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Clean, Green And Kosher

WSU's new veggie cafe has both the bulgur and the blessing.

Esther Aliweiss Inqber I Contributing Writer

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of kashrut on premises. Ruth Goodman,
co-owner of Sara's Glatt Kosher Deli and
Restaurant in the Jewish Community Center
in Oak Park, supervises product deliveries
and food preparation/service during the
day. Her counterpart, Josh Marzouek, works
Monday-Thursday evenings.
Word has been getting out about Gold 'n
Greens since its "soft opening" on Aug. 27; it
will become official later this month.
"I've eaten here almost every day, and my
wife, Susanna, and our children like it, too.
Jews and non-Jews tell me it's the best place
to eat on campus," said John Klein, a WSU
math department faculty member.
"The number of diners is growing signifi-
cantly every week': said a very pleased Tim
Michael, associate vice president for business
operations at WSU. He worked with Miriam
Starkman, executive director of Hillel of
Metro Detroit, Rabbi Krupnik and leadership
of AVI Foodsystems, the campus' Ohio-based
food service provider, to bring kosher dining
to Wayne State.
"[University of] Michigan and Michigan
State [University] don't have anything like
this for kosher dining," said Starkman, whose
Jewish student organization is situated in
a building less than a five-minute walk
from Gold 'n Greens. Indeed, said Krupnik,
Wayne State has "the only kosher kitchen of
its kind on any public university campus."

A Need For Change
While Hillel had long provided kosher food
for Jewish students on campus, "we never
were in the kosher food business," Starkman
said. A change became necessary when the
fire marshal told her the exhaust system
from the Hillel kitchen, through the building
and to the outside, was no longer up to code.
The repair was going to be very costly — too
costly for Hillel to pay.
Starkman approached Michael of the WSU
administration to discuss options for accom-
modating kosher-keeping students. The tim-
ing was fortuitous. Wayne State had noticed
a decline in its customer base, combined
with a growing demand for the university to
try new things with its food program.
Campus groups affiliated with Hillel, such
as the Jewish Student Organization, Students
for Israel and two Wayne State associations,
one for Jewish law, the other for Jewish
medical students, were among "our custom-
ers telling us they wanted more veggie, vegan
and healthy options:' Michael said. "So we
had been thinking about doing vegetarian/
healthy dining for about two years."

8

October 18 = 2012

FacifityManager
'Aaron Zanders

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ghts, Ohio

Jefferice Smith with mashgiach

Ruth Goodman of West Bloomfield

muttiosiamistrisam, -

The new Gold 'n' Greens brings kosher dining to Wayne State's
Detroit campus.

Brittany Karson of West Bloomfield and Shugmi

Shumunov of Southfield get ready to enjoy their meal.

.-■

Jefferice Smith of Detroit serves hungry patrons.

The university, he said, concluded that
this type of cuisine could be a "recruit-
ing tool for bringing more people down
to campus:' including Orthodox and
Conservative Jews, Muslims, Indian stu-
dents and vegetarians.

As the project talks began, Michael enlist-
ed the expertise of AVI Foodsystems and its
district manager Karl Skokas, campus food
services manager Susan Schmidt and direc-
tor of operations Farhad Shahbazian.
The planners, including Starkman, ini-

tially considered offering kosher dining in
the Warrior Grille, a non-kosher dining
operation in Ghafari Residence. Over dis-
cussions, the idea evolved into the current
concept of having Gold 'n' Greens replace
the entire 10-year-old dining hall.