By Jeremiah Tattersall
All of the food officially sold on campus, from Arredondo Café to Starbucks, is controlled by Aramark, a private corporation with a shady history at UF. These are the people who decide what food businesses are allowed to operate on campus and what meal plans are offered. The only place that non-Aramark food can be [...]
By Esteban O Sullivan
Aramark, UF’s food service supplier, has agreed to pay a penny and a half more per pound for the tomatoes they purchase – a premium that will go directly toward increasing the wages of tomato pickers. UF Student/Farmworker Alliance members heard the decision on March 22. “We had heard from the [Coalition of Immokalee Workers] [...]
By Esteban O Sullivan
Aramark meets with SFA Update: In yet another victory for the Immokalee workers, Aramark has agreed to the CIW’s demands, and agreed to a 1.5-cent-per-pound increase on the tomatoes it buys, as well as mandating that its suppliers adhere to a code of conduct in their treatment of workers. Executives from Aramark met with members [...]
By Kristen Abdullah and Richard Blake
As we made the four-hour journey south to tomato-town Immokalee, Fla., we ran through the itinerary for the long weekend to come and familiarized ourselves with the 40-plus pages of reading material that we were supposed to have completed three weeks before. The thick packet of literature included stories like “Immokalee family sentenced for slavery,” [...]
By Travis Pillow
Aramark Correctional Services plans to cut ties with the Florida Department of Corrections in September. It will serve its last meal to Florida prisoners on Jan. 9, 2009 due to the 90-day termination clause in its contract. Aramark had the contract for a turbulent seven years, marked by fines and wrangling over budget cuts and [...]
By Travis Pillow
The University of Florida recently issued a 10-year contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars to a privately held company with ties to the Republican Party and a history of bilking taxpayers, without meaningful student input or public discussion. The bidding process was not competitive, and appears to have limited competition by design. Many students [...]
