Your Campus Foodservice Provider

[lifesaver]

I did a search and came up with nothing, so...

Who is your campuses' food service provider?

My university currently has ARAMark, and they SUCK. I cant begin to tell you how bad they suck. Not as much as the VP of Business Affairs who inked the sucky ass contract. Yeah, he actually allowed a contract to be written for 10 years (its up this fall) which allows them to set their own prices, only pays the univ 8% and only requires them to provide foodservice at one location somewhere on campus for 12 hours a day. So they could actually set up a lunch wagon (aka roach coach) in the parking lot and meet thir contractual obligations for 22,000+ students.

When I started they were acceptable, at least you could eat on campus past 2:30 pm. Then there wa sa period where they didnt care and you couldnt find food past 2pm. Seriously, were a non-traditional campus and what about all the folks who come to campus at night for class? We, as an org, arent allowed by the contract to bring our own food to our own chapter meetings, any food consumed on campus for events or meetings has to be purchased from ARAMark catering, at (for example) $75.00 for a cheese tray. Under the contract as it is in existance, we couldnt even have a mixer picnic on campus without having to buy the food from them.

There was actually a 2 year period where they didnt even offer foodservice at the dorms. So if you lived at the dorms, you better hope you had a microwave, and a fridge. Did I mention that our campus is pretty much in the country? Theres a McDonalds, Texaco, Subway and Whataburger within walking distance of campus. Thats it. If all your food money is locked up on the meal card, youre screwed on the weekend. Did I mention that 2,000 students live on campus? A Whopper cost $2.19 (without cheese). THis last fall, they realized their contract was coming up, so they re-tooled and began staying open till 6pm (big deal ) offering better quality food. and making an attempt to please the students. I have heard that before I got there, (and this is from administrators) that they have always sucked. My view which I expressed to a couple administrators last night at a meeting was the improvments recently made were too little too late. Theyd be fools to resign ARAMark. I am sick of their broken promises. I am sick of seeing a foodervice director get hired, tell us he cares and wants to make a difference, then quit after 3 months. UGH. Seriously, I hate ARAMark with the white-heat of a thousand suns.

The other two companoes in the ruinning are Sodexho and Chartwells. I know that Chartwels has the contrat at SWT and peeps there seem to be somewhat happy with them.

Give me your opinion of foodservice, on your campus, and quality, variety, retail offerings on campus, (pizza hut, taco bell, etc.). Just wanting to knwo how things stack up here.

ARAMARK sucks! Did I mention that already?