1, 2, 3 Strikes You’re Out…at the kosher hot dog machine?
The Boston Herald announced that Fenway Park is installing a kosher hot dog vending machine:
The home of the Fenway Frank, which claims to sell more hot dogs than any other ballpark in the country, is adding a new option for Jewish fans who adhere to strict kosher dietary laws. A new automated “Hot Nosh” vending machine, to be located in the big concourse under the bleachers, will cook and dispense all-beef, glatt kosher hot dogs in under a minute.
That’s cool at the ballpark, but how about in a Jewish day school?
Feder first eyed Kosher Vending Industries because his children’s Jewish day school, the Maimonides School in Brookline, lacked a hot lunch program. After Passover, the school will roll out another Hot Nosh machine that cooks and dispenses kosher pizza, mozzarella sticks, vegetable cutlets, onion rings and potato knishes.
Um, are there any Jewish foods - vendable! - which aren’t fried and unhealthy? And since when did mozzarella sticks and onion rings make it into the “Jewish” cultural food category?
Plus, there’s more Jewish weiners (and thus a few more Weiners) in the ballpark pews these days.
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5 Responses to “1, 2, 3 Strikes You’re Out…at the kosher hot dog machine?”
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Hillary Says:
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:01 amI love this post - nicely done! I had seen this vending machine but didn’t know it was actually being implemented somewhere - cool! Props to Fenway for trying this out. I wonder if it will catch on!
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Tovah Says:
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:21 pmThis vending machine is, thankfully, installed at the Hackensack Medical Center - When my partner’s dad was in the hospital for several weeks, neither of us dared to buy anything from it (we are both trying to eat more healthfully) but yet stood in front of it several times, feeling grateful that IF we could/would/had to eat machine-vended fried/processed kosher food, WE COULD! Being kosher when you’re a patient (or have a family member who’s a patient) in a hospital is rough. It meant a lot to see tha they were making more efforts to accommodate kosher patients and employees and their families. Still… Would it hurt for the machine to have a vegetarian soup or something else that I might actually consider eating? ;-P
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aliza Says:
April 4th, 2008 at 11:21 amyeah, sorry to those of you who think this is wonderful, but the concept of ADDING a vending machine selling fried food, kosher or not, to a school or a hospital is rather frightening.
I can’t speak from having been in your shoes, Tovah, but frankly, I think this is almost as bad as having no options for kosher folks bc it re-inforces a culture of terrible food as the only option. As a Boston-are a resident, I’m pretty embarrassed that Maimonides has installed this machine and am curious about how parents feel about it.
Although vending machine food in general is pretty gross, there are definitely healthier options like apples, granola bars (that don’t have the kashrut issues) or sandwiches, that can give alternatives to the heart-attack-on-a-plate options of that machine.
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Tovah Says:
April 7th, 2008 at 7:26 pmAliza - Being unable to leave somewhere (such as a hospital) that has limited options for kosher food is a bad experience that most kosher people deal with at some point. I don’t disagree with the issue of resisting the culture of terrible food as the only option. But until kosher (and I mean truly kosher, hechshered) options exist that are available 24/7 at a hospital where a religious Jew is staying with their critically ill family member… this is better than nothing. My partner stayed at the hospital 24 hours a day with her dad at one point (they don’t have limited visiting hours) and there were long stretches of time where the cafeteria was closed so the option would have been a knish or hot dog from the kosher vending machine or a candy bar from the regular vending machine. Gratefully, she was prepared in advance and brought food from home. But a lot of people don’t have that option when a family member is suddenly hospitalized. I would love to see better options. Hackensack in particular does have some better options - They now have an area where you can buy a kosher yogurt or soup or sandwich…but only when the cafeteria is open AND they’re not out of stock on everything (which appears to be often).
And no, vending machines don’t belong in schools and neither does junk food of any sort. I find the presence of a machine like this in a school for children very depressing.
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Rachael Says:
April 7th, 2008 at 8:18 pmIn schools/bad, but at a ballpark? FAB. I only wish Dodger Stadium offered this. The only way to get a kosher frank there is on special “Kosher” days (when a lot of Jewish day camps are coming out.)otherwise, the food options are slim (and you cant bring food in.)…so I would love that!
