Embedded Files
In November 2024, the CSU election results announced that 83% of students voted YES to better food and less corporate greed at Concordia. This win meant that the Concordia Student Union is now officially mandated to advocate for the following:
Ending Concordia’s Exclusive Contracts with Multinational Corporations
Concordia Supporting, Enhancing and Incubating Local Food Initiatives
Concordia Implementing a Holistic Food Policy that Includes Strong Commitments to Social, and Environmental Justice
In other words, when advocating for student interests with the Concordia administration, the CSU is now further empowered to push the agenda on issues regarding food access and insecurity on campus. Given recent research exposing that up to 67% of Concordia students experience some level of food insecurity and that the Concordia administration continues to invest in profit-driven corporations, this advocacy is more important than ever (Concordia Sustainability).
Trash to Table
This referendum question is crucial in kicking Aramark off campus, the multi-billion dollar food service conglomerate that has raised a reputation for serving poor-quality food in Concordia residence halls. An ex-residence student, Maeve Holbrook, wrote an article sharing her experiences: “The options for breakfast were slim and always identical. Scrambled eggs from a bottle, bread in some form, grease with a side of bacon and potatoes. For lunch and dinner, the options were usually the same as well; a pizza or pasta dish, meat with poorly cooked and under-seasoned vegetables, a salad bar that had been sitting out for 3 hours longer than it should have, a collection of small cakes, and a sandwich bar. After a short while, meals became repetitive and hard to stomach. All of my premature fears about being nutritionally deprived became my reality.”
This is the quality students in residence receive for $6 thousand dollars a year—a meal plan that students only recently gained the option to opt out of.
Aramark’s Failures Beyond Concordia
Aramark is also involved in poor sustainability standards, using unpaid prison labour to create its pre-packaged meals, and serving terrible food to its captive consumers. Captive consumers, such as incarcerated folks in prisons, don’t have a choice in what food they eat. This makes it easier for profit-driven companies to cut costs and serve less nutritional food to them.
Aramark faced a 2019 lawsuit from incarcerated persons in Santa Rita Jail in California, for “serving food that was spoiled, lacking in nutritional value, and infested with rodents, insects, and bird droppings” and a 2023 lawsuit from incarcerated persons in West Virginia, on the basis that they were regularly served spoiled and undercooked food (AFSC). Aramark also benefits from unpaid prison labour in the preparation of their meals by hiring incarcerated persons as “students” rather than “employees,” meaning that they cannot be financially compensated for their work (AFSC).
Learn more about Aramark’s flaws by reading this article by a student at FedUp, Maeve Holbrook’s article, or by following @FedUpConcordia on Instagram.
Read more about Aramark’s flaws here!
Corporate Over Community
The Concordia Student Union has a strong legacy of championing food activism on campus, evidenced by its past campaigns and policies aimed at fostering food sovereignty, sustainability, and community empowerment. Now is the time for students to advocate in tandem with the CSU to better food on campus. However, there continue to be obstacles to this change.
A primary obstacle is the Concordia administration's continued prioritization of corporate food service over local, community-run initiatives through its allocation of space and resources. For instance, students may have noticed two new cafés built on campus in 2024. Over the summer, Concordia built a coffee shop in the Webster Library building at the downtown campus. In Fall 2024, they opened a new café on the 4th floor of the Hall building. What most students don’t know is that both of these locations are actually operated by Aramark.
Both locations also take business away from sustainably run cafés that highly value their workers and customers. The LBEE café is right across the street from Frigo Vert, an anticapitalist and decolonial worker’s union offering the cheapest coffee downtown. The new 4th-floor coffee shop is just a floor above The Hive Café, a beloved Co-op on campus.
The new Aramark locations on campus also take precious space away from local initiatives. Space is a scarce commodity on campus, one that student clubs to non-profit organizations struggle to claim for themselves. Even getting an office for a student association at Concordia’s downtown campus can be a hair-pulling affair. The Concordia administration should allocate two pieces of prime real estate to any of the existing local organizations, rather than investing in the expansion of Aramark, which takes control away from students and instead serves the interests of Aramark CEOs.
Read more about Concordia’s history of food organizing!
Did you know that the People’s Potato used to operate in Reggie's basement to avoid conflicting with a major corporation’s food contract with Concordia, which gave it the exclusive right to serve food on campus? They had to fight to get their current space on the Hall building’s 7th floor. The corporate food system on campus as it exists now is and has always conflicted with community-led organizations, and Concordia is showing a clear preference for its corporate partners.
When Concordia supports the construction of two new Aramark coffee shops, they are both encouraging students to put money towards a company that profits from the prison industrial complex without their knowledge and taking business and space away from the local, sustainable, and beloved cafés on campus.
Dismissal of the Referendum Vote
Another important obstacle to a better food system is the Concordia administration’s refusal to acknowledge that students want change. Despite the landslide victory in the 2024 referendum question, the Concordia administration points to a lack of formal complaints on the quality of food at Concordia as proof that students are satisfied and nothing needs to change. Given the risks and costs associated with major changes, the administration appears unwilling to take action unless faced with substantial and sustained negative feedback. Concordia’s response to the referendum vote reflects a frustrating dismissal of the legitimate democratic channels students have to express the change they want to see on campus. Asking students to submit complaints through an official form, which most students don’t know about, is another attempt at slowing down the movement and committing to austerity.
Some members of FedUp and the People’s Potato Board!
Get Loud!
Students may not have known about the official channels for complaints, but they have certainly still voiced their dissatisfaction. Residence students living at Grey Nuns and Loyola regularly complain online or amongst themselves about the quality of food. Other students use outlets like the anonymously-run Concordia confessions page “SpottedConcordia” to vent about the poor quality of food.
It’s imperative that these experiences be documented and sent to the Concordia administration, so they can see student dissatisfaction for themselves. If you have an experience you want to report, you can do so through this link.
Join the Movement!
Feeling passionate about improving food on campus? Want to join a team of like-minded students and community members? Pissed about corporate greed?
Email us at wehatearamark@gmail.com or send us a DM on Instagram @FedUpConcordia
We’d love to hear from you!
Page updated
Report abuse