Schmeltzer Dining Room, located at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus, is now selling halal food. Halal is a way of eating according to the Islam religion. It tends to apply to meats and the way that those meats are acquired.

Fordham has been trying to get more halal options on campus for many years. According to Deming Yuan, the Fordham dining contract liaison, Fordham originally planned to renovate one of its existing dining locations to accommodate halal food. However, it ended up partnering with a halal restaurant in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn restaurant, Sultan Restaurant, delivers hot halal food to the Schmeltzer Dining Room.

According to Yuan, there were many factors that went into making the decision to bring halal food to campus. Mainly, it is meant to honor and give Fordham’s Muslim community more options for dining.

“We have a population [of Muslim people]. We have the population of the students that are here. I think it makes a statement of welcoming, and we found someone who could do it from an authentic point of view,” said Yuan.

Bringing halal food to campus means a lot to Fordham’s Muslim student population.

“It is important for Fordham to have halal dining options because as a Jesuit university that has a mission that respects religions, cares for the whole person and values diversity, it is important to accommodate all students,” said Naimal Chisti, FCLC ’23, chair of Fordham Lincoln Center’s Muslim Student Association. “As years have progressed, Fordham is becoming more diverse and has had an increase of Muslim students every academic year. With the increase of Muslim students, it is important for Fordham to properly provide accommodations to their students who entrust Fordham with their college education and experience. It not only supports Fordham’s mission of inclusivity but also listens to the voices of its students. Additionally, halal food tends to be regarded as healthier than many other options.”

“The students we talked to say it’s on-trend. [Halal food is] healthy, it’s more plant-based. Almost any food item can be halal, but the items on the menu [at Schmeltzer] are in line with what people are perceiving as what is healthy today,” said Yuan.

Before the addition of halal food to Schmeltzer, it was difficult for students who kept a halal diet to eat on campus. According to Chisti, before halal food was widely avaiable on campus, most Muslim students had to keep a vegetarain diet out of circumstance.

“I know some students who would want to eat but would not have time to go outside to get halal food, because of classes or assignments. It was inconvenient for Muslim students to keep going outside of Fordham when they really didn’t have the opportunity to leave,” said Chisti.

Schmeltzer Dining Room began serving halal food in fall of 2021; however, the location did not receive the customer traffic that Yuan thought would happen.

“I was of the mindset that people would come because that’s what happened at other schools I was involved with before Fordham, but we had put it in spaces that were already popular,” said Yuan. “I’m not really sure how many students knew that Schmeltzer was there. Anyone on a meal plan could go over to Schmeltzer and use their swipes or declining balance, as well as any other tender.”

In order to increase its popularity, Fordham Dining has partnered with the Fordham Lincoln Center Muslim Student Association (MSA). This partnership is aimed to help bring attention to the halal options on campus. According to Yuan, the reason halal food ended up in Schmeltzer was simply due to immediate availability. The food vendor that had been there previously was no longer there, making it easy for a halal station to open. Despite that, there are still plans for more halal food to come to the Rose Hill campus. According to Yuan, there are plans to have an even more robust halal station in the renovated McGinley Marketplace.

“Lincoln Center was easier because we already had a counter there. At Rose Hill, we don’t have an empty space that’s immediately apparent. However, in the renovation plans for the McGinley Marketplace, [which] renovation should start around March in 2023, in the plans for that is a 100% halal location. [The location will be] supported with halal production and we could probably offer more variety of halal items there,” said Yuan.

However, Yuan noted that in the more immediate future, there are still plans to try and open up a second halal station at Rose Hill. “In the meantime, now that the partner has expressed they want to go to Rose Hill, we’re looking for a place to put it in. There just isn’t space immediately available, but we are looking,” said Yuan.

Fordham’s Rose Hill Muslim Student Association did not respond to requests for interviews.