Both Food For Thought Café and Subway in the Smith Memorial Student Union had to turn away students this week who tried to pay for food using money from their meal plans.
Following a dispute with Aramark, both restaurants were left without a declining-balance machine, which is used to reduce the Dining Dollars of students who have on-campus meal plans.
Last Thursday, representatives from Aramark went to Food For Thought Café and took its declining-balance card reader to give to Subway, which had a broken machine, Food for Thought employees said.
“It happened at noon, during the rush hour,” said employee Milo Hayden. “We had a line out the door, when a representative from Aramark came in and told us that they were taking our reducing-balance machine.”
Café employees say Aramark claimed the machine belonged to the company.
“They told us that Subway’s reducing-balance machine had broken previously that week and that they needed one,” Hayden said. “Without a reducing-balance machine, we had to turn kids down who used declining balance, some kids cannot afford the expensive meals of other places,” Hayden said.
“We are losing $300 a day without that machine,” said Amy Altman, Subway manager
“A lot of kids don’t want to be eating Aramark food—ours is delicious, and a big part of our clientele is vegans [and] vegetarians, this is a big pull for them to come in, and when stuff like this happens it really hurts, for us and the kids who can’t eat here,” Hayden said.
Food For Thought employees then took the machine back from Subway, said café employee John Lambert.
The machine was taken back from Food for Thought and again given to Subway. Café employees then called Student Activities and Leadership advisor Marie Schramke to explain the situation and to receive counsel on what steps to take.
Schramke looked into the financial archives and found a statement showing that machine was purchased by Food For Thought in 2007 from Aramark. She then talked to Lisa Potter, Aramark food services director at PSU, and explained that the machine rightfully belonged to the café and should be returned.
“We got the machine back on Monday, we plugged it into our system and it did not work,” Hayden said. “I took the machine up to the Aramark office and showed them that it was not working, [Aramark representatives] even tried to make it work.”
After a conversation between Schramke and Potter, a resolution was reached between Food For Thought, SALP and Aramark regarding the loss of funds and the machine. It was agreed that Food For Thought would be prorated for its losses on Thursday and Friday of last week and that a new machine will be purchased by Aramark for the café.
Altman said of Subway’s involvement, that there “is no animosity toward either Aramark or Food For Thought and no party is really to blame.”
Aramark Limited is a corporation that supplies over 600 schools and colleges around the nation, as well as Victor’s Dining Hall and the Smith Food Court with dining services. The company is based in Philadelphia, Pa., ranked 219th on the Fortune 500 list of employment, and is the second largest foodservice provider in the nation, according to its Web site.