Correction appended.
Though the University offers two meal plans for students who keep kosher, the plans are on few students' radars. Only 20 students are enrolled in the plans this year, a slight decrease from last year. Brown Dining Services offers both a 14-meals-per-week kosher plan and a Flex 20 kosher planto give students more options at campus eateries. This is the second year the Flex 20 plan has been offered.
The Flex 20 plan costs about $300 more than the 14-meals-per-week plan, but the variations in the options are minimal. Of the 20 students on kosher plans, 18 are on the Flex 20 plan.
The University has been offering some form of kosher meal plan since 1994, said Gretchen Willis, director of dining services. Before that, students who kept kosher ate their meals through the Brown/RISD Hillel. When students complained that their mealtimes felt antisocial and removed from the Sharpe Refectory, Dining Services stepped in. "Dining Services made a meal plan so that students could observe the kosher laws and eat with friends," Willis said.
Since the switch, students participating in the kosher plan eat catered meals from the Ratty on weekdays. On Saturdays, Sundays and Jewish holidays, the meal plan covers meals served at Hillel, Willis said. The kosher plan is more expensive than other meal plans because the University purchases rationed meals for each student on the plan. Kosher meals must be prepared in kosher kitchens, but the University does not have a kosher kitchen on campus. An off-campus chef prepares kosher meals, which students can then pick up in a separate room at the Ratty that requires a special key for access.
The Flex plan covers lunch and dinner in the Ratty, and then offers six Flex meals, which students can use in eateries including Josiah's, the Ivy Room, the Gate and the Blue Room. Willis acknowledged that students who are strict observers of kosher law would probably not benefit from this meal plan because most of these eateries do not have kosher options. The meals prepared at Hillel and the catered meals at the Ratty are the only strictly kosher meals on campus, she said.
Willis said dining services notified students who were already enrolled in the old kosher plan about the new Flex plan when it was created three years ago. Samuel Schmelzer GS, who was on the kosher plan last year, said he was unaware of the Flex option for kosher students.
Schmelzer said he is thankful the kosher option exists, but there is still "room for improvement," he added — "especially if you are leaning towards stricter standards."
Marshall Einhorn, executive director of Hillel, said he was unaware of the Flex kosher meal option.
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that dining services created the Flex 20 kosher meal plan three years ago. In fact, this is only the second year the plan has been offered. The Herald regrets the error.
