The Shabbos Meal Black Market: An Inquiry into YU’s Caf Policies, Part II
As discussed in the previous installment, students are incentivized to make greater effort to finish their unused caf funds before the end of the spring semester. New York State law (Tax Law §1105(d)(ii)(B)) exempts students who buy food at their university from sales tax so long as the students don’t pay cash when the food is served. Legal constraints, along with YU Dining Services rules, create a gray area around the permissibility of caf card-related shenanigans. This article will look into the so-called Shabbos meal “black market.”
Shabbos meals at YU feature a three-tiered pricing structure that gives students reason to break the official policy, which prohibits students from reselling meal tickets. On Monday, two meals cost $25 and one meal costs $15. Over the course of the week, the price increases, culminating with a cost of $55 for two meals or $37.50 for one meal if purchased on or after Thursday (walk-ins pay $75 for both meals).
The problem for students is that they often don’t decide to stay for Shabbos until later in the week, but are loath to pay higher prices. This results in the so-called “black market”: Students buy meals at the lowest price, and if their plans change, they sell the meals to a student who decided later in the week to eat in the caf. When the waiters check in students for the meal, the purchaser gives the name of the student from whom he bought the meal.
The Shabbos market poses significantly greater legal challenges than sharing food: Every compensated sale on the Shabbos black market violates state tax law. NYCRR Tit. 20 § 527.8(i) requires that a student who buys food intending to resell it pay sales tax when buying the food and collect tax when selling. Patrick Giordano, the senior attorney at New York State’s Department of Taxation and Finance, told The Commentator that this applies even if the student sold the food for less than the original price, explaining that “resale would be more akin to a private enterprise and not eligible for the subsidy.”
Faculty and staff are aware of this “black market.” Student Life Director Jonathan Schwab called it small, self-regulating and the predictable result of students being unable to cancel their meal tickets. Sam Chasan, the director of Dining Services, said that students are not supposed to resell the meals but that “no one really cracked down on this.” Chief Facilities and Administrative Officer Randy Apfelbaum took a more oppositional stance, calling it “geneivah” [theft]. “We would not turn a blind eye to it,” Apfelbaum told The Commentator.
Chasan explained that Shabbos costs a little bit more than $75 per student, including shaloshudis and kiddush on Shabbos morning (which are free) and that the current prices are the lowest possible. SOY President David Kohanchi (YC ‘25) confirmed that Dining Services looked into hiring an outside caterer but found it would have been too expensive. An independent Shabbos budget subsidizes the remainder of the price beyond what students pay.
When asked how the tiers were determined — both in price and day of the week — Chasan and Apfelbaum called it a joint decision between different departments that has been in place for a number of years due to bureaucratic inertia.
The tiered system rewards students for committing early in the week, which can help students that stay in YU for Shabbos — especially those from out of town — and encourage more to stay.
Chasan also told The Commentator that having estimated numbers earlier in the week is necessary to know how much food to order. For example, the chicken must be ordered on Friday to arrive by Monday, so it can defrost throughout the week.
The Commentator pointed out that if the bulk of the food has to be ordered before Monday night anyway, it would not matter if the “early-bird” sign up closed on Tuesday or Wednesday night. Chasan responded that even if more people sign up on Monday night or later in the week for a higher price, he can better estimate once he has a significant amount of registrations by Monday afternoon.
Schwab admitted that he was not sure why Dining Services needed confirmed sign-ups so early in the week. He said that in his experience, Shabbat Coordinator Leor Levenson is able to accurately assess the number of students who will eat in the caf earlier in the week just based on the Shabbos guest and other calendar-based factors. Chasan maintained that he needs the preliminary sign-ups to make his prediction.
Chasan also acknowledged that he keeps surplus in the freezer in case he underbuys one week; he and Apfelbaum did not provide The Commentator a convincing answer why more food couldn’t be bought and frozen ahead of time, other than that it apparently takes multiple days for the chicken to defrost.
Although the tiered system is designed to encourage more students to stay for Shabbos, too many students signing up would strain the budget. Chasan and Apfelbaum explained that the Shabbos budget for the year is based on previous years’ costs. As a result, if more students purchased discounted Shabbos meals in the caf, the designated budget would not be able to cover it.
Jacob Kramer, the director of budgeting and planning, referred The Commentator to YU’s Department of Communications for comment about how the Shabbos budget is set. Director of Communications Hanan Eisenman did not respond despite repeated requests.
“If a miracle happened — which would be great — and every single student stayed every single Shabbos, there probably wouldn’t be enough money in that budget,” Apfelbaum told The Commentator. “[It] would be a good problem to have.”
This rigidity of the Shabbos budget affects how both inside and outside organizations run supplemental Shabbos planning. Kohanchi said that the first time SOY wanted to subsidize Shabbos meals from the usual $25 down to $9 for the Shabbos of its melaveh malka, Dining Services wanted SOY to pay $66 per student, from the full $75, even though all students would have been able to purchase a meal for $25 otherwise. However, after SOY was able to convince Dining Services to provide the usual discount, it became part of the next year’s budget and was no longer an issue.
Chasan said that when outside organizations such as yeshivot in Israel want to host Shabbatonim for their alumni, they are charged $75 per attendee, even if attendees are students who could’ve paid $25 themselves. The same holds true if a department within YU wants to sponsor meals. Chasan explained that Dining Services assumes that the outside programming draws more students to stay in for Shabbos, which the normal Shabbos budget would not be able to handle.
This set budget also explains why Shabbos meals aren’t free. Increasing the subsidy — which at the same time would likely cause more students to stay — would doubly strain the budget.
Apfelbaum lamented the wasted food and money when students purchase a meal but change their plans and don’t use it. “There is not much we can do about that,” he told The Commentator.
However, there are potential solutions. For example, free Shabbos meals would be one way to avoid black market illegalities. Schwab mentioned that there had been discussions about adding a university-wide fee that would cover Shabbos meals as part of tuition, but that it never went anywhere. Apfelbaum said that such a decision is outside his purview and directed The Commentator back to the Office of Student Life. Kramer did not respond to a request seeking an estimate about how large the fee would need to be to make Shabbos meals free for all students.
Another solution would be for the university to whitelist and facilitate a sanctioned resale market for Shabbos meals. For example, Dining Services or the Shabbos waitstaff could create a Google Form through which students could transfer their Shabbos meals before Friday afternoon; the change could be reflected via OneCard by refunding the seller and charging the purchaser. Chasan and Apfelbaum both argued that it would be too complicated to facilitate, although it is unclear why it would be any more difficult than processing a refund, which the caf can do if the cashier makes a mistake.
Apfelbaum emphasized that as a “Jewish” and “ethical institution,” students should “think twice” about violating university policy. Illegal sales, such as the Shabbos meal market, would invite even greater moral concerns. While students are fully responsible for their own rule breaking behavior, there seem to be avenues to change policies that would avoid incentivizing students to cut corners.
As for complying with YU’s policies and the legal requirement, Apfelbaum said he would “leave that for people to work out with their own conscience and their own rabbis.”
Editor’s Note: This is Part II of a two-part investigation into Dining Services’ policies.
Photo Caption: The Shabbos black market group chat
Photo Credit: Anonymous
