By Mark Choy
For Mitzpeh
The front of David Chu’s China Bistro restaurant, providers of the Chinese food at Kedma’s Chinese Food Shabbat. (Photo of David Chu’s China Bistro/ Google)
Amidst this university’s finals week, Kedma’s Chinese Food Shabbat is a fundraiser that serves Kosher Chinese food to students who don’t want to cook during the week of final exams. Kedma, this university’s Orthodox community, holds it every semester.
Gabe Dayanim, a junior neuroscience major and Shabbat Chair of Kedma, explained how the Chinese Food Shabbat dinner allows for students to have one less thing to worry about. This Shabbat also doubles as a fundraiser to support future Kedma events.
“The event was started because we know a lot of people can be stressed about cooking for Sabbath meals during finals and wanted to make things a bit easier for them,” said Dayanim.
Although there was no exact number of participants, he estimated that 70-150 people ordered food through this event. These students are not just in Kedma but from other Jewish student organizations like Hillel.
This makes the Chinese Food Shabbat one of the more successful events across the Jewish community at this university.
This event has had a long successful history in Kedma, due to the ease of coordination with technology like Google Forms. In addition, the prior Chinese Food Shabbat events have helped lay the groundwork for a successful delivery system.
Delivering food to over 70 attendees can be a logistical challenge, but this Shabbat was able to coordinate the deliveries to all the attendees.
Ayelet Fried, a freshman environmental science major and Fundraising Chair of Kedma, spoke about the importance of hosting events like the Chinese Food Shabbat.
The money that is generated from these types of events can be used later on to fund many more events for the Kedma community. These events include social events like Lag Ba’Omer Laser Tag and future Shabbat meals hosted by the organization.
However, the primary goal of this event is to provide an opportunity for students to relax a bit during finals week and have a change of food.
“This event was a great time. Many people from the community came together to enjoy the Sabbath as well as Chinese food,” said Fried.
A large part of the success is also due to Kedma’s relationship with the restaurant David Chu’s China Bistro in Baltimore. This restaurant has been delivering specifically Kosher Chinese dishes to Kedma for many years.
David Chu’s China Bistro’s goal when first opening up was to provide Kosher food to the Jewish community in Baltimore. Now they are a staple of their community and serve their Jewish regulars consistently.
“It’s not too hard at all [to work with David Chu’s]! Thankfully we have a great relationship with the restaurant since we’ve been doing it for a few years with them and they’re happy to help us make it work!” said Dayanim.
Amy Chu, one of the owners of David Chu’s China Bistro, spoke on the positive relationship the restaurant has with the Kedma organization.
“We have enjoyed working with them and will continue to work with them in the next years,” said Chu.
Due to the positive reception of the Chinese Shabbat throughout the years, this fundraiser will continue next year.
Kedma members who missed out on the event this year should be sure to watch out for Kedma’s email and sign up on their Google Forms during the next final season.
