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Matzav Inbox: Is Treif Being Served in Camp Canteens?
2026 July 16__________________________________________
DISCLAIMER:I did NOT write this article or any part of it.
I do NOT KNOW who wrote this article.
I just copied it exactly, from the Matzav Inbox.
__________________________________________
Dear Matzav Inbox,Every summer we hear speeches about kedushah.
Every summer there are campaigns about guarding our eyes,
guarding our mouths, guarding our children’s ruchniyus.Every summer we are reminded that camp is not just recreation.
It is an extension of the home and the yeshivah. Beautiful. Inspiring.
But then I walk into some camp canteens and I wonder
if anyone has stopped for five minutes to think about
the most basic thing that goes into a Yid’s body: the food.Our community has become obsessed with hashgachos.
We will spend an hour discussing whether one hechsher is better than another.
We will call rabbanim about a new product.
We will refuse invitations because the standards are not exactly what we hold by.
People will not touch a cookie until they have examined every symbol on the package.And then camp opens.
Suddenly, the standards that would never be tolerated anywhere else are somehow perfectly acceptable.
I have seen camp canteens from the inside. I know how they operate.
I am not talking from rumors. I am talking from experience.
In too many places, the entire operation is being run by teenagers.
Good boys? Absolutely. Ehrliche boys? I am sure.But They are still teenagers. They are rushing, They are joking,
They are distracted, They are trying to keep hundreds of campers happy,
and somehow we have decided that this is an appropriate environment
to run a food operation with zero adult oversight.Why? Can someone please explain this to me?
If a pizza store in Brooklyn operated this way, would anybody eat there?
If a caterer had sixteen-year-olds running the kitchen
while the mashgiach was nowhere to be found for hours at a time,
would anyone in our community touch the food?They would be shut down before supper. There would be outrage.
There would be endless conversations. WhatsApp would explode.But because It is “camp,” everyone shrugs.
Since when is “it will work out” a standard in hilchos kashrus?Mistakes happen. Things get mixed up. Someone grabs the wrong utensil.
Someone heats something where they should not.
Someone puts something back in the wrong place.
Someone opens the wrong package. Someone forgets.
Someone does not know. Someone was never taught.
That is why every serious kitchen has supervision.Where are the people who normally scream about kashrus?
Where are the organizations? Where are the rabbanim?
Where are the parents asking the questions they ask everywhere else?Parents spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to send children
to camp because they want them to grow in Torah and yiras Shamayim.They assume, rightfully, that the camp is taking kashrus as seriously as they do at home.
They do not imagine that one of the most sensitive areas in camp is operating on autopilot.Kashrus in a canteen cannot simply be left to whoever happens to be behind the counter.
It deserves a real system. It deserves accountability.
It deserves someone whose entire job is to make sure nothing goes wrong.We do not compromise on safety.
We have lifeguards watching the lake every second.
We have nurses for every scrape and fever.
We have security because we do not say, “Eh, it will probably be okay.”
Why is kashrus any different?
Why are we willing to gamble with something that the Torah treats with such seriousness?I would much rather people be offended by this letter than have
another summer go by where everyone pretends there is not a problem.If I am wrong, prove me wrong. Show me the mashgichim.
Show me the systems. Show me the oversight.
Show parents that someone is actually taking responsibility.
But if I am right, and I believe I am, then stop looking the other way.We keep telling our children that Torah is not seasonal.
That mitzvos do not go on vacation.
That standards do not change because It is July and August.Maybe It is time the people who run canteens start believing that too.
Sincerely,)
A Former Canteen Employee)__________________________________________
The opinions expressed in letters on Matzav.com
do not necessarily reflect the stance of the Matzav Media Network.__________________________________________
PERSONAL COMMENT:If you have any complaints against this article,
then PLEASE direct your complaints to Matzav,
not to me, because Matzav is the source of this article, not me.
Additionally, I do NOT claim to be an expert in Kashrus,
and I do NOT claim to know the correct answers
to the serious questions that are asked by the letter shown above.THANK YOU!
PS: And I wish all Jews a very easy fast on Tisha BeAv
and a very easy fast on Yom Kippur.__________________________________________
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Kashrus is a system built to be run by reasonably responsible post bsar/bat mitzva Jews. Some halochos are there to prevent mistakes.
If you are so much afraid of mistakes, star by stopping eating in your kitchen without a masgiach temidi.
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