On Easter, Val served gourmet baked ham, which was hand carved. While Amherst seemed more than willing to cook a fancy Easter Day lunch, not once was there any effort to prepare a traditional Passover meal. Moreover, I, as well as many of my friends, found keeping kosher for Passover and meals at Val to be mutually exclusive. Val's menus for the entire week showed little sensitivity and awareness of those observing the holiday. The vast majority of dishes were breaded, leaving me to pick at various meat salads.
In no way do I expect Val to cater completely to a relatively small body of students, but I do think it would be appropriate and considerate of Amherst to make sure that at least one option per meal, besides simply plain meats, is kosher for Passover. For example, on April 17, at lunch, Val offered buffalo chicken tenders, hot dogs (veggie) and potato chips at the grill, all of which are not kosher. At the traditional line, they served beef and tomato macaroni casserole, along with white and brown rice. There is literally nothing kosher on this menu, and I was thus forced to fend for myself at the salad bar. Breakfasts were no different; breakfast on April 14 consisted of fried eggs, sausage links, French toast, oatmeal, coffee cake and bagels. Once again, I was left with a miniscule amount of viable food, which translated into an empty stomach.
In light of the enormous effort Val makes each day to accommodate the small population of vegans at Amherst, I was pretty shocked, and quite frankly offended, by their apathy. If Val can offer a vegan meal and dessert option at every meal year round, it would be nice if it could offer similar kosher options for the eight days of Passover.
Furthermore, offering kosher meals would not have detracted from the multitude of available choices, and it is food that the entire Amherst community could enjoy. Though my Passover sedar at Hillel was amazing (and I should note how lucky Amherst is to have such a warm and active Hillel), the exclusivity of Val meals made me feel isolated from the community; I felt that I always had to explain to others why I was only eating vegetables and salad. And while it is unreasonable to expect Val to prepare matzos ball soup every night, one unbreaded meat dish per night is not.
Moreover, the efforts Val did make seemed half-hearted and insincere. The only consistently available "Jewish" food were scattered boxes of matzos left on top of the cereal island. Considering that most Jews purge their households of any grain products as both a resistance to temptation and a sign of respect, putting matzos boxes on top of the cereals also seemed slightly offensive. And though few can deny a soft spot for matzos pizza, such a minute selection just did not cut it.
Now, I am not suggesting that Val drastically change or direct its menu to satisfy the particular needs of one select portion of the student population. I am, however, advocating a change in Val's approach to the April holiday season. With little recourse outside of Val, as the holy trinity of wings, pizza and Chinese food are all off-limits, it is Amherst's responsibility to offer all of its students enough choices to suit their needs, especially religious ones.
Salik can be reached at jsalik09@amherst.edu