Introduction

Like hundreds of other public universities across the nation, since 2007, the University of California, Irvine has been contracted with Aramark, a large American food-service corporation.

Every day, UCI students come in contact with the products and services that Aramark provides when they eat at any Anteater dining hall on campus. However, unbeknownst to many in the UCI community, Aramark has a long history of food quality and workplace scandals, exploitative and unethical business practices, and is a vital contributor to and beneficiary of the prison industrial-industrial complex.

This year in 2022, UCI’s contract with Aramark is set to end. Thus, it is imperative that we act NOW to ensure that it is not renewed. We must make our voices heard and mobilize our community to put pressure on the UC and make it clear that we no longer want any affiliation with Aramark.

By removing Aramark from our UCI campus, we will have the opportunity to create a dining system that puts the health and wellness of our students first, keeps the sustainability of our planet in mind, and uplifts independent food businesses that Aramark has locked out of the market for so long.

Other universities have moved to self-operated dining - why can’t we?

Why not Aramark?

Health and Workplace Scandals – To highlight just a few instances:

• The State of Michigan ended its contract early with Aramark after it found traces of rodents, maggot infestations in food, and Aramark employees had been engaging in sexual acts with prisoners.
• One inmate sued Aramark in 2014 after he bit into rocks in his food, chipping his teeth.
• Aramark has been subject to a number of sexual misconduct lawsuits filed by its employees.
• Just recently, at Western Washington University, a student worker who tested positive for COVID-19 was prevented from leaving their shift due to Aramark’s labor policies.

Aramark consistently promotes an unsafe environment for their workers and their consumers, and demonstrates little regard towards changing their practices.

Prison Industrial Complex – Aside from providing food services to public schools and universities, Aramark runs over 500 dining operations in prisons across the country. The more contracts Aramark has with prisons, the more it profits off people. In addition, Aramark has been known to use prison labor to prepare and process food in some of the prisons it operates in. To highlight just one instance of this, Aramark was sued in 2019 for involuntary servitude in Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County, CA. As Black and brown people are disproportionately affected by incarceration, Aramark directly contributes to the perpetuation of systemic discrimination in the United States with its unethical practices.

Undermining a Fair Food System – Aramark, one of the 3 largest food-service corporations in the United States, holds a tremendous amount of the industry’s market share of business. To maintain this position, Aramark engages in corporate kickbacks, an illegal business practice that has afforded them numerous lawsuits. Here’s how it works:

1. Contractors like Aramark buy food from massive corporations like Tyson, who promise lower prices in exchange for their continued business and exclusivity.
2. Driven by a lack of transparency, Aramark offers these highly processed and often frozen food products at an inflated price to students.
3. Aramark uses their profits to buy more food with student money, creating a cycle that locks out independent farmers, ranchers, and fishers from the market.

Labor Exploitation – The University of California, Irvine contracts out its workers to Aramark. Under Aramark's policy with UCI dining workers, employees are prohibited from receiving tips or unionizing, resulting in less job security, unfair wages, and increased chances of unsafe working conditions. Meanwhile, Aramark continues to profit off of these unfair labor practices, while UCI dining staff, our fellow Anteaters, are exploited.

Environmental Sustainability – Aramark affords Big Food corporations like Tyson Foods almost exclusive access to hundreds of public schools and universities around the country. To demonstrate the scope to which these corporations harm the environment, Tyson Foods has been ranked the #1 contributor to water pollution in the United States among agricultural businesses. 

Takeaway

UCI students deserve a dining service that’s ethical, safe, and sustainable. Aramark has shown time and time again that it is unwilling to provide such a service. Across the UC, higher leadership has continually promised a commitment to divesting from the prison industrial complex, supporting ethical business practices, and ultimately providing for the wellbeing of their students and staff. As students of the University, we need to keep them accountable to that promise. As such, it’s crucial that we urge UCI to officially divest from the prison industrial complex, to establish a system by the students and for the students. It’s time for us to call on UCI to end its contract with Aramark, and to bring to light the need for better, uncompromised, quality food systems at UCI!

Sources/Read More

“Prison Labor is remarkably common within the food system” https://www.nycfoodpolicy.org/prison-labor-is-remarkably-common-within-the-food-system/

“Black History Month Menu at N.Y.U.: Kool-Aid, Watermelon and Controversy” https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/21/nyregion/nyu-black-history-month.html

“Prison strike organizers to protest food giant Aramark” https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/prison-strike-protest-aramark 

“Aramark contract "up in the air" after more maggots found in prison food” https://www.michiganradio.org/politics-government/2014-07-03/aramark-contract-up-in-the-air-after-more-maggots-found-in-prison-food

“Lawsuit: rocks in taco at prison damaged inmate’s teeth” https://tucson.com/ap/business/lawsuit-rocks-in-taco-at-prison-damaged-inmate-s-teeth/article_f3eb6c23-a768-5560-8ed7-37a9927a3b86.html 

“Union Action Sparks awareness as labor issues continue” - UCI student Aramark Protests https://www.newuniversity.org/2017/12/06/union-action-sparks-awareness-as-labor-issues-continue/