An Ongoing Question
Aramark and Brandeis signed their first contract 14 years ago in July 1998. This semester, there has been a lot of chatter around campus about whether or not Brandeis will end its contract with Aramark. Prior to bringing Aramark to campus, Brandeis provided food on its own. Last year, Brandeis signed a contract with Aramark for 10.8 million, according to a Dec. 4 article by Tate Herbert in the Justice.
The issue of whether or not Aramark will remain Brandeis’s food provider is complicated, and it is something that has been discussed again and again over the past decade. However, this year appears to be different than previous years because, as mentioned in Herbert’s article, Mark Collins, senior vice president of Communications, has sent out requests for proposals, called RFPs, to various companies, which is something that has not been done during other years. In Herbert’s article, Aramark, Sodexo, and Chartwells are the companies listed as having received RFPs from Brandeis, and although Mark Collins sent RFPs out to a few other companies, he did not specify which ones. I would interpret this as Brandeis seriously considering signing a contract with a different food provider next year.
Complicated Issue
As is common knowledge on campus, Board of Trustee Jeanette P. Lerman ’69 is the wife of the former CEO of Aramark, Joseph Neubauer. Although Mr. Neubauer is no longer the CEO of Aramark, his is still a chairman of the board of Aramark. Does this have something to do with the fact that Aramark is Brandeis’s food provider? I believe it does. It is probably not the only reason, but it is likely one of the main reasons.
Dining Survey
The campus-wide dining survey conducted by Mark Collins was a nice gesture on his part to take the opinion of the students into consideration. It is unclear whether he is using the survey feedback to help make his decision about whether to keep Aramark, but I believe it will inevitably influence his decision.
What do students want?
I have struck up many conversations with Brandeis students about dining services, and the most common complaints I have heard is that the quality of the food is average to low, healthier options are much more expensive than unhealthy options, and that Usdan is much better than Sherman. Friends of mine who keep kosher find Sherman to be the most convenient dining hall, but they get sick of the limited options. Friends of mine who have Celiac’s Disease and, therefore, are gluten-free, find the gluten-free options to be quite plain. Vegetarians from the Brandeis Vegan/Vegetarian Club (of which I am the founder/president) have told me that the vegetarian options are more expensive and mediocre at best. Vegans from the Brandeis Vegan/Vegetarian Club are always complaining about the poor quality of the vegan options as well as the high cost of these options.
What Yale University students had to say about Aramark:
“Protesting voices have been coming from Yale University, which has used ARAMARK since 1998. ‘We found that when the food services got privatized, the accountability for quality disappeared,’ said Antony Dugdale, a spokesperson for Yale unions, including Local 35, which represents dining workers. ‘ARAMARK isn’t so concerned about quality-just about their profits’” (Ingram, 2001).
“A Feb. 27 story in The Yale Daily News claimed that ARAMARK has not only reduced food quality since coming to Yale, but also has reduced selection and portion size. ‘ARAMARK, which is hamstrung by an expensive long-term agreement with a food provider, is dramatically lowering the amount it spends on meal production and cutting key foods from the menu,’ the student newspaper reported” (Ingram, 2001).
What Yale Did
In 2008, Yale ended their contract with Aramark. In 2008, the Yale Daily News published an article that said: “Starting next year, Yale’s dining halls will no longer be run by an external food-service company, ending an arrangement that has been criticized by students and union leaders for a decade” (Siegel, 2007).
What will we do?
I think that many students are hoping that Brandeis will end its contract with Aramark in hopes that the quality of the food will improve. It is important to keep in mind, however, that if Brandeis changes food providers, it does not mean that the food quality will improve. There will need to be more structural and systemic changes in order for that to happen. More food needs to be prepared in-house from scratch, and the ingredients need to be of a higher quality. Honestly, I do not care whether the University’s food provider is Aramark or some other food provider. As long as the students receive quality food at a fair price and the workers are treated well, I’m happy. As of now, however, there is much change needed to dining at Brandeis.
References
http://www.aramark.com/AboutARAMARK/Leadership/JosephNeubauer.aspx
“University Taking Bids over Dining,” The Justice, Tate Herbert, Dec. 4, 2012: http://www.thejustice.org/university-taking-bids-for-dining-1.2963932#.UMev4c0UX_c
“Discontent Brews over Aramark,” The Chronicle, Dave Ingram, March 6, 2001: http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/discontent-brews-over-aramark
“Aramark to leave dining halls in ’08,” Yale Daily News, Steven Siegel, Aug. 31, 2007: http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2007/08/31/aramark-to-leave-dining-halls-in-08/