Bon Appétit Management Company will replace Sodexo USA as Emory’s food service vendor on both the Atlanta and Oxford campuses, effective June 1, the Division of Campus Life announced Thursday afternoon.
Sodexo’s contract expiration contributed to an on-going, campus-wide discussion regarding its practices and treatment of its workers. The student group Students and Workers in Solidarity (SWS) has spurred many of the discussions since its founding in 2010.
Bon Appétit is based in Palo Alto, California and offers food-service management services to corporations, universities, museums and other venues and has more than 500 cafes in 32 states, according to its website.
“We are incredibly excited at the opportunity to serve the Emory community,” Bonnie Powell, director of Communications for Bon Appétit
Management Company, said. “We’re really looking forward to this partnership.”
According to Powell, she does not believe a specific contract with Bon Appétit has been negotiated yet.
The announcement was made through the Campus Life website in a letter to the Emory community from Senior Director for University Food Service Administration Dave Furhman.
“It was a really hard decision — an extremely hard decision,” Furhman said, adding that he and Emory Dining will determine what campus dining venue and restaurant changes will be implemented over the summer.
No Sodexo hourly employees “that you all know and interact with on a day-to-day basis” will lose their jobs as a result of the switch, according to Furhman.
Given that, supervisor for Eagle Convenience and Subs Marcos Alejos, who is an hourly employee, said he has not received any word about a renewal of this job yet from either Sodexo or the University.
Sodexo spokesperson Samuel Wells provided a statement to the Wheel.
“Sodexo is proud of the work we’ve done over the years improving the quality of life and the overall student and employee experience at Emory University,” Wells wrote. “Unfortunately, the University has decided to go in a different direction with the dining program. We wish the students, staff and administration of Emory University the best moving forward.”
Selection Process
Furhman and members of the Food Advisory Committee at Emory (FACE), a group that brings together student opinions and Emory Dining staff toward improving food on campus, began discussions about Sodexo’s impending contract expiration as early as November.
FACE received proposals from the vendors in December and January and selected Sodexo and Bon Appétit as the two finalists after receiving feedback from the Emory community through online surveys and FACE meetings once a month, which have been and are open for anyone to attend and air woes about dining at Emory.
The final selection process involved reviewing company presentations from both Sodexo and Bon Appétit and soliciting student, faculty and employee feedback.
FACE Co-Chair Molly Talman explained why FACE was attracted to Bon Appétit.
“One thing I know we really liked about Bon Appétit were their sustainability initiatives,” Talman said. “They’re a leader in sustainability, and we thought that very much matched with Emory’s values.”
Sodexo has been the University’s food service provider for the last decade, as per its contract, which expires at the end of the semester.
“Sodexo has done an amazing job over the last 10 years,” Furhman said. “We’ve seen some very big improvement to our dining program … We owe a lot of that to Sodexo.”
Allegations Against Sodexo
In spring 2011, SWS held a widely-covered protest against Sodexo for the alleged mistreatment of its workers.
The organization formed in 2010 as a response to workers’ complaints that Sodexo had appeared in human rights reports and denied workers’ access to health care, among other allegations.
Sodexo’s contract expiration renewed discussions on campus regarding Sodexo’s treatment of its workers.
Furhman’s statement announcing Thursday’s decision referenced the Committee on Class and Labor’s 2013 report, which analyzed Emory’s contracts with external companies and their treatment of subcontracted employees.
The report found that there were benefits that employees contracted by Emory receive that Sodexo workers did not, such as health care.
The report also found that Emory was unable to speak directly with employees to ascertain their satisfaction with the Sodexo management because they are subcontracted through Sodexo, rather than directly employed by Emory.
In response to a question regarding why Emory decided to end its partnership with Sodexo, Furhman said “there was discussion about company culture and how that culture perhaps fit with Emory,” he said.
College freshman and SWS representative Mike Demers said, although he was happy with Thursday’s decision, SWS’ work is not over.
“Now we’re focusing the efforts on the new contract with the new provider and whether or not that contract will comply with the details explicated in the 2013 labor report,” Demers said.
Sodexo Workers Respond
Some Sodexo employees said their experiences have generally been good with Sodexo.
Kevin Brown, another Dobbs Market worker who has been at Emory for 14 years, said he “was happy and sad at the same time” about the news.
Others, however, had problems with Sodexo’s management.
A Dobbs Market cashier who wished to remain anonymous said her experience with Sodexo was “very negative,” and she received a strike on her record for taking leave due to an emergency health complication.
Another Dobbs Market employee Deonte Jeffries, who previously worked with Bon Appétit for a month and a half, said he did not notice a difference between Sodexo and Bon Appétit.
The Wheel will continue to report on updates regarding the contract, changes to Emory Dining and related issues as they occur.
- By Rupsha Basu
Zak Hudak and Ryan Smith contributed reporting.
