Half a dozen students attended an open forum with university administration and Aramark representatives Wednesday to voice their concerns and comments for food service on campus after Sodexho’s departure, which will happen at the end of June.
The university’s representatives will meet with Aramark Thursday and Friday of this week to begin negotiations for the new contract, according to Julie North, director of Portland State’s Auxiliary Services. The process might continue until the end of May.
Karen Gray, Aramark’s director of business development, said that after spending just a minute in the Smith Memorial Student Union cafeteria trying to get coffee, she realized how urgently a change was needed.
“Our goal is to decongest that area,” Gray said, stating that the area needed a better variety of healthy choices.
Gray and Paul Luedke, Aramark’s associate district manager, said one idea they have is to move the coffee shop that serves Starbucks into a larger, free-flowing space in the hallway, eliminating the back-up that happens between Noah’s and Freshens. Four registers would be strategically located, capable of ringing up purchases from multiple locations in the food court.
“We want to put things out there and see what kind of reaction we’ll get,” Luedke said. “We can always change things later-it’s still early in the game.”
Aramark is considering bringing in Sbarro, a national Italian chain, and their own quick Mexican concept, which sounded similar to Chipotle after its description. A salad bar would be added as well.
The group spent several minutes discussing affordability, and the Aramark panel ensured that several options with low “price points” under four and five dollars would be available.
The Aramark panel cited many local vendors they planned to work with, and their intention to learn as much about Portland State’s sustainability expectations.
After hearing that Aramark intended to contract some operations out to restaurants who operated independently, Dresden Skees-Gregory, the university’s sustainability coordinator, expressed her concerns that they might not be selling food or using products that are healthy for students and the environment.
“When we were having these kinds of talks with Sodexho,” Skees-Gregory said, “we didn’t think about how many there would be. Right now it is about half, and that obviously affects sustainability on campus.”
Audience members were cautiously optimistic after the talk, hoping that Aramark can make good on its pledges.
“I like that they said they are committed to the university’s mission,” said Jesse Bufton, student body vice president. “Any time there is a contract change, we have to start at the beginning again.”
Based in Philadelphia, Aramark employs over 240,000 employees in 18 countries, with $11.6 billion in fiscal sales for 2006.
Aramark operates at six colleges in Oregon and Washington, including Evergreen State College. Portland State would be its largest client in the region.