On early Wednesday morning when I was walking to Baruch College from the 6 train subway station, I saw many New Yorkers lining up to buy Halal food. The most noticeable Halal cart, however, was located right near the entrance of the 6 train subway station, and immediately after leaving the station I laid my eyes on that cart. However, I’ve also noticed recently that there would be a morning Halal cart that would serve breakfast to New Yorkers, such as bread and coffee. I have been eating at Halal carts for as long as I can ever remember, and I’ve always thought that the Halal cooks and workers only sell their food during lunch time and dinner time because they would use the early morning to prepare the ingredients and check over the functionality of the cart. However, now that I see these Halal cooks and workers begin to sell breakfast I begin to really appreciate the work ethics of these immigrants. In order to earn more money to support themselves and their families, they’re willing to work all the busiest times of the day. From then I thought that the entire Halal cart project is very meaningful, because it not only educates us about the New York City and its people, but it also somehow makes us realize that owner and operating a food cart/restaurant isn’t as easy as it seems.
The Work Ethics
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If someone had asked me whether or not I thought working at a Halal cart was a hard job I definitely would have said no a few weeks ago. However, after all of the research that has been done and watching more intently the actions of Halal cart workers I see that it is in fact very difficult to go into the business of Halal carts. I had no idea that they sell breakfast, and although I will never eat at a Halal cart it is truly commendable the hard work that they put in day in and day out. As a New Yorker I know that when I am in a rush, I am probably not the friendliest, and these workers have to deal with hundreds of busy New Yorkers a day which cannot be easy.
I agree with you as I never really paid much attention to how many hours the food truck would operate before this project. But while working on this project, I realize that I’ve seen a halal truck in Flushing operate for almost 24 hours every day. When I usually go to school in the morning, I would see the cart serving food to customers as early as 8 in the morning. But one time when I was in Flushing at around 2 A.M., I still saw the same truck serving customers. Although the work in the food trucks is really hard, I think the Halal carts also have a good schedule of rotating workers to maximize their profit.