For Students at Penn Hillel, Every Meal is a Celebration
At the center of Jewish life at the University of Pennsylvania is the Falk Dining Café, the kosher dining hall located on the first floor of Penn Hillel. Falk has become a home away from home for Jewish Quakers, in large part thanks to the delicious food, hospitality, and the hard work of Chef Jason Ewen and his team.
“Our dining hall at Hillel acts as a true heartbeat of campus, providing a warm space where Jewish students find home with one another while naturally building bridges with their non-Jewish peers,” said Rabbi Gabe Greenberg, executive director of Penn Hillel. “It stands as a unique crossroads where students of all backgrounds can interact and share perspectives, proving that a shared meal is the most natural foundation for a lasting sense of community and belonging.”
Penn has a Jewish population of about 1,300 students, and many of them find their way to Falk, which serves a fully Glatt kosher menu, throughout their time on campus. After all, it’s more than just a place to eat – it is a place of trust, familiarity, and friendship.
“It’s a much more communal atmosphere than you might expect at a college cafeteria,” Ewen explained. “We know probably 85% of the students who come through here by their first names.”
“The students are fantastic,” he added, noting that the staff and students both look out for one another. “They know that if it’s a busy day, and the guys are on the line pumping out, you know, 500 chicken wraps, and they’re all hot and sweaty, and the students will be like, ‘Hey, Elijah, you want something to drink?’ And they’ll go to the soda fountain and get them a soda. Everyone takes care of each other here.”
Ewen prides himself on paying close attention to the students who come to dine, especially because there are some who solely keep kosher — meaning Falk is the only place where they can sit down with friends for a full meal. His goal is to make sure that kosher students and those with other dietary needs have as many opportunities to enjoy their food as any other student.
“I met Chef Jason one of the first times I went into Hillel. He asked me why I wasn’t into the famous chicken wraps, and I told him that I was gluten-free,” said Jordan Davis, a third-year Penn student studying biology. “Instead of making a face or questioning why, he made sure to stock the kitchen with gluten-free wraps for meat days and pizza crusts and bread for dairy days.
“As someone with a food allergy, I have always been viewed as a problem or extra work for a kitchen but he didn’t blink an eye,” she went on. “He wanted to make sure I had the same experience as the rest of my classmates and he is one of the main reasons I am always in the dining room.”
For Passover this year, Ewen and his team buckled down for the intense cleaning and reorganizing process required to prepare a fully kosher kitchen for the holiday. To help keep everything on track, Falk has two full-time mashgichim, or kosher supervisors, on staff, as well as about a dozen rotating student mashgichim, who work in the kitchen on a daily basis to ensure that everything stays kosher.
“Everything is scrubbed and sanitized, and if it’s a stainless steel surface, it is blowtorched,” Ewen said, explaining the process of preparing the kitchen for Passover. “If it’s plastic, it is sanitized with boiling water. Then every surface is covered in a layer of foil, then a layer of paper.”
Penn Hillel will be hosting seders on both the first and second nights of Passover, and Falk is serving meals every day of the holiday. “We operate every day for Passover, so if there’s a student on campus who needs Passover food, this is where they come to get it,” Ewen said.
Ewen and his team are embracing Passover traditions, which he says are always special. But despite the amount of preparation and cleaning and care that goes into the holiday, for Ewen, every day he shows up to work is just as meaningful as any other.
“It’s a homey feeling,” he said. “My wife and kids stop in here all the time. The students know my family. We really have what feels like a home here.”
Still, he says, some memories do stand out. Sharing a story about a recent Shabbat dinner where almost 600 students packed into Steinhardt Hall, requiring two buffet lines on three different floors, Ewen recounted how his team ran up and down the stairs to refill buffet trays, the crowd constantly keeping things moving.
“It was chaos, but it was fun chaos,” he said. “Everybody was happy seeing that many people in one spot, celebrating together — eating good food and having a good time. It’s special.”
To find kosher dining on a college campus you’re considering, check out the Hillel International College Guide.