Across campus there is one name associated with most of the food available to students: Aramark. A service company which started in the US and has grown across the globe, they provide a number of different services tailored for a variety of events. This year, Aramark’s 150-year contract with Trent is up for review and possibly renewal.
The University, through various partnerships and surveying strategies, has been reaching out for opinions and ideas regarding how things have been and potential changes.All this talk lead Arthur to do a little investigative work of our own.
Arthur visited three of the four college cafeterias (Otonabee, Lady Eaton and Champlain) as well as the Seasoned Spoon.Here are the questions we asked and the answers we heard.
We started by asking if there were any special dietary needs.When a need or set of needs was reported we asked how successful Aramark was in meeting those needs.Vegetarians generally recognized Aramark’s provisions for them but felt they were lacking.Elijah Abel put it this way: “it would be nicer if they had more options other than pizza.”
We came across one student, Sanjam Suri, who told us he is lactose intolerant.He’s not entirely sure if Aramark really meets his needs, saying “I have tried asking the people who work at the cafeteria and I don’t get a definite answer so it’s almost like I’m taking a risk when I eat.”
In Lady Eaton, we met Gord Schyf who requires gluten-free food. He told us, “It is not hard to get food from the cafeterias that is gluten free.It’s just that it doesn’t taste very good.”
Finally, in terms of dietary needs, we spoke to Sadio Osman who explained that she eats Halal, “[I] don’t care when it comes to fries and such but anything to do with meat has to be Halal.So the way animals are slaughtered matters, you must follow certain rules when slaughtering animals.”She elaborated for us on how Aramark meets her needs. “yeah, but sometimes, but in the first few weeks I couldn’t find anything so I just ate fries and basically just vegetarian and it was after a while that I found halal options.”We wanted to know if halal options were available at every meal, she told us, “Not really, if you ask for it they will provide it but it is not readily available.”
When we asked what people thought of the quality of Aramark’s food, we found that they weren’t very impressed.Sanjam Suri told us “I mean it’s okay if I wanna eat [here] once a week, but for someone who has to eat [in a caf] more than that, I really feel sorry for them.”
We asked if students were finding the menu options to have enough variety.Most felt that the variety could be improved upon.Andrew Campbell and Tasha Rabinowitz were a little more optimistic, Andrew saying “They’re trying. I really like their Thursday nights. Lady Eaton and Gzowski are good on Thursday nights.”
Tasha told us “The variety is okay, everything is just okay.”A more positive response still came from Ryan Gardiner and Sam Stoehr.Sam told us “I think it’s good, you can get anything right. There’s lots of styles of food.” Ryan added “Yeah, it’s good. Especially with Gzowski and Lady Eaton, I had roast pork the other night and that was good.”
It was a fairly unanimous response when we asked about price. We heard from just about everyone that it was unreasonably high.
From here we wanted to know what the students would improve upon and change. We ended up with a list of suggestions: lower food prices, better promotion of healthy food, higher focus on local purchases, better variety at breakfast (and in general), the ability to have more than three meals, and finally, more readily available halal and speciality foods for all dietary needs.
It was also unanimously agreed that Trent and Aramark need to continue with fair trade and sustainable initiatives in the food sold on campus.The comment was added however from Sam that it should be a choice. He says, “I think locally is great, fair trade you should give the option to the people if they care or not. I don’t like the idea of being forced to pay more for fair trade.”
The hours of operation were also considered generally reasonable, with some indication that the students wouldn’t mind seeing cafeterias like Gzowski and Lady Eaton open a few more hours each day and Gzowski open on weekends. William pointed out that many students have class for the duration of meal times at those locations.
There were few complaints with regards to Aramark’s set up, although Sam and Ryan pointed out that lining up with hot food, as you often have to in Champlain and Otonabee, can sometimes lead to disappointment.
Finally, we asked how people felt about the Aramark staff.A few suggested they could have moments of grumpiness, or seem like they aren’t happy to be there.Most though were eager to report the staff as friendly and helpful.
Thusly, Aramark, it seems we know you’re good people, but we feel that the relationship just isn’t working out.
