The College has officially decided to oust Aramark due to endless complaints from students about the quality of food. The new dining contract with the College has been signed on April 1, 2015 with Squirrelmark.
CEO of Squirrelmark, Mark Squire, is passionate about cooking and bringing his best work to hungry college students. “College students are at a very exciting yet confusing turning point in their lives. They’re paying thousands of dollars for a service and get incredibly happy when that service gets cancelled. Their creativity is utilized in the most fascinating ways: turning text white to up the word count on electronically submitted papers, doing eight hours of work in thirty minutes. They certainly deserve a good meal or two.”
Squire emphasized honesty and trustworthiness in conducting business. “I’m going to be straightforward with you: yes, there will be bloody meat and some flies on the spinach, on some occasions. We make mistakes, but we own up to them, rather than not respond to incidents or just pretend like they never happened. So, yeah, that was a disclaimer to you students ahead of time. Don’t sue us. We only have a few nuts, anyways.”
Kristina Simeunovic ’16 took a photo of Chef Mark Squire munching on some pizza outside of the Donnelley and Lee Library.
Squirrelmark is a small, family- owned and operated business from the Lake Forest area. They focus on working with nearby farms to buy fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables. “As a small company, it’s hard to compete with a huge corporation like Aramark,” said Squire. “But we are grateful that we got this contract with Lake Forest College.” Aramark brought in close to $15 billion in revenue last year.
Eric J. Foss, their CEO, has a salary of over $8 million a year. “Yeah, I just make a few nuts a year,” said Squire, with a laugh. Students expressed their happiness upon hearing that Aramark has been replaced. “I can’t wait to try Squirrelmark’s food!” said a sophomore biology major. “We can only go up from here,” said another sophomore.
Aramark has been the subject of a number of scandals over the past few years. They have been accused of firing employees who reported unsanitary food conditions, not paying their employees for all hours worked, and getting rid of employees who filed Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claims.
A portion of Aramark’s business comes from serving food in state prisons. Some of these state prisons have criticized Aramark for food safety issues and overcharging state governments. In 2009, a Kentucky prison riot was started due to the low quality of food fed to prisoners. A Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Chris Hedges, found several cases of substandard and spoiled food to be the cause of many illnesses in New Jersey’s Burlington County Jail. Maggots have also been found in multiple state prisons’ cafeteria food.
Aramark is also partnered with over five hundred school districts nationwide. The corporation provides janitorial services in addition to foodservices. Chicago Public Schools pay Aramark to run their food service and recently gave the corporation a $260 million contract to privatize CPS’s janitorial services. Many have complained that Aramark is doing a worse job of cleaning schools than CPS janitors.
“Aramark’s job is to clean the schools…They will either live up to that contract…or they can clean out their desks,” said Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in response to the criticisms. “We’re looking forward to working with a company that practices business ethics and moral labor practices,” said a member of the College’s administration.
Disclaimer from the author: Sorry for getting your hopes up, but…April Fool’s! The information regarding Aramark’s business practices with state prisons and CPS is true. And yes, Mayor Emanuel did actually say that.
