat and none of the Muslim kids can eat,” Rashid said. “It’s not fair.”

But a bill that passed the Illinois legislature last week will change that, requiring state-funded institutions – including schools, prisons and hospitals – to provide halal and kosher meals if requested. “It’s definitely a historic moment,” said Gerald Hankerson, director of policy at the Muslim Civic Coalition, a national civic engagement non-profit that helped author the bill. “We hope it can be replicated in other states. It is very needed.”

‘In Illinois, we don’t hide from the truth,’ Governor JB Pritzker said in a statement when the legislation was introduced in March.

Its passage comes as Muslim parents and community advocates across the US have spent years calling on schools to serve halal meals, arguing that it’s not just a matter of inclusion, but of food security for a community with high rates of poverty.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/01/illinois-halal-kosher-school-meals

Illinois is "woke"!