A Carleton University club is leading a campaign to terminate the contract between the university and Aramark, the company that manages Carleton’s dining services, over the company’s role in prison labour in Canada and the United States.
Aramark, which operates all dining options on campus with the exception of Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA)-run restaurants, also operates the kitchens of more than 500 correctional facilities in the U.S. and has a history of meal shortages, maggots in the kitchen, drug smuggling by employees, and not paying inmates for their work.
CU Global Promise, which advocates for human rights and social justice at Carleton, started a petition in June for Carleton to dissolve the contract.
“Carleton University claims to be in solidarity with Black Lives Matter,” the petition, which has more than 200 signatures, reads. “However, they are complicit in actions contrary to that through their partnership with Aramark.”
The club is also preparing a report on Aramark and its relationship with the university.
“By continuing to operate on campus, Carleton University is actively engaging, promoting, and aiding Aramark in its unethical and exploitive actions,” a draft of the report reads.
Saivani Sanassy, the president of CU Global Promise, said that the club will meet with Lisa Ralph, Carleton’s associate vice-president (student affairs), in the coming weeks to discuss the contract.
Aramark district manager Paul Quinn contended Aramark has a positive impact on the criminal justice system.
“While we understand and respect the passionate debate around our nation’s prison system and its disproportionate impact on Black and other non-white populations, we disagree with how Aramark is being characterized and cast as part of the problem,” Quinn said in a statement.
Quinn said Aramark offers vocational training, scholarships, and money for trust accounts for inmates who work in the kitchen.
“We are actually part of the solution with a strong commitment to rehabilitating incarcerated individuals so they can transition back to their communities,” Quinn said.
Earlier this year, eight current and former California inmates sued Aramark, among others, for benefiting from their uncompensated labour.
Aramark employs 425 people on campus, according to Quinn.
Carleton is under a five-year contract with Aramark until 2023. CU Global Promise is advocating for the termination of the contract with Aramark, rather than simply not renewing the contract, to set an example of support for anti-racism initiatives.
“In terminating the contract with Aramark, Carleton University can set an example to other academic institutions and the students of those institutions that it is possible and achievable to address issues of systemic racism on campus,” a draft of the club’s report reads.
If CU Global Promise is successful in advocating for the termination of the contract, it wants Carleton to outsource its dining services to a local company, or manage dining services internally.
Other universities have severed ties with Aramark. In 2013, Ryerson University declined to renew its five-year contract with Aramark after $5.6 million in loses. Instead, the university entered into a contract with another food service company, promising that 25 per cent of food on campus would be sustainable and local.
Likewise, in 2016, the University of Toronto declined to renew its contract with Aramark and began running most on-campus dining itself to improve food quality.
Campaigns to end contracts with Aramark have taken place at numerous American universities, including Arizona State University and the University of South Florida.
CU Global Promise president Sanassy, a fourth year human rights and social justice major, said that while the financial burden of terminating the contract with Aramark could be more expensive at first, it would save the university money in the long run.
“It would actually be more cost-efficient for Carleton to actually self-operate their dining services,” Sanassy said.
The club is assisted in their efforts by CUSA, which connected them with university administration. CUSA president Kathleen Weary said in the August council meeting that she also discussed the Aramark contract with Carleton vice-president (students and enrolment) Suzanne Blanchard in August.
Carleton media relations officer Steven Reid said the university is reaching out to CU Global Promise to discuss the club’s concerns.
Featured image by Kayla Wemp.
