Three companies contend for dining contract

Elysia Glover Staff Writer

The three candidates vying for next year’s dining service contract with Vassar were announced last Friday, Feb. 22. Last year, the College decided to bid out the contract to Dining Services, currently operated by Aramark, which expires in June 2008.

Aramark, Sodexho and Parkhurst have been selected to move on to the second round of evaluations by the Request For Proposal (RFP) Selection Committee before a final decision is made this March.

After receiving each of the five proposals submitted by the dining services contractors on Jan. 31, the RFP Selection Committee conducted independent blind readings of the proposals. Members of the Committee shared their impressions of the candidates, leading to a selection of the top three bids.

Lackmann Culinary Services, Metz & Associates and Bon Appetite Management Company were eliminated from consideration.

The RFP Selection Committee represents voices from both the administration and the student body.

Members include Associate Dean of the College Raymond Parker, Director of Purchasing Rosaleen Cardillo, Director of Budget and Planning David English, Director of Human Resources Ruth Spencer, Vassar Student Association (VSA) Vice President for Student Life Morgan Warners ’08 and VSA Food Committee Chair and Class of 2010 President Nate Silver ’10.

Silver said that throughout the process he tried to keep the needs of the student body in mind.

“When they announced which companies they were going to ask to bid, the Food Committee did some research looking into those companies, looking at how other schools operate, talking to students at other schools, so that when it came down to it we could be more informed.”

Because the RFP Selection Committee will make its decision in March, Silver emphasized the importance of student input during the next two weeks.

“From here on out, the Food Committee will be the group of students who is going to be meeting the representatives from the dining companies when they come to campus March 3,”
Silver explained. “Between now and then, the Food Committee will be talking to people in their dorms.”

This week, all students will be receiving an e-mail from either their dorm president or their senior housing president asking if there is anything that students would like the Food Committee to take into account.

Earlier plans for a community-wide forum with the candidates were cancelled for logistical reasons.

“Due to time constraints, we decided that the Food Committee would be representing the student voice in terms of who we should have for our dining contract,” Silver explained.

According to Silver, the top three concerns of the Committee are food quality, sustainability and meal plan structure— specifically, whether the plan would charge for points, number of meals or a combination of both.

For Silver and the student members of the Committee, finding a company that incorporates all three is crucial.

“Sustainability is really at the top of my list of priorities,” said Warners. “The best bids, in my opinion, are the ones who take sustainability really seriously and seem to be able to integrate sustainability throughout their operations.”

Warners emphasized the importance of incorporating sustainable practices through purchasing and sourcing, local foods initiatives, reducing food waste, portion control, recycling and composting.

“To make sure in all stages of the food, from ordering to prep to the post-consumer stage, sustainability is the most important thing,” he said.

No matter which candidate is chosen, students should expect to see not only a change in the menu, but in the meal plan as well. In an attempt to simplify the complicated system of declining value meal plans, administrators requested that the bids accommodate a new one-swipe, one-meal system. This means that students must take their entire meal at once.

“Last spring, the VSA surveyed students regarding dining services and reported that students’ overwhelming complaint with the dining plan was the structure of the point system,” said Cardillo.

“In response, the College researched board plans at peer institutions during Summer 2007 and determined that most of these schools had adopted hybrid board plans, which offer a combination of buffet meals and dining points,” she said.

Following this research, the College then created draft board plans, modeled on these hybrid systems and the cost of the current board plans, and reviewed the proposed changes with the Dean of the College and the Committee on Campus Life.

“We expect that the new structure will provide better value for roughly the same cost,” said Cardillo.
“The problem is that nobody else really uses that system anymore,” said Warners of the current declining value system. “It is very difficult administratively and financially, so someone in Finance and Administration decided that in order to get all the bids on the same basis, so that they could be comparable, the request for proposals would go out using this one-swipe, one-meal model.”

Silver acknowledged student concern over the proposed change to the meal plan, but stressed that he did not feel the switch would lead to a decline in quality or an increase in food waste.

“I know there is a lot of concern among students about the meal plan and what a shift would mean,” he said. “In reality, it is not actually a change in the way food is served and the way you experience dining, only how you pay for what you eat.”

While some students have expressed concern about contracting Vassar’s food service to a large corporation, the Committee believes that the three remaining companies represent the best options.

“A decision to bring the operation inside would require the College to find an entire management team and develop vendor relationships, safety procedures and menus,” said Cardillo. “While theoretically possible, these are risks associated in going that direction.”

Of the three candidates in the relatively diverse field, regional contractor Parkhurst is the smallest candidate to bid of the three. With campus dining contracts at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia and Gwynedd-Mercy College of Gwynedd Valley, Pa., the Philadelphia-based Parkhurst will challenge multinational players Aramark and Sodexho.

All three of the contracts under consideration would be for a five-year term.