Ramadan Summary

Summary

• Summary of this year• Room reservations• Catering (cost, reviews and catering)• Milk and dates• Tarawih + other religious programming• Summary for survey• Recommendations for next year

Catering

• Target cost per iftar dinner was $600.00 for 80 people– Includes drinks, etc– Target was $6.00-$7.00 per person for food

• Got bids from five caterers– Boston Kabab House: $8.00 per person (Turkish restaurant).

They also don’t cater on weekends– Sepal: $5.75 per person. Does not cater on Sat. Sunday is

reluctant as well– Bytes: $6.50 per person– Bon Apetite (Baker): $6.80 per person. – J&P Food Hut: $7.00 per person + $25 delivery

Catering

• Did not go with Boston Kabab House• Additional Food from other groups + families– Ms. Nasim Jahan (i.e. Nasim Mami in Bengali) (

Nasim.Jahan@bsci.com)– Iranian students arranged for dinner

Catering contacts

• Bon Apetit (Baker): Marietta Lamarre-Buck mlbuck@mit.edu

• Sepal: Walid Masoud. Just go to his restaurant

• Bytes Café: Mohamed Barry: Cell is 857-991-4818 and phone is 617-621-3513

• JMP Food Hut: (617) 787-9700. Say you are from MIT MSA. They know us.

Other recommendations

• Guru the Caterer. His email is guruthecaterer@gmail.com. He can make Halal food on demand and his charges are $7/person. Food is said to be good but you need to specify Halal food.

• Sabra Grill. Never been there but Deeni and Khaled say it’s good. Should contact them about this

General catering suggestions

• Aim for $6-$7• Always make sure that they will deliver.

Specify delivery location and time• Always specify payment timing. Explain that

fundraising is ongoing and that money is short– Bytes café is very good about this– JMP and Sepal is not

Catering: Bon Apetit (Baker)• Contemporary post ethnic cuisine• Payment is done by MIT internal transfer. Just give them account

number• Pros

– Professional– Not too expensive– Don’t need to worry about coordinating delivery

• Cons– Some folks complain about food– Baker is not the best venue since it tends to fragment the group. Not at

all conducive for spiritual reminders and announcements.• Things to look out for

– Baker is not open in the summer so check to see when they open

Catering: JMP• Indian cuisine• Catered from them for 4 nights• They do weekends and weekdays

– Very generous w/ food– Typical menu was Chicken Biryani, vegetable curry and white rice for vegetarians– Cost was $7/person + $25 for delivery– NOTE: Deeni ordered white rice, chicken curry and veg. dish for $6/person

• Overall experience– Pros

• Good food and generous• Professional

– Cons• They want payment on the spot. Need to create check before hand• Sometimes, they wanted to deliver food too early. Always negotiate delivery time

before hand

Catering: Bytes• Senegalese restaurant at University Park (• Mohamed Barry: or visit his reastaurant • Typical menu

– Rice– Chicken curry or chicken stew– Salad

• Cost + Payment schedule– $6.50 per person– All payment due after Ramadan. He got the checks ~2 weeks after Ramadan

and he was very nice about it• Recommendations

– Go to his restaurant and eat there several times before ordering. His food is good (he has a really good dish on Tuesdays) and it is a good way to build a relationship

Catering: Bytes

• He only cooks on weekdays• Overall Summary– Pro• Reasonable price• Very pleasant brother to deal with• Good quantity of food• Very generous in terms of payment schedule

– Cons• His food got mixed reviews. Some nights it was really

good. Other nights, some people complained

Catering: Sepal• Owner: Walid Masoud• Palestinian restaurant on 2nd floor of Lobdell• Contact info: walid@mit.edu, Go to his restaurant• Menu

– Rice– Chicken dish (one day it was Maghlouba, which is a chicken and rice dish)– Salad– Vegetable curry sometimes (okra dish or green bean dish)

• Payment schedule– Prefers to be paid soon after meal. Will hound you for payment so avoid

giving cell phone number out.– Payment through internal requisition. Takes up to 5 days to process so you

need to get a quotation from him and submit a check request

Catering: Sepal

• Overall summary– Pro

• Good price and Good food

– Cons• Quantity on the small side• Particular about payments. Will hound you until he gets

paid.

• Recommendations: If Obaidah or another Palestinian student can negotiate, that would be better.

Musallah Setup

• Bought 12 boxes of premium Medjool dates from Al-Hoda Market before Ramadan– Each box cost $40.00– Faisal Kashif drove O.S. over to Al-Hoda and back to

Musallah– The dates did not spoil over the month so it’s OK to buy in

advance and store them– We bought 12 disposable table sheets

• Mostafa Youssef really took the lead for setting up on Brother’s side– When he was away and sick, we really missed him

Recommendations for next year

• Organizational improvements– Have Ramadan planning meeting in May or June• Open it to members of public• Solicit feedback and volunteers• Empower willing volunteers ( ask them to contact

caterers, etc)

– Send out survey several months before Ramadan• Solicit caterer recommendations + offers to cook

Rec for next year (cont)

• Other ideas– Cook out in Sidney Pacific Multipurpose room

once or have a

Recommendations for next year (cont)

• Food – Ensure better vegetarian options. Aim should be

to have a veggie starch dish (e.g. rice) and a vegetarian entrée @ every iftar for next year

– Fresh fruit + veggies would work as well– Contact local families (especially student/alum)

Last thoughts

• People (especially during Ramadan or for Ramadan) are always willing to help out. Don’t feel shy about asking them

• Remember to enjoy this experience!