Chicago Companies Produce Kosher and Halal Meals for U.S. Military

December 29, 2004

Source: Chicago Tribune

https://chicagotribune.newspapers.com/search/#query=There+was+a+time+when+military+members+who+adhered+to+Jewish+or+Islamic+diet

On December 29, 2004 the Chicago Tribune reported, "There was a time when military members who adhered to Jewish or Islamic dietary requirements often faced the choice of violating their consciences or lugging their own rations in their duffel bags. But nowadays observant Jewish and Muslim troops in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq can dine guilt-free on meals such as chicken Mediterranean or Florentine lasagna from two Chicago companies that produce military rations. The kosher firm My Own Meals Inc. and its Islamic-oriented spinoff, J&M Co., are the military's sole providers of Meals Ready to Eat--a form of prepackaged rations--that meet the standards of the Jewish and Muslim diets. Produced under the eye of Jewish or Muslim inspectors, the meals have found a market niche in serving troops whose needs the Pentagon had overlooked until the mid-1990s."