Food service vendors visit campus

Hayley Tsukayama News Editor

With Vassar College’s dining contract up for renegotiation this year, several dining service companies were invited to meet with members of the Food Committee, Conference and Summer Programming Office and the Alumnae House for a two-hour question and answer session on Wednesday, Dec. 5. In addition to attending the session, representatives from six companies—Aramark Corporation, Sodexho USA, Bon Appétit, Lackmann, Parkhurst and Metz & Associates Ltd.—toured the campus’ five dining locations.

In an interview prior to Wednesday’s meeting, Food Committee chair Nate Silver ’10 said that this early meeting is not intended to decide which company will be awarded the contract, but is rather an opportunity for companies to ask questions so as to better tailor their forthcoming proposals specifically to Vassar students.

“We [in the Food Committee] are going to answer those questions as best we can as they set about crafting their bids,” Silver said.

Renegotiating the College’s food contract is a long and complicated process. “It’s structured to be as equitable as possible,” said Vice President for Student Life and Food Committee member Morgan Warners ’08.

This past fall, the College sent out several request for proposal (RFP) forms to different dining service providers. These forms outlined Vassar’s top priorities for food service. Cardillo said that an evaluation committee—consisting of herself, Warners, Silver, Associate Dean of the College Raymon Parker, Budget Director David English and Director of Human Resources Ruth Spencer—worked on the RFPs for approximately four months before sending them to the vendors. This was to ensure the requests fully reflected Vassar’s needs. Prior to Wednesday’s meeting, the College did not disclose which companies it approached, in order to ensure all companies began the process on equal footing.

Aramark, the College’s current vendor, Sodexho and Bon Appétit are three of the largest food service providers in the country. Lackmann, Parkhurst and Metz & Associates Ltd. are regional companies based in Woodbury, N.Y., Pittsburgh, Pa. and Dallas, Pa., respectively.

The contract under discussion is for a duration of five years. Cardillo said that the College purposefully looked both to small and large-scale vendors.

Cardillo emphasized that the College was not seeking a new food service contract because of displeasure with Aramark’s performance. Cardillo said many factors, including proposed changes to the board plan, influenced the College’s decision to send out the RFP’s. “In surveys, students have expressed they are concerned about the points system and the rotation of the menu,” she said. “We knew it was time [to reevaluate the system].”

“This is about finding the best contract,” agreed Warners, adding that students have expressed that good food is not all they seek in a company, socially responsible food sources and good labor relations are also major factors for the campus.

Although this meeting was mainly for the benefit of the bidding companies, Food Committee members said they intended to intention of ensure student voice had a place in the discussion. Silver said that the Food Committee’s main concern was the College’s potential decision to change the structure of its current meal plan, which will mostly likely integrate the current point system with plan that dictates set amount of meals per day.

He said that, in answering the companies’ questions, members of the Food Committee will be conscious of “how [a new meal plan model] will affect All Campus Dining Center as a social space and how it will affect it if students can take out food.”

Prior to the meeting, Main Food Committee representative Daniel McBee ’10 said that, “In this process, I would say flexibility and responsiveness are both major concerns.”

Now that the companies have gathered information on the College, most will likely offer a bid on the contract. According to Carrillo, bids are due on Jan. 30. The College will then review the bids and invite the top three or four candidates back for individual interviews during the last week of March 2008.

The Food Committee plans to host an open forum in the spring when the service providers formally present their bids. Until then, Silver encouraged students to appeal the Food Committee with any concerns.