KU Chabad is now offering Jewish students at the University of Kansas a kosher meal plan.
Students who subscribe to the plan receive twice weekly kosher dinners to-go. The meals are heavily subsidized by donors, and scholarships are also available for those who qualify.
“College life means independence. For many students, it is their first time away from home and the chaperonage of their parents,” said Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel, co-director of KU Chabad. “With that independence comes a heavy dose of responsibility. Their schedule, homework load, and eating arrangements are wholly in their hands.”
Jewish college students who come from kosher homes are now responsible to provide their own food. Keeping kosher in Lawrence, especially on the KU campus, is difficult, and some students felt they could no longer uphold the standards they grew up with.
“A few students confided their kosher troubles to me,” says Rabbi Tiechtel. “It was heartbreaking. I knew we would have to do something to address this major need.”
“Kosher food is such an integral component of Jewish life,” said Nechama Dina Tiechtel, co-director of KU Chabad. “Kosher food warms the soul. It’s a privilege to provide such an important need for our Jewish students.”
“It’s definitely a challenge keeping kosher in college, but Chabad’s kosher meal plan is amazing and helps make that possible for me,” said Adina Thompson, a freshman from Skokie, Illinois. “And the food is really good — I look forward to my meals every week.”
“It’s so nice to be able to know that I have a hot kosher meal ready for me after classes and not having to find, prepare and then clean all the dishes and food I need to make a kosher meal in college,” said freshman Daniel Israeli, a freshman from Overland Park, Kansas.
Nechama Tiechtel said that the “goal at Chabad is to ensure that the needs of the students are being met. As the demand for kosher food grew, it became evident that hot nutritious kosher meals are not an extra, but a real necessity. We look forward to this program expanding to multiple meals a day in the future."
KU Chabad now serves tens of meals every week and are eager to help more KU Jewish students in search of kosher food. Anyone interested in learning more about the new kosher meal plan at KU can visit JewishKU.com/KosherMeals.