{"id":4017,"date":"2021-10-16T15:11:54","date_gmt":"2021-10-16T19:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/?p=4017"},"modified":"2021-12-13T15:13:27","modified_gmt":"2021-12-13T20:13:27","slug":"hunter-community-welcomes-back-halal-cart-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/2021\/10\/hunter-community-welcomes-back-halal-cart-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunter Community Welcomes Back Halal Cart Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nWhen Bart Halibart, a biochemistry major, stopped by campus this past June, a worker at the Hunter Halal Food cart gifted him a free meal. \u201cHe didn’t give a reason. He just smiled at me and said, \u2018Here you go, free food for you,\u2019\u2019\u2019 said Halibart.<\/p>\n

A small interaction from months ago, and yet this small act of kindness remains fresh in his memories. This connection is one a lot of students can relate to. The men who work on the halal carts around Hunter College have been providing friendly smiles and warm meals for decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see students from like 10 years ago. They [are] always like \u2018Hey! How are you doing?\u2019 It\u2019s really great when I see them,\u201d said Victor Amasdel who has worked in front of Hunter for almost sixteen years at The Roadside Grill.<\/p>\n

Prior to the pandemic his business was thriving. \u201cBefore the coronavirus, it’s very busy. We are so crazy. We started early in the morning, like nine o\u2019clock to seven o\u2019clock. We don’t stop,\u201d said Amasdel. \u201cWe don’t eat. We don’t even get lunch or use the bathroom, working it straight, so busy. But right now,\u201d business has slowed.<\/p>\n

\"\"The carts depend upon the Hunter College community. \u201cThe difference between class and no class is a difference of like 85%. We would make 15% of what we used to make if there’s no school,\u201d said Alex Kwan, co-owner of the Asian halal cart Terry and Yaki. \u201cThey are pretty much our business, so we are really grateful that they\u2019re back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Terry and Yaki will also be back on campus full time this November. A new truck is in the process of being built that is specifically for Hunter College, which will come with a new item on the menu, the \u201cSuperfood bowl\u201d\u2014 its signature chicken teriyaki stir fried with kale, purple cabbage, and carrots served on top of white rice \u2014 will be exclusive to the East side location.<\/p>\n

Their cart has been sorely missed by the students. \u201cWe\u2019ve been getting a lot of emails and messages in the past three, four weeks. Students keeps saying \u2018Oh we\u2019ve passed by and you haven’t been here in three days, we hope you haven’t left, please come back,\u2019 and it breaks our hearts,\u201d said Kwan. \u201cThe students are great. They are our best customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of the workers are thrilled to see the students return to campus. \u201cWhen the people come back, the life comes back,\u201d said Hasan Mohammed, who sometimes goes by Khalid (\u201cLike DJ Khalid\u201d). He has worked at the Hunter Halal Kitchen for 10 years and loves the community here. \u201cI have a lot of friends from the college,\u201d said Mohammed. He missed the students after the shutdown, but little by little they are coming back.<\/p>\n

For junior Bart Halibart, the chicken over rice from the Hunter Halal Food cart, a family owned business by Elsayed, who uses only one name, was what he missed most. \u201cIt was just a comfort meal. I had it right after class, or in between classes I would grab it quick.\u201d Now that students are back on campus, this sense of routine is slowly returning. Business is not what it once was pre-pandemic, but all of the carts are ecstatic that students are back on campus and hope it will improve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local street food vendors are thrilled to see students return to campus. \u201cWhen the people come back, the life comes back,\u201d one said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":4033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[338,461,13],"class_list":["post-4017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-community","tag-halal","tag-hunter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4017"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4065,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4017\/revisions\/4065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}