{"id":1367,"date":"2025-04-17T15:13:38","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T06:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/souqtimes.com\/?p=1367"},"modified":"2025-04-17T15:13:38","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T06:13:38","slug":"burger-boredom-hits-halal-school-meal-choices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/souqtimes.com\/ja\/culture\/1367\/","title":{"rendered":"Burger boredom hits halal school meal choices"},"content":{"rendered":"

From BBC<\/strong> <\/a>| March 24, 2025<\/p>\n

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Muslim children may be missing out on healthy school lunches due to limited halal options, a study has found.<\/p>\n

Pupils in Newcastle told Northumbria University researchers meals did not offer enough variety, with children bemoaning the prevalence of burgers.<\/p>\n

The issue could be particularly severe in north-east England as Muslim populations are relatively spread out across the region, Prof Greta Defeyter said.<\/p>\n

The research found some schools’ confidence in their provision was at odds with their pupils’ boredom with the choices on offer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As part of the\u00a0research<\/a>, Dr Zeb Sattar said she spoke with one headteacher who took her around the school’s dining hall and proudly spoke about how popular the halal burgers were with the children.<\/p>\n

“Then I spoke to the children and they said ‘we are sick of burgers, all we get is burgers’,” she said.<\/p>\n

The researchers looked at three primary and three secondary schools in Newcastle catering for Muslim populations ranging from 3% to 65%.<\/p>\n

They interviewed Muslim pupils, parents, catering workers and school staff.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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‘Balanced and equitable’<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Some pupils spoke about feeling awkward about asking whether a meat option in the school canteen was halal or not.<\/p>\n

“They sometimes just pick the other option [without asking],” said Prof Defeyter.<\/p>\n

Muslim children also struggled if they arrived to the canteen late as others may have already taken the halal meats on offer, she added.<\/p>\n

Prof Defeyter said she understood school meal budgets were tight but it was important to ensure all children attending school had a “balanced and equitable food choice”.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s only cost affordable within their plan to serve halal burgers, then we\u2019ve got to come up with other options,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The research team said it is working with schools, councils and caterers, as well as parents and children, to figure out how more halal foods can be introduced in a “socially just manner”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Follow BBC North East on\u00a0<\/i>X<\/i><\/a>,\u00a0<\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/a>,\u00a0<\/i>Nextdoor<\/i><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/i>Instagram<\/i><\/a>. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source:
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Murugesu, J. A. (2024, September 5). Halal food in Newcastle schools leading to \u201cburger boredom.\u201d<\/i> https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cvg5jzkzp6ro<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From BBC | March 24, 2025 Muslim children may be missing out on healthy school lunches due to limited halal op […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":1368,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[561,548],"class_list":["post-1367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-burger","tag-halal-meal","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/souqtimes.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/souqtimes.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/souqtimes.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/souqtimes.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/souqtimes.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1367"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/souqtimes.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1369,"href":"https:\/\/souqtimes.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1367\/revisions\/1369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/souqtimes.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/souqtimes.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/souqtimes.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/souqtimes.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}