Boycott efforts economically unsound
I hope the students who prompted this whole witch hunt against
Taco Bell are happy.
They’ve successfully put all the students who worked at
that Taco Bell out of a job and reduced the income of the farm
workers they were (ignorantly) trying to help.
That was clever thinking on their part: We’ve arbitrarily
decided that the market forces are failing in the Florida
tomato-picking industry, so to help them we should put their
employers out of business!
It’s better to make nothing and be righteously indignant
than to work for what people are willing to pay, right?
Chad Hansen Third-year mathematics student
Coffee Bean a blessing for kosher students
The Oct. 21 article “New Coffee Bean locations brew up
mixed student reaction,” contained a glaring omission.
First-year student Serena Vartazarian, quoted in the story,
bemoans the possible loss of business to Relaxtation and Kerckhoff
Coffeehouse, without considering the impact on students who may
only eat kosher products.
Currently UCLA provides no kosher restaurants for students or
kosher meal plan options for undergraduates.
This is in stark contrast to many other universities with
significant Jewish populations.
Students who may only eat kosher products are grateful that
there are a few packaged kosher sandwiches in Ackerman and a
Baskin-Robbins on campus, but these are slim pickings indeed.
Coffee Bean is a godsend for those who eat kosher products,
serving not just kosher drinks, but pastries and sandwiches as
well.
Imagine the outcry from compassionate UCLA students if
vegetarians had no meal options.
In fact, the Coffee Bean’s kosher status means that its
food and drinks are guaranteed not to have any animal derivatives
in them.
If student activists are concerned about having smaller, locally
owned restaurants on campus, I would ask them to open negotiations
with a local kosher vendor.
Hillel tried that last spring with the now-defunct Mr. Pickles,
but because UCLA would not allow students on the meal plan to use
their funds there, it hasn’t been lucrative enough to find a
replacement.
In the future, I would hope any articles about restaurants on
the UCLA campus will look at the impact on minority students and
help the Jewish students on campus to gain equal footing with
everyone else in having meal options.
David Zarmi Second-year law student