Feeding Oregon’s largest university is no easy task, but someone has to do it.
From 1999 until 2005, the job belonged to Aramark, a Pennsylvania-based company known for providing hospitality services to many health care facilities and universities. In 2005, when Aramark’s contract with Portland State expired, they were outbid by Sodexo (then called Sodexho) for the rights to provide food services on campus.
Feeding Oregon’s largest university is no easy task, but someone has to do it.
From 1999 until 2005, the job belonged to Aramark, a Pennsylvania-based company known for providing hospitality services to many health care facilities and universities. In 2005, when Aramark’s contract with Portland State expired, they were outbid by Sodexo (then called Sodexho) for the rights to provide food services on campus.
The university’s decision to sign a seven-year contract with the new company was met with criticism from both food-service employees and student groups that said they disagreed with Sodexo’s past anti-union practices. Some student and union organizations even planned to boycott the Smith Memorial Student Union cafeteria should Sodexo move in.
In hindsight, it was clear that the Sodexo-Portland State deal was doomed from the start. On March 2, 2007, Portland State terminated the contract after just two years and Aramark was asked to return to the university in July of the same year. At the time, many employees and students saw it as a welcome change.
Karen Preston, manager of purchasing and contracting services, said the decision to rehire Aramark was rushed.
“We had to make a decision quickly, otherwise there would have been no food for students,” Preston said.
Aramark caters to the appetites of more than 28,000 students, staff and visitors at Portland State. The company has a strong presence on campus, where it manages food services for the Viking Food Court, Victor’s Dining Hall at Ondine and the Meetro Cafe.
After two years back on campus, the company receives high praise from John Eckman, Portland State’s director of auxiliary services, for its commitment to the university, sustainability practices and, during this year’s flu season, its initiative to protect the well-being of students by offering food-delivery services to sick students.
“Aramark has donated a lot of time and money to the university over the years,” Eckman said.
However, some Portland State students believe Aramark could improve its services, especially when it comes to food prices.
“The salad bar is ridiculous,” said freshman Eileen Mitchell. “I spent close to $5 there when I could just go to McDonald’s and get a chicken salad for $4 with real meat.”
According to Eckman, one of the tools Aramark uses to determine prices is the CPI (Consumer Price Index), which is a statistical measure of prices applied to goods and services.
“Traditionally, we approve a price increase if it is within the CPI range—I’ve never seen it go above the CPI,” Eckman said.
“We go out and look at what competitors are charging, every summer we do an in-depth market analysis and every increase in price is sent to Portland State for approval,” said Stephen Wadsworth, Aramark’s associate district manager of dining services at Portland State.
Eckman said one of the benefits of having Aramark on campus is the level of expertise the company provides to the university.
“We decided not to manage the food services ourselves—we used to do so in the ’80s and, as a result, we ended up losing a lot of money,” Eckman said. “So we went to Aramark, who can do a price analysis for us.”
The prices that Aramark charges to cater foods to student groups on campus are also a concern for many student leaders. According to representatives from several student groups on campus, Aramark makes it difficult for student groups to hire outside caterers.
“Aramark tries to make money off of us for ridiculous reasons, the food is poor in quality and we can find better food from outside caterers,” said one student group’s representative who wishes to remain anonymous.
Cynthia Vuong, treasurer for the Vietnamese Student Association, said during New Student Week that the group tried to solicit outside restaurants to give out free food samples to students, but Aramark denied the proposal.
“They don’t want us to advertise for other restaurants, and instead use their service,” Vuong said. “We ended up not going through with it.”
According to the 2007 contract between Portland State and Aramark, the company reserves the right to cater all events held in SMSU.
Ultimately, most student groups said they want Aramark to be more supportive of multicultural aspects of their groups, enhance diversity and allow more freedom to hire outside caterers.
