Harvard Dining Halls Will Continue Serving Fish on Friday Menus

The Pope's recent decree allowing Catholics to eat meat on Fridays from this week on may change the dietary habits of millions, but it will not budge the Harvard Food Services.

Fish will be served on Fridays as always, C. Graham Hurlbut, Director of the Harvard Food Services, announced yesterday. Hurlbut sees no reason to discontinue a weekly seafood meal, and says that "Friday is as good a day for it as any." In addition to being nutritious, fish gives variety to the menu, Hurlbut says.

Hurlbut also voiced concern over the number of people to whom eating fish on Fridays is a habit ingrained in them since childhood. "There is no reason to upset these people," he says.

While the Vatican's new policy has failed to affect Harvard undergraduates, it has had noticable effects on several local fish markets. Gustave Travers, owner of the Court House Fish Market, says that "business is bad" and that he has ordered less than his usual fish supply for this week.

But, Travers has faith that fish-eating will make a comeback in a week or two. "People will stay away for a while," he says, "but they'll start eating fish again eventually -- if not on Fridays, on some other day.