Menu Items

Recently, representatives from food service providers have been patrolling the front of the campus center, asking students questions and killing them with kindness. If one of these pollsters approaches you, by all means voice your opinion on organic and free-range food, 24-hour coffee, and national brands vs. local products. But while you’re talking, here are a few issues you should not neglect:

1) Food workers rights

Current dining employees have more at stake in the selection of a new food provider than students: their livelihoods. Students should realize asking for lower prices could affect the way the new service provider approaches the dining workers’ contract and the workers’ union.

Employees are worried that their contract could be in jeopardy when management changes hands, and students should be equally concerned. Prospective food providers should realize that students stand behind the workers’ union. They should not underestimate how unpleasant student response would be to any measures that negatively affect the people who sustain us daily.

2) Responsiveness

It’s great that prospective bidders are listening to any and every student idea. We also realize Aramark has made many changes this year, including buying more organic and local products. While some people question the timing of these changes, we prefer to shelve the cynicism and just enjoy the improvements.

However, if we learned anything with Aramark, it is that flexibility is key. Students spent several years fighting for positive changes to dining services. Our next service provider should be able to respond dynamically to changing needs. While we might prioritize late-night pizza now, students three years from now might find a need for an omelet bar in the morning. Our foodservice provider should be able to handle change.

3) Corporate Standards

Aramark, the current service provider, and Sodexho, a prospect, are major service providers for prisons across the country. We urge students to get informed and question their interviewers about company policies and opinions on social responsibility, like the prison industrial complex. Ask what kinds of lobbyists the companies employ, and what kind of political allegiances they have.

These three issues don’t come to mind as quickly as questions about ketchup dispensers or vending machines, but they are arguably more important.