Exclusive | NYCs free summer meal program for kids offers halal food without listing kosher options

The city Department of Education’s summer meal program for NYC youths boasts a variety of halal options at more than 25 locations citywide, but kosher food “must be specially ordered,” officials told The Post.Free breakfasts and lunches will be served at hundreds of locations – schools, pools, libraries and parks – for anyone up to 18 years old, including all students from both public and private schools.“You don’t need to sign up, show any papers, or have an ID to get these meals,” the DOE says.“Just head to one of our spots and enjoy a delicious breakfast and lunch.”Halal food –  permissible for Muslims to eat under Islamic law –  is available for the taking by anyone who shows up at the listed locations.Kosher food, for observant Jewish kids, is not mentioned on the DOE website.Only when asked by The Post, the DOE said kosher meals “must be specially ordered, and they are only available upon request.

However we do not currently have any applications for kosher meals.”The glaring omission angered some Jewish advocates.“The DOE’s clear promotion of halal options alongside silence on kosher meals highlights a gap that needs urgent attention,’’ said Karen Feldman, a DOE teacher and co-founder of the NYCPS Alliance, which fights antisemitism in the city public schools.“Jewish families who keep kosher deserve the same outreach to feel fully included in this important program.”A similar controversy erupted in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, when the City Council’s Jewish Caucus demanded that Mayor De Blasio’s DOE include kosher meals along with vegetarian and halal food for Muslims in its free meal program.The DOE does not track students by religion, but an estimated 10 percent of NYC public-school students, roughly 100,000, are Muslim. The number of Jewish kids in NYC public schools is unclear, but 105,776 K-12 students enrolled in private Jewish schools in 2024-2025, said Gabriel Aaronson, director of policy and researc...