What's the Problem with Aramark?

September 2024

Learn more about why students at Concordia want to replace the campus food provider with a more sustainable, accountable and community-focused food service.

Nourishment or Neglect?

• Students have voiced numerous complaints about the corporate campus food provider's prison industrial complex food services, citing poor quality and lack of variety in meals.

• There are widespread grievances regarding the treatment and wages of workers (including incarcerated workers) employed by the food provider, with many reporting unfair practices and inadequate compensation.

• The company has been criticized for employing anti-union tactics, which include undermining efforts by employees to organize and advocate for better working conditions.

Corporate Cafeteria Exposé

• Numerous complaints have surfaced about the quality of food, including issues with contamination, improper serving temperatures, and undercooked meals.

• Students have raised concerns that the food provided is not nutritious enough and offers limited options for those with specific dietary needs or allergies.

• There is a notable lack of culturally diverse and appropriate food options, leaving many students feeling underserved.

Meals and Monopolies

• By adopting a profit-and-loss model, Concordia gave up significant control over human resources, food sourcing, menu options, and food quality, creating a financial incentive to deprioritize sustainability goals or transformative approaches.

• Concordia claims to be a leader in sourcing food for sustainability but falls short with low benchmarks and weak sustainability standards, resulting in slow, minor improvements.

• The current food provider neglects local and sustainable sourcing, harming environmental sustainability. Corporations like this prioritize profits, cutting labour costs and buying environmentally damaging cheap food.

Why is it Mandated? I Want to Opt Out!

• The profit and loss model leads universities to have mandatory meal plans for resident students, creating a captive market that is economically advantageous (and exploitative) for the corporate food provider.

• Despite students’ demands for an opt-out option, Concordia administrators see meal plans as essential for residence services, citing the lack of kitchens in dorms as the reason for mandatory plans.

• Activists for food independence argue that Concordia's food provider could be modelled after one of the many food options downtown, such as campus-community organizations like the People’s Potato and the Hive providing more affordable and ethically produced food.

• Students regularly question why Concordia doesn’t build kitchens in the dorms or at least provide collective cooking and food storage areas, as other universities and CEGEPs do. Administrators claim concerns about cleanliness and fire hazards and have voiced their perspective that students are not mature enough to be given kitchen access.

• Ultimately, Concordia administrators treat food services as a business, hiring external corporations to provide mandatory meal plans and securing a percentage of the profit.