Transcript: Halal - Kosher Dining at Dartmouth

Halal-Kosher Dining at Dartmouth

BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Ivy League schools such as Dartmouth were once considered the bastion of white, Anglo-Saxon Protestantism. But now, student bodies are becoming more diverse and universities being forced to deal with new issues -- not the least of which, how to accommodate religious dietary requirements. Observant Jews follow kosher rules, while Muslims observe requirements known as "halal". Many Hindus follow a strict vegetarian diet called "sakahara". This week, Dartmouth unveiled a new dining hall to accommodate all of those traditions. Kim Lawton reports.

KIM LAWTON: In an increasingly pluralistic society, serving a religiously sensitive dinner can be a complex endeavor.

DAVID NEWLOVE (Dartmouth Dining Services): What we try to do is accommodate everybody's laws, and make sure we don't have any possibility of contaminating somebody's food. To be respectful to their wishes.

LAWTON: That means having four separate kitchens, three sets of cooking implements, and two dishwashing rooms. To avoid confusion and contamination, the staff has an elaborate color-coding system for everything from chopping knives to serving trays. Since kosher rules prohibit preparing and serving meat and dairy foods together, one of the kitchens is literally locked while another is in use.

Mr. NEWLOVE: So what we do in the case of anything that's dairy, we either lock it up or cover it when it's a meat meal.

LAWTON: Many Muslims will eat kosher food when halal is not available. Under both rules, eating pork is forbidden. But halal requirements differ from kosher on several points. For example, while it's not necessary to separate meat and dairy under halal, alcohol products such as vanilla extract are forbidden. Also, the Jewish and Muslim practices differ for slaughtering animals.

The sakahara, or Hindu vegetarian, component of the Pavilion, came along later in the planning process. Although vegetables are served in all of the kitchens, in the Hindu stations, they are carefully separated -- again, by color coding -- so they don't come into contact with any meat or dairy products.

The Pavilion is the culmination of years of planning and collaboration by Muslim and Jewish students and faculty. Now, the different groups break bread together in the dining hall.

JASON SPITALNICK (Jewish Student): We came here yesterday, there were Muslims and Jews sitting down for lunch together, and I expect that to happen quite a bit.

LAWTON: The students hope that sharing meals every day will be a bridge between communities that are often in conflict in the rest of the world.

YOUSEF HAQUE (Muslim Student): It will change the relationships and cultivate, kind of, more support between the communities and, you know, encourage dialogue.

LAWTON: Any student at Dartmouth can eat at the Pavilion -- it's on the regular campus meal plan. It's also the only public kosher restaurant in the state of New Hampshire.

I'm Kim Lawton reporting.