By Hailey Murphy
For the first annual Teacher of Color conference on Saturday, Justice Speaks made a request with Western Dining to have Juanita’s Mexican Cuisine cater the event. When they were denied permission, however, Justice Speaks opted to serve Juanita’s for a price, rather than work with Aramark catering.
“We were notified that because WWU Dining Services has a long-standing contract with Aramark, they retain the first right of refusal to grant catering exemption requests to work with off-campus vendors,” Justice Speaks’ statement read. “In other words, we are being compelled to choose between working with Aramark’s catering or have no food catered at all.”
Paul Cocke, director of Communications and Marketing, said that it’s part of Aramark’s contractual obligation to ensure food quality and safety. When someone is bringing in an outside vendor, Aramark must still ensure food quality and safety.
“While waiver requests can be granted to the exclusive Aramark catering service, an established process dependent upon complete information submittal and timely request, focused upon the necessary health and liability requirements, must be followed,” Cocke said. “Western has nothing against Juanita’s or any other potential catering vendor. In this case, however, the waiver request failed to achieve the aforementioned necessary requirements for information.”
When asked about the waiver request, Justice Speaks did not reply.
When their request was denied, Justice Speaks released a statement saying they chose not to work with Aramark due to their troubling history.
They cited news reports of Aramark abuses, including employees sexually harassing prisoners; serving food that contained rocks and maggots; putting out food that perpetuated stereotypes for Black History Month (such as mac and cheese, watermelon Kool-aid and collard greens) and employees smuggling drugs into prisons.
“Working with Aramark goes against everything that Justice Speaks stands for,” the statement said.
They also included links to Students for Sustainable Food’s Shred the Contract campaign, which advocates that Western divest from Aramark in 2021 due to their prison complex profits and unjust employee treatment.
Instead of using Aramark catering, Justice Speaks had attendees order from Juanita prior to the event. They could also bring their own bagged lunch, or get food on campus. If buying food wasn’t an option, committee members used their own money to purchase food for the attendee.
“By encouraging conference attendees to order food from her business, we are not violating any university policies. No state funds will be used towards this, and Juanita will not be vending on campus at all. Essentially, it is the same as attendees ordering lunch by delivery,” Giselle Alcantar Soto, a member of Justice Speaks, said. “In expressing our preference for her business, we are simply stating our support for her work and what she stands for as a local food caterer of color, which is in alignment with the themes of our conference.”
According to the Teachers of Color webpage, Juanita started her food stand at the Bellingham Farmers Market after 30 years of working as a farm manager. She cooks traditional dishes from her home state of Michoacán, Mexico, using vegetable oil instead of lard to create gluten-free and vegetarian dishes. All the food she serves– tortillas, salsa, chips, etc.– are made by her.