Brian Farkas Editor in Chief

Vassar College will renew Aramark Corporation’s dining services contract, College officials confirmed on Tuesday, April 15. The decision was made by the Request for Proposal Committee (RFPC), which has been researching and reviewing food vendors since Spring 2007.

The Committee reached a consensus about the proposals on April 10. Director of Purchasing Rosaleen Cardillo informed Aramark of the decision the next day.

Aramark, based out of Philadelphia, Pa., is a private company that provides food services to K-12 schools, colleges, hospitals and prisons across the United States. Aramark has approximately 242,500 employees in 20 countries worldwide, and services some 150 institutions of higher education. They have managed Vassar’s food service for the past 15 years, with average contract lengths ranging between five and seven years.

Proposal process considers options

In addition to Cardillo, RFPC is made up of Director of Budgeting and Planning David English, Director of Human Resources Ruth Spencer, Senior Associate Dean of the College Raymon Parker, Chair of the Food Committee Nate Silver ’10 and Vassar Student Association Vice President for Student Life Morgan Warners ’08.

Six companies were originally interested in Vassar’s contract, and five submitted proposals. “When we were looking at these proposals, I really wanted to find which ones were speaking to Vassar’s culture,” said Warners. “The last thing that any of us wanted was a cookie-cutter, corporate model.” For RFPC, that meant an emphasis on sustainability, variety, and healthy and local food options.

Ultimately, RFPC eliminated Lackmann Culinary Services, Metz & Associates and Bon Appétit Management Company from consideration, narrowing it down to three companies: Aramark, Sodexho and Parkhurst. Representatives from all three companies visited campus on March 3, and the Committee sat through more than six hours of their presentations.

“They all tried to sell us on their idea of what Vassar’s food service should look like,” said Warners. “Seeing them in person and asking the representatives questions really gave me a sharp insight into who could best respond to the changing needs and concerns of students.”

Following these proposals, members of the RFPC made unannounced visits over spring break to Bucknell University, whose dining serves are operated by Parkhurst, and Springfield College, which employs Aramark.

“The food at Springfield was just unbelievably good,” said Silver. “It was really a step up from what we have here now.”

Springfield uses an Aramark design concept known as The Local Foods Company, in which food is prepared up front and more meals are made to order.

“The food at their facility looked better and tasted fresher than their competitors’,” Silver said. “People were excited to be in the dining hall—not just students, but also college faculty and administrators.”
Sustainability was a deciding factor

Several aspects of Aramark’s proposal appealed to the RFPC. The first was sustainability. Campus Dining currently operates extensive recycling and composting programs throughout the College. Aramark has also partnered with numerous local food providers and developed relationships with Hudson Valley vendors. Local sources currently provide about 30 percent of Vassar’s food, and Aramark’s contract proposal indicates that they will bring that number up to 40 percent within the next five years.

“Aramark offers us a sustainable program that is better in tangible ways than the other two companies that we were considering,” said Warners.

Sustainability Intern Jessica Muller-Pearson, employed by the College Committee on Sustainability (CCL), has worked extensively with King and Director of Marketing and Sustainability Ken Oldehoff. “I endorsed Aramark because I felt that their presentation had more concrete details and plans for increasing sustainability at Vassar,” she said in an e-mailed statement.

Trays will also be eliminated from the All Campus Dining Center (ACDC), if not by Fall 2008 then by Fall 2009.

“Going tray-less really has two benefits,” Silver explained. “First, it will eliminate all of the hot water and energy waste that goes into washing so many hundreds of trays several times each day,” he said. “And second, it will encourage people to take less food.”

Warners agreed. “Eliminating trays reduces the ‘eyes bigger than your stomach’ problem,” he said, noting that if students were hungry, they could simply return to the dining area and get more food without additional cost.

Committee members felt that there would be a loss of progress in sustainability if the College changed companies. “We have a number of advanced partnerships now, and to begin with an entirely new management team would be to basically start from square one,” said Silver.
Hybrid plan, renovations to debut in Fall 2008

Another factor was Aramark’s willingness to change to a hybrid meal plan system. Next year, students will have two methods of purchasing food: They will have “all you care to eat” meals in ACDC, but will have declining balance points for use in à la cart locations, including the Retreat, the Atrium, Java City and the Kiosk. Students will also be able to use meals to purchase express lunches.

When the idea of a hybrid meal plan system became public in February, many students were concerned about the potential for food waste. Warners believes that this will not be a problem. “When you have people preparing your food to order, portions are controlled,” he said. “This system will likely cut food waste, since there are not going to be huge vats of food.”

A third factor in the selection was Aramark’s proposed renovations to the Students’ Building. Aramark, Sodexho and Parkhurst all proposed renovation plans to accomodate single-swipe entry.

“Aramark’s plan was the most extensive and also the most feasible,” said English. Renovations will be necessary in order to facilitate the “all you care to eat” meal system. When entering ACDC, students will swipe only once, and will then be able to get as much food as they desire. “Students can even sit down, then decide they’re still hungry, and go and get seconds,” Warners explained.

The style of service will also change dramatically. The beverage areas on both sides of ACDC will be moved into the seating area, and more service stations will be installed in their place. “Because there will be more stations, lines will be shorter,” said Silver. Additionally, all of the menus will be expanded over the summer with more options.

The College plans to invest about $250,000 into initial renovations scheduled to be completed by Fall 2008 and will add dramatic interior changes to style and layout over the following summer, to be completed by Fall 2009.

Next semester, students can expect more stations to serve individually cooked items. “The problem with Home Zone as it exists now, for example, is that they have to make huge vats of food that can sit out for long periods of time. Next year, items will be prepared fresh,” said Warners. “If you don’t like your chicken spicy, you can lean over and tell the chef.”

“The idea is much more interaction between students and the people who are cooking the food,” said English.

Attentive managers were the clincher for Aramark

Finally, Aramark’s management team garnered the support of the RFPC. Silver believes that Vassar’s current management has an excellent sense of the campus. “People have this idea of a big ugly corporation, but it’s important to remember first of all that all of the people who submitted contract proposals for the College’s food stuff were corporations,” Silver said. “While the managers work for Aramark, they are extremely committed to our institutional values. The issue of corporate control is really not as black and white as some are prone to think.”

Warners, too, was impressed by the management team. “A key difference between Aramark and its competitors was their management team,” he said. “It could take years for a new management team to get used to the campus climate. We already have [Director of Campus Dining] Maureen King, who is just fantastic.”

King, who began working for Aramark as a student manager in college, has been with the company for 39 years. She came to Vassar in 1993 and became the Director of Campus Dining in 1999. Including her, there are 11 Aramark employees at Vassar. King believes that her company’s proposal emphasized several issues important to Vassar. “The experience that Aramark has had on campus and the relations we have built had a lot to do with it. I also think that our proactive approach made the difference.”

“Anybody on this campus who has a personal interaction with King will absolutely know that she is so responsive to students and understand the community more than most faculty members, frankly,” Silver explained.

Decision process was long and carefully considered

According to Warners, the decision to renew Aramark’s contract was originally far from certain. “In no way was this a foregone conclusion,” he said. “I came into this process with a real healthy skepticism, and I think that a lot of students might also be skeptical about this decision. But I am absolutely convinced after reading and researching the materials that this was the best choice for Vassar.”

Many students have expressed displeasure with Aramark long before the decision was made. In Fall 2007, dozens of fliers were taped to dormitory walls that criticized dining services. “Tell J.J not to renew Aramark’s contract,” said one such poster. “Tired of shitty food?” asked another, with the company's logo underneath, and a request for the College to adopt in-house food service. “We just don’t have the infrastructure for in-house service,” Silver said, “And it would give us lower quality food at a higher cost.”

Aramark has also faced criticism outside the Vassar community for poor worker relations, most notably following a 1997 workers strike at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Just last week on April 7, union organizers protested on behalf of the company’s employees in Texas baseball stadiums.

Warners said that such failings have nothing to do with Vassar, where dining workers are employees of the College.

“Although Aramark manages day-to-day operations, it’s the Communications Workers of America union that deals with workers,” he said, noting that labor criticisms “were something we were very sensitive to” during the RFP process. “It’s important to realize that we haven’t seen riots or gross violations under [King].”

Now that the food vendor has been selected, the specifics of the contract, including its length, still need to be finalized. “Vassar would like the length to be long enough to provide stability, but not so long that they won’t have to be responsive to our needs,” said English.

Members of the RFPC noted that this decision was not made based on cost. “The top finalists were all fairly comparable in terms of cost,” English said. “Our goals was really to pick the best fit for Vassar. In negotiating the contract, I’m trying to make sure that they don’t get more profit.”

An open discussion for members of the College community will be scheduled on Wednesday, April 23 with King and representatives from Aramark.

Overall, Warners and Silver were pleased with the outcome. “Anybody who thinks that remaining with Aramark is not a change will be in for a real surprise. Those people should come talk to me in Fall 2009,” said Silver. Warners agreed. “We know people want a change and, with a few phased programmatic changes and renovations, change is what they can expect.”