Overview
- At a Sept. 24 press conference, the city’s Board of Education said there is no decision or program to provide lunches tailored specifically to Muslim students.
- City officials reported over 1,000 phone calls and emails in roughly six days, with the volume disrupting municipal operations.
- A petition submitted in June 2023 seeking removal of pork and pork extract from lunches was never adopted and was formally shelved in February 2025.
- In February 2025, schools served a single-day “Nikoniko” menu that excluded 28 allergen items, including pork, which incidentally accommodated some Muslim students but was not a halal program.
- SNS posts conflated these facts and spread xenophobic messages, and some complaints also miscast a June 2025 cooperation pact with India’s Telangana as an immigration measure; on Sept. 25 the mayor criticized national policy gaps for fueling public anxiety.