The Chabad-Lubavitch movement's Aleph Institute, which serves the interests of Jewish inmates and soldiers around the nation, praised Florida Governor Rick Scott (pictured) for his decision to reinstate the kosher food program at the state Department of Corrections.

The Florida Department of Corrections has agreed to reinstate its kosher food program following a five-year struggle by Jewish groups that included a federal lawsuit.

The complaint to the Justice Department claimed that Florida was violating the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, which forbids the government from restricting religious rights of institutionalized individuals, after it suspended its kosher food program in 2007. The government then filed a suit against the Florida Department of Corrections.

The Chabad-Lubavitch movement’s Aleph Institute, which serves the interests of Jewish inmates and soldiers around the nation, praised Florida Governor Rick Scott for his decision to reinstate the kosher food program.

“The Aleph Institute and the Jewish community would like to thank Governor Rick Scott profusely for arranging that kosher food will be available to Jewish inmates in Florida,” said Rabbi Menachem Katz of the Aleph Institute in a press release.

Recently, a U.S. federal appeals court ruled that Texas must provide kosher meals to a Jewish prisoner there under the same act.