What makes the problem you are working on a “problem”, and what are its dimensions?

The Aramark Corporation is the primary and monopolizing food source for The Evergreen State College.  The food system is an epistemic infrastructure that implicitly defines the nature of what community looks like on campus.  Our school declares itself a place of collaboration, encouraging its students to think critically and to engage in social justice and environmental stewardship.  As Greeners ourselves, we have come here to be molded into the role of this kind of citizen and it is in this spirit that we investigate the presence of Aramark on our campus.

• Food Accessibility:
  • Campus clubs cannot serve food.
  • **Aramark’s pricing makes it difficult for students to be able to afford to buy food.**
  • **Events must cater through either the Flaming Eggplant or through Aramark. **
  • **Longhouse events**

• Quality
  • Evergreen has a fully operational organic farm, an expansive agricultural department and a network of community gardens on campus, while the food provided by the Aramark Corporation is only 25% “real food”, according to the Real Food Challenge which defines such food as local, ecologically sound, fair and humane.

• Ethical Violations
  • Aramark has contracts with over 500 correctional facilities in the United States, profiting off of the billion dollar prison labor industry:
    • Aramark has already been replaced as the prison food contractor of the state of Michigan after fining the corporation twice, once at $98,000 and the second time at $200,000.  The issues cited by Michigan included sanitation problems, maggots and rocks found in food, termination of 176 Aramark employees for a range of transgressions, and unauthorized menu substitutions.   https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/07/13/state-ends-prison-food-contract-aramark/30080211/
    • Immigrant detention centers
  • Employee practices**

• Sustainability
  • ***This relationship inhibits better relationship with local businesses.***
  • The current concern on campus is the survival of the college, implying that the infrastructure needs to evolve.

Possible causes of the problem

• Evergreen’s budgetary concerns creates the need for an outside vendor.
• Limited vendor competition
• Lack of  culinary department

What general approaches have been used in the past or currently proposed to deal with it?

• Past contractors
• Student Proposals
  •  Flaming Eggplant
• Food Systems Working Group- The Food Systems Working Group (FSWG) was created
  when The Evergreen State College signed the Real Food Campus Commitment in 2014, as
  part of an agreement to participate in the Real Food Challenge. They erves as a formal committee which can facilitate communication between the administration
  and the campus community regarding issues in the campus food system.
• Past Proposals
  • “The Corner” – student run cafe, active from 1988-2000
  • Food Disappearing Task Force recommended that a transition to Self-Op would be in Evergreen’s best interest
  • S.tudents O.rganizing for F.ood A.utonomy was created to pressure the administration to follow the DTF’s recommendations.  (supported by private consulting firm)  Their activity was ignored by the administration.
  • Subterranean shop in the HCC
  • 7 Evergreen students developed business plan and feasibility study for what would become The Flaming Eggplant
• Past Contracts
  • Fine Host (1990-2001)
  • Bon Appetit, later Compass Group (2001-2004), operated at a loss for Evergreen at 1,500,000 because of the guaranteed profits clause in the contract.
  • Aramark was the only contractor to bid (began in 2004)