It looks like the best option is to go vegetarian. I think that it would be unfair to place such a burden on the Mexico Wikimania organisers when most travel guides are quite explicit about the difficuty of getting Halal certified food. Must be the same for Kosher food.

http://www.halaltrip.com/other/blog/halal-food-in-mexico-city-be-well-prepared/

Best regards
Gabe

On Tue, May 12, 2015 at 4:03 PM, Stuart Prior <stuart.prior@wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:
It's even a bit more complex than just sourcing a particular type of food.
You also have to make sure that it all arrives at the same time as the rest of the catering, and that it is allocated to exactly the right people. 

I can imagine the disappointment of those at finding out that there are no arrangements to provide Halal/Kosher food, but I think it would be somewhat worse if promises were made that for whatever reason couldn't be kept, because someone accidentally ate someone's Kosher meal, specific meals did not meet expected standards or delivery was delayed.
All entirely possible when you're catering for >1000 people.

As people have mentioned, it's contextual. So while sourcing Halal food in Islamabad and Kosher food in Tel Aviv would be easy and cheap, sourcing either in Mexico City is somewhat harder to do.

I am sure that the local bid team will do their best to provide information about where attendees can get hold of particular types of food.

Best

Stuart (User:Battleofalma)

On 12 May 2015 at 14:05, Pharos <pharosofalexandria@gmail.com> wrote:
I happen to live in a neighborhood of Brooklyn with both extensive Kosher and Halal options (which is probably not a coincidence, since there is significant overlap in rules).  But Mexico City has a different cultural mix than New York City or London.

I can understand, though, that it may be too expensive and difficult to get Kosher or Halal meat, or indeed fully catered meals, for Wikimania in Mexico City.

Bur I would suggest going to a supermarket and getting something like a pre-packaged hummus with K and H marks, and some plain fruits and vegetables, so folks like this can at least have snack options during the conference sessions, and that can tide them over if they want to go out for a full meal fulfilling their dietary preferences later.

Thanks,
Richard
(User:Pharos)

On Tue, May 12, 2015 at 5:38 AM, Gordon Joly <gordon.joly@pobox.com> wrote:
On 05/05/15 23:22, Ellie Young wrote:
> We will try our best.  And as Stuart says we don’t have access to
> reasonably priced kosher or halal service for those.
>


I find that an odd statement, where from my perspective halal is the
norm. I live in the East End of London, less than 10 km from Wikimania
in Barbican in 2014. Tesco (at Bromley by Bow) has opened a meat counter
in recent years that is 100% halal. All the "chicken shops" in area
halal, and I believe that local butchers are exclusively halal. My
knowledge ends there, since I am a vegetarian.

It will be different in other part of London, and other parts of the
World...

When in Rome?

Gordo


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