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Congresswomen Grace Meng, D-NY, is urging New York City public schools to provide halal meals to Muslim students.
“It is important that meals offered in New York City public schools reflect the growing Muslim populations that exist in our City, and I will continue to work with local officials to help make that happen,” Meng is quoted saying in a press release.
According to data gathered from several reliable sources, NYCReligion.info, puts the population of Muslims in the metropolitan area at around 770,000 or 3.8 percent. The growing number of mosques in the five boroughs also indicates a rise in the population of Muslims in the city. A 2015 report by NYCReligion.info, “A Journey Through NYC Religions,” counted 175 mosques in the five boroughs in 2010, rising to 285 in 2015. The Borough of Queens has 93 mosques, Brooklyn, 98, Bronx, 47, Manhattan, 39, and Staten Island, 8, according to the report.
Meng’s Congressional District 6 which covers parts of the diverse borough of Queens, also includes a significant number of Muslims. Last December she sent a letter to the United States Department of Agriculture, demanding halal food be offered in the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program. The agency recently replied saying that halal food is permitted under existing regulations, but that providing it is at the discretion of local school districts. Meng is pushing appropriate committees in Congress and the Federal government, to improve access to halal food for Muslim students, asking them to gather data on various aspects of the issue.
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