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October 22, 2004
Richmond kosher rentals
New business offers smallware that goes anywhere.
KYLE BERGER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
The famous line from the movie Field of Dreams, "If
you build it, they will come," suggested that if a baseball
field were built, the players would come to play.
BC Kosher (BCK), the Kehila Society and Beth Tikvah Synagogue are
hoping that the same concept will be successful for their latest
venture. Only their buzz line would be more like, "If you rent
it, they will eat kosher."
The three organizations have teamed up to create Richmond Kosher
Rentals (RKR). Started with financial assistance from the Jewish
Community Foundation of Greater Vancouver, RKR is a nonprofit venture
that will provide the service of renting kosher dishes and cooking
equipment (referred to as smallware) to anyone in the Jewish community
of Greater Vancouver.
Once the smallware, which is stored in a trailer for easy transportation,
is rented, BCK will oversee the process of koshering any stoves
or ovens used at the location where the event is taking place. This
allows anyone to hold a kosher event to the standard of BC Kosher
anywhere they wish.
"We can take it to Kelowna, to the island or just to someone's
home here," explained Rabbi Levy Teitlebaum, kashrut administrator
of BCK. "You can either have the food prepared at an existing
kosher facility or we can do the entire [event] at a non-certified
location. It really offers the ability to have any kosher functions
anywhere in the community.
"It has always been difficult, especially in the Richmond community,
to have functions that are kosher, as it would have to be done at
either one of the hotels that offer kosher services or at one of
the synagogues," he continued. "There has always been
a need to expand the market so people could have more choices to
suit their financial needs."
With enough smallware for 300 people, dairy or meat, Teitlebaum
hopes that community members will choose to have kosher events and
therefore participate in more Jewish traditions.
"Their bar and bat mitzvah parties don't have to be at non-kosher
restaurants," he said. "They can be in places which will
show the kids that [eating kosher] is something that we are all
part of, which is the whole concept of the simchah."
The idea for RKR came about after Beth Tikvah and Kehila approached
BCK to see if it was possible to have the synagogue's kitchen certified
by BCK. Realizing that BCK supervision could create financial and
logistical problems they came up with the idea of investing in the
kosher smallware. The trailer storage idea solved the storage space
issue, as well as the transportation issue. The final problem, cost,
has also been solved.
Although there will be a charge of between $2.50 and $3.50 per person
in order to have BCK oversee an event, RKR made sure that their
prices to rent the smallware were cheaper than companies who rent
non-kosher dishes.
"We wanted to make sure that people would use them," Teitlebaum
said. "We want to make it easy to be kosher, so by having it
less expensive we feel we can accomplish that."
Any facility that rents the RKR dishes will have to have their stoves
and ovens certified by BCK. This process only takes a couple of
hours and can be done on the same day of the event.
For more information about Richmond Kosher Rentals, call 604-275-0042
or e-mail [email protected].
Kyle Berger is a freelance journalist and graphic designer
living in Richmond.
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