Following recent campus backlash against the dining service provider’s In2Work program and the lack of sufficient accommodations in the dining hall, Aramark’s Regional Vice President addressed student concerns while visiting Hamline University. Moving forward from the meeting, some students hope that the Request For Proposals (RFP) process will bring a new face to dining in Anderson Center.
Dean of Students Patti Klein-Kersten and Vice President for Finance & Administration Brent Gustafson have been working with a consultant to put together an RFP, a proposal that shows dining service vendors that the university is accepting bids for contracts. Once the RFP is underway, a committee will be formed to decide what contract is best for Hamline.
“There will be students on the committee, there will be more than one,” Klein-Kersten said. “I think of some key areas right now: I think of [Hamline University Student Congress (HUSC)], I think of RHA, I think of our multicultural organizations, I also think of our athletes. I’m not trying to put people into boxes, but I think that that is four key areas with students who can maybe represent multiple.”
Student priorities for the standards of dining at Hamline will be an important part of the selection process, and the selection committee will consider these priorities as they narrow down the pool of bidders.
“The consultant will also help us define what are those things [in a selection] that are really important. Things I’ve heard through student groups are sustainability, values of a company, quality of service and product, these are not in any specific order. Cost will be an important piece, being able to look at what is the best value,” Klein-Kersten said.
Aramark will likely be putting forward a proposal again to attempt to recontract with Hamline, and Regional VP Vince Phipps visited Hamline on Oct. 24 to address student concerns, including the resolution HUSC passed earlier this year urging the university to find a new provider of food service.
At the open conversation with students, Phipps was met with many questions and concerns about the program he created through Aramark, the In2Work program. In2Work is an inmate-to-workmate program that allows inmates with good behavior to train in food service while incarcerated and potentially continue to work for Aramark after release.
“I created [the IntoWork program] because I was that troubled kid. Again, something goes differently, I’m spending the rest of my life in prison, and I wanted to make sure the organization [was] giving back,” Phipps said at the open conversation with students. “When we created the In2Work program, we changed [the kitchen] environment from the worst to the best place to work.”
Phipps also clarified that the state determines the pay for prison laborers that are a part of Aramark’s In2Work program, and therefore the pay scale for In2Work participants varies across the country.
“In county jails [inmates] don’t get paid typically but what they do get is good time, so for every day they work in the kitchen they get two days off their sentence, so that’s how it works in county jails. Now in prisons they typically — [it] depends on the pay scale — may get anywhere from $0.75 an hour depending on the state, up to $1.20 or $1.10, somewhere in that range,” Phipps said to students at the meeting.”
When asked by a student if the wages were fair, Phipps addressed the question on behalf of himself.
“Fair is a tough question. What I would say — this is me, no company-speak, this is just me-talk — I’d much rather see the officers get paid better than to somehow give the inmates the money,” Phipps said.
Members of Hamline’s food justice advocacy group, Feed Your Brain, Kaitlynn Fuller, AJ Escalante and Matthew Maroney attended the open conversation with the Aramark VP to express their concerns. Ultimately the students did not feel the meeting was constructive, leading to Maroney and Escalante leaving the meeting early.
“What became clear to me, and the reason I walked out with AJ [Escalante] was that it was clear Aramark wasn’t at the meeting in good faith. They weren’t trying to have a productive conversation, they weren’t there to really answer our questions, they were there to try to mend Aramark’s corporate image at Hamline,” Maroney said.
Fuller experienced similar frustration with how students’ questions were addressed at the meeting.
“I thought the Vice President [Phipps] had a lack of answers,” Fuller said. “I thought that a lot of the questions we brought up were replied with either some weird scenario he just came up with, or just avoidance.”
Phipps was unavailable to comment further by the time of publication, when asked for further comment Phipps’ team referred The Oracle to the Our Correction Work Matters: Frequently Asked Questions section of Aramark’s website.
As the RFP process moves forward, Klein-Kersten intends for everyone who eats at Hamline’s dining hall to be represented.
“I think that the process that will be laid out will allow for voices to be heard, and then it’s going to be the work of the committee to be able to balance all of the different priorities. So the committee will have the information, and it’s going to have to be a balance, and in the end what rises to the top?” Klein-Kersten said. “My goal is for students to rave about their dining experience, I want it to be a very positive experience, and not everyone has the same needs in that experience, but that’s what I want, that’s what I’ve wanted since I’ve been here.”