Portland schools say they're the nation's first to offer daily halal meals for all ages

Yahoo

12 hours ago

Jun. 14—At Lyman Moore Middle School in Portland's North Deering neighborhood on a recent Wednesday, students streamed into the cafeteria in waves for lunch. Alongside classic offerings like hot dogs and baby carrots was a halal-certified beef and bean burrito.
One student who grabbed it was sixth-grader Radiya Ahmed, 12, who said she eats halal at home and now takes the cafeteria's new certified option almost every day. It's a choice available to all students in all grades at Portland Public Schools since a districtwide rollout in April.
"I like burritos and it's good that it's halal," said Ahmed, who prior to the rollout was eating cheese pizza for lunch every single day. Other Muslim students were skipping the meal entirely, school leaders say.
The program was born out of a drive to provide meals for the district's growing Muslim population and a desire to bring culturally relevant food to school cafeterias. For years, Portland school officials say they and families have worried that Muslim students just aren't eating lunch at school because of a lack of halal options. Now, students can select a halal-certified meal every day and three days each week it's also a vegan meal, like a chickpea curry or veggie burger.
The district and its partners believe Portland is the country's first district to offer daily halal-certified school meals for all K-12 students, something made possible because of the district's central kitchen structure and a partnership with local organizations including the Halal School Meals Network.
"This is something that has been identified as a priority by our community and students," said Jen Montague, Portland's food service director. "It is challenging for students to succeed when they are hungry, yet many of our Muslim students — a number of whom come from low-income and food-insecure households — couldn't eat our free school meals because of the lack of suitable halal options."
Halal, an Arabic word meaning "lawful," describes a way of eating observed by a majority of Muslims — free of pork and alcohol and following standards of cleanliness around food preparation.
Lyman Moore Principal Darralynn Jones said Muslim students, some struggling with both hunger and isolation from their peers, have been excited about the halal options. She also heard positive feedback from parents who previously had to pack a lunch for their children every day.
CULTURALLY IMPORTANT MENUS
In 2017, Portland school administrators and parents became concerned about food insecurity in the district. That kicked off a needs assessment, in partnership with the Cumberland County Food Security Council and other organizations, that led to the development of culturally important menus and the goal of introducing foods that are familiar to students from immigrant backgrounds into the lunch menu.
Chefs like Khadija Ahmed, who runs the African food pantry and market Food For All Services, were invited into schools to work with food service staff to develop those menu items.
"We were just getting overwhelming positive feedback from students, hearing that they loved the recipes and they were so happy to eat things that reminded them of their home cooking," said Zoe Grodsky, school food systems manager with the food security council. "But we were also getting feedback from students that they were excited to see the recipes, but couldn't eat them."
The problem was, even though the meals were familiar, they weren't halal.
"We were seeing that Muslim families just weren't trusting that the food would meet their cultural and faith requirements," said Jim Hanna, director of the food security council.
As a result, some students weren't eating lunch at school. The council reached out to imams and hosted focus groups with Muslim families to better understand their needs.
Ahmed founded the Halal School Meals Network in early 2023. She had also worked with Westbrook schools, where the food service director reached out with similar concerns. That school district now provides halal meals at the high school level. Her organization provides resources like recipes, training, education and coordination with a third-party halal certifier, the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America.
Ahmed, whose own children attended local public schools, said as a parent and immigrant, food equity is about much more than hunger.
"Students of color are expected to perform twice as better as their white counterparts, and we are talking about kids who are coming into this new space where the people that are serving their food don't look like their mother," she said. "And then the food we are serving is not food that their bodies recognize, because it is not their culture."
PORTLAND ROLLOUT
Portland piloted a halal meals program at Amanda C. Rowe Elementary School in April 2024. The district had already eliminated all pork products from school meals, and then worked with the Halal School Meals Network to certify its central kitchen and figure out how rollout could look in each individual school.
Montague said the district submits a list of foods it hopes to use to the third-party certifier, who then traces the production history of that item to determine if it's halal.
Local, certified meats are the most difficult to source, so the district currently uses pre-produced burritos and popcorn chicken, although Montague hopes that next year they'll be able to introduce more scratch-made halal meat and vegan dishes. Ahmed has already developed a number of halal recipes for schools to use.
Montague said food service staff have been instrumental in making the rollout possible.
Across the district, about 4% of meals that have been served since April are halal-certified. Montague said she expects that number to rise as the the district continues to build trust and relationships with Muslim families, and improve the variety and quality of its halal menu. She meets monthly with the Muslim Students Association at Deering High School to discuss the program.
"And one of the most important things we don't want to underestimate is how important it is for other students to better understand what halal is," Montague said. "It's taking the mystery out of that for the entire school."
School districts don't collect data on student religion, but a 2021 survey of Portland students and families revealed that about 10% of students observed a halal diet, and that population is growing. A 2024 survey showed that more than a quarter of high schoolers follow a halal diet or prefer to.
Ahmed said halal certification has brought increased attention to food systems in Portland schools that also benefits other dietary restrictions. The vegetarian and vegan meals are now thoroughly certified to eliminate cross-contamination or animal byproducts.
She is currently working with schools in the Lewiston-Auburn area to roll out a similar program. Ahmed said the beauty of halal is that non-Muslim students can still eat it — certification just levels the playing field for food access.
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