[We do not refer, in this response, to the educational challenges that exist in such a sensitive situation, but these challenges are taken into consideration]. The mishna[1] says that people who eat non-kosher food together do not make a zimun.[2] The Ra’avad[3] sees this as a specific rule pertaining to zimun, an act which adds prominence to the blessings after joint eating. However, the Rambam[4] interprets the mishna more broadly, i.e., one does not make a beracha at all (before or after) on forbidden food. Thanking HaShem for enabling us to do something that He commanded us not to do is blasphemy, not a blessing.[5] The Shulchan Aruch[6] rules in accordance with the Rambam’s opinion that one does not make a beracha on forbidden food, except under the rare circumstances where it is permitted to eat the forbidden food (i.e., piku’ach nefesh[7]).[8]
The laws of forbidden foods apply to children even though they are not personally culpable for their sins. Indeed, adults violate a Torah prohibition if they feed a child a forbidden food, and those who are responsible for the children’s education are also responsible to see that they comply with the basic laws of kashrut.[9] Therefore, children, as well, may not make a beracha on such food.[10] We do not train children in the performance of mitzvot in such a way that, if they were adults, their actions would not fulfill the mitzva in question. This applies even when the action in question is neutral,[11] all the more so when it pertains to a forbidden action like reciting a beracha on non-kosher food.
Even when a teacher cannot convince the children to eat only kosher food, she is still able to train them to make berachot properly. Make sure that the children are given some kosher food upon which they should recite the berachot. Even if the children get so accustomed to making berachot that they will do so at home on non-kosher food, this is not a reason for the educators to refrain from teaching their students the important mitzva of berachot. Furthermore, even if non-kosher food will be eaten at the same meal, as long as the beracha is said on the kosher food, the beracha is proper. Thus, if you give the children bread and they say Hamotzi and Birkat Hamazon in unison, you avoid problems and cover almost all beracha issues. If a food other than bread is distributed, the joint beracha would be on that food. If the majority of the children are eating kosher, then one should encourage the group to make the berachot even if the idea we suggested cannot be implemented. Even when a minority is eating kosher, a teacher can still make a beracha aloud on her own food and have the children respond “amen.”