Food service industry

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The NCAA men’s basketball tournament is upon us. Have you filled out your brackets yet? I have! But not until I did a little digging….and found out which company does each university’s campus dining. 

Make sure to take a check out the exclusive Stir It Up 2011 NCAA Tournament brackets for this crucial information before sending in your final bracket. The brackets appear below, each region preceded by a brief analysis.

Southeast Bracket

Analysis: A diverse bracket. The Big 3 [Aramark, Compass (Chartwells), Sodexo] and Self-Op dining halls are all well represented. Keep your eye on Butler vs. Old Dominion where Aramark takes on Aramark and Michigan State vs. UCLA where Self-Op takes on Self-Op. These guys are familiar with each other so no matter what the outcome, prepare for some emotional games.

East Bracket

Analysis: As a non-Big-3, non-self-op, company, Gourmet Services is the biggest Cinderella in the entire field. They snuck into the tournament when Alabama State won their conference. Their reward? Taking on Self-Op juggernaut Ohio State, the tournament’s top seed, IF they can get past Aramark @ UT San Antonio in the play-in game. Not an easy road.

Hit the "read more" link for the other two brackets.

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"Beef, it's what's for dinner." So says an old Beef Industry Council ad from the 1990s. 

Not on Monday, my friends!  And not for lunch or breakfast either.  At least not for the people at The Monday Campaigns, a non-profit organization that provides weekly prompts for people to make healthier life choices.  Meatless Mondays is a The Monday Campaigns initiative that encourages people to go at least one day of the week without meat.  (And that day is....Friday.  Just kidding, it's Monday.) 

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Here at ‘the blog of record’ (Stir It Up), we’ve been covering the Coalition of Immokalee Workers,  Student Farmworker Alliance struggle for the past two years. Following our lead, no doubt, the New York Times recently published a story describing the huge CIW victory in their Campaign for Fair Food.

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When students gain more influence over their campus food service operation, good things usually happen.  It is my view (and the view of the Stir It Up editorial board) that students and faculty will almost always make more just decisions about their campus dining operation than corporations and university bigwigs.  The unfortunate reality is, it is usually the latter two that have decision-making power. 

So how do we change that?  

The below leaflet (download here) provides a few basic ways that you can gain a voice in--and some power over--these decisions.  A cautionary note: make sure to think twice before kicking a food service company off campus without any safeguard for the jobs of the current food service workers. When contracts change hands, the workers could be at risk of not getting hired by the new company.  Gaining influence early in the process (ideally in the RFP stage) gives you the chance to make sure that a worker retention policy is applied to the food service operation. 

This is the last entry in the, now legendary, Tools of the Trade series….for now. But not forever. For until the day that Stir It Up is dead and buried, we’ll keep bringing you the hard hitting facts about the campus food service industry! That’s a promise!

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The food service industry is big business.  When you purchase a university meal plan or buy a hamburger from the campus food court you are part of an industry that generates $18 billion annually in the United States.  Additionally, the industry is becoming increasingly privatized.  Here's a leaflet with information on the higher education food service industry.

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Barfblog, a website dedicated to promoting food safety recently directed attention to a story from Ontario where 33 people reportedly became sick after eating at a catered event. According to the department of public health, the illness was spread by sick employees.

Should sick food service workers be working or staying at home? The answer is obvious. Unfortunately, many workers in the food service industry do not have sick days and risk losing their job if they stay home sick. Companies making people work through an illness is always unjust—people should be able to rest when ill—but when those people are working in food service it’s not just an injustice, it’s a serious public health concern.   

Photo from Rick via Flickr

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Football fans have the Super Bowl.  Political junkies have the State of the Union address.  And film buffs have the Academy Awards.    For food service industry research nerds like myself, the year's big event is Food Management's annual release of the top 50 food service management companies in North America!  It's a festive occasion that involves printing out tons of copies to show off to your friends and bragging about who hit the over/under on Luby's Culinary Services fiscal year 2010 revenue.

While even the most seasoned prognosticators failed to predict Lubys' jump from 48 to 41, the top of the list contained no surprises.  The Big 3 remain the Big 3, as Compass Group, Aramark and Sodexo finished 1, 2, 3 on the list, the same order they finished last year.

The top 50 list is a handy tool for students interested in learning more about the contracted food service industry--which does much of its business at universities.  The list has detailed information on each company including the most recent annual revenue figure, number of contracts and percentage of business done at different types of locations (i.e. food service at hospitals, at universities, at corporate cafeterias, etc.).  

This is a really valuable resource for anyone who is hoping for a greater understanding of the food service industry.  An industry which, as we know, has a huge effect on the livelihood of farmers and food service workers, the environment and public health.  

Photo by mikebaird.

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Three multi-national companies dominate contracted university food service.  The 'Big 3', as they are referred to by industry insiders, are Aramark, Sodexo and Compass (which goes by the brand names Bon Appetit and Chartwells).  Approximately 87% of revenue generated by contracted food service companies in universities is generated by the Big 3. 

87%...three companies.  And these three companies generate billions of dollars annually through their global enterprise.  University food service is big business indeed.  

If your university contracts food service, chances are it's to one of these three companies.  Here's a leaflet (that you can download here) that you can use to educate your classmates about the scope of these companies' operations. 

Other informational leaflets include: Poverty in Food Service and The RFP Process. 

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It's no secret that many jobs in the food service industry pay a very low wage.   This, of course, includes many of the jobs in university cafeterias.  Unfortunately, for those who aren't paying close attention, this fact can slip under the radar. 

It's important to shed light on the harsh reality of economic injustice on college campuses.  The latest Stir It Up handout focuses on poverty in the food service industry.  If this is an issue that you're concerned about, you should definitely take this opportunity to spread awareness on your own campus.  Download the PDF here.  

Make sure to take a look at the first handout in our Tools of the Trade series, the RFP process.

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Study up...knowledge is power! Campus food service is big business. Here's our guide to understanding the industry.

Find out:

• Who is running the show in campus dining?
• Who actually employs and pays the workers; the university or a private company?
• What is the relationship between your school and the company that runs the dining hall?
• What power do students have to influence the process?

See for yourself here!