Only Aramark may provide refreshments for events held on campus

Hampden-Sydney students are very fortunate to attend a school that offers a vast number of seminars and forums from well-accredited speakers, but events such as these are sometimes a hardship on their hosts due to a seemingly harmless culprit: cookies.

Faculty and students both have had issues with the catering policies and prices provided by Aramark. The price of light refreshments, such as cookies, bottles of water, and cheese trays have become a problem among members of the community who want to serve refreshments at school events.

According to Aramark’s H-SC catering website, the price of one dozen cookies is $6.60 and “English Tea Sandwiches” are $25.00 a dozen, but the customer must purchase at least two dozen, driving the price to a $50.00 minimum. When satisfying a large group of hungry, male college students, one can foresee how events can become pricey. But there are also service charges for the event: including a drop off and pick up fee, an hourly fee for each employee involved actively serving food, and charges for each table with linen.

One might ask, “Why don’t people just go to Wal-Mart and purchase cookies and water there?” The official answer is found in “H-SC Policy on Room Chargers and Rules,” which states, “All food service at College facilities and/or property must be contracted for and provided by H-SC Aramark catering office.”  In short, Aramark has a contractual monopoly on all served foods on campus. Because of prices and obligation, some faculty members have said that they are forced to host many events without refreshments.

This issue is also affecting students. Nay Min Oo ’12, president of the H-SC International Club, hosted the sixth annual International Food Festival in the past month. It featured a number of dishes made by students. The event was only allowed to be held in College Church. The Church is the one building on campus that is not owned by the college, thus creating a loophole in the contract. In past years, the club cooked food and hosted the event in Settle Hall, but due to recent changes in policies, students were forced to move to College Church. Clubs only have a certain amount of money given to them by the Student Finance Committee, and if a club wanted to have an event with refreshments, it may leave them bankrupt. Oo expressed concern about the requirement noting, “As limited as a club’s budget is, I don’t think it is helpful to have clubs required to buy food from Aramark.”

Only Aramark may provide snacks and refreshments for events held on campus

            Aramark’s catering policies aren’t all bad though. Glenn Culley, the new Vice President of Business Affairs and Finance, comments that a large benefit of Aramark is the “Quality control of food being served on campus.” If third party caterers’ food was to be served on campus and people got food poisoning, it would be a massive liability. Another positive view came from Thomas Shomo, Director of Public Affairs and Marketing. He said that Aramark’s services benefit our institution in terms of accessibility and cleanup.

            When talking to Mr. Culley about Aramark’s contract and the issues people have been having, he said that the problems have become apparent and are being looked into, but Mr. Culley also noted, “Nothing is going to change this fiscal year.”

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