Student group Shred the Contract handed out food in Red Square while encouraging passersby to boycott Aramark for the day. Ella Banken//AS Review
By Soleil de Zwart
The Boycott Aramark protest and march aimed to educate Western students on Shred the Contract’s demands, as well as their message for Western to divest from Aramark.
Shred the Contract started in fall 2018. Their aim is to move Western away from a dining service contract with Aramark and toward a self-operated dining system, according to their Facebook page.
The march was about putting out an info campaign of what’s happening on campus. Shred the Contract wants Western to invest in responsible companies that don’t exploit prison workers. Today is about educating people, Joe Addison, a junior at Western, said. Addison came to the march to support his friend, a member of Shred the Contract.
The march led to the office of Melynda Huskey, VP for Enrollment and Student Services, where the group had a meeting to deliver their list of demands and voice their concerns with Aramark, as well as their encouragement for a self-operated dining system.
At their meeting, Huskey said she was aware of their efforts and understood that students have concerns about the quality of the food served by Aramark, working conditions and the student’s disagreement with Aramark’s involvements with prisons.
Huskey believes Western has the responsibility to follow the ethical values of its students and she committed to being transparent about the process of evaluating the dining hall system, she said.
Western made a contract with a consultant to see if transitioning to a self-operated system would be feasible. When Huskey has that information, it will be made public, according to Huskey.
Prior to the march, Shred the Contract tabled in Red Square and encouraged students not to eat in campus retail or dining hall locations during that time. Friends and members of the group gave out handbills with concerns about Aramark and handed out snacks to students.
All dining halls and food locations on campus are serviced through the contract with Aramark, meaning that any food or beverage purchased on campus gives a profit to Aramark, according to Matt Svilar, member of Shred the Contract.
Shred the Contract encouraged students to eat at Vendor’s Row instead and made sure to notify the vendors at Vendor’s Row that there may be an influx of students during that time, according to Svilar.
“It’s not explicitly, you know, about the quality of the food, it’s about where our money as students and, sort of, the money of the university are going and what systems that money is upholding,” Svilar said.
“I believe a self-operated dining system is the best route for students,” Mars Wall, a Shred the Contract member, said. Wall went on to say that with a self-operated dining system, the students would have more say in what is served, offering more dietary options.
Most other large universities in Washington state have a self-operated dining system, giving a precedent for Western, according to Svilar.
The march was also in coordination with similar marches made by New York University, University of Central Oklahoma, Scripps College and Barnard College. These colleges, along with Western, were protesting the Big Three food service companies that exploit workers, Aramark, Compass Group and Sodexo, according to Svilar.
For a university, that claims to be progressive, to use for-profit prison labor, isn’t a good message, Liam Price, a community member and friend of Shred the Contract member, said.
Following the meeting, representatives from Shred the Contract, Sex Worker Advocacy Network (SWAN), Black Student Union, Students for United Palestinian Equal Rights, Students for Renewable Energy, Whatcom Peace and Justice Center, and a former Aramark employee gave speeches on how Aramark exploited prison workers and minority groups.
“It’s heartening to see people gather in the cold to talk to admin about what we care about,” Evelyn Hobbs, president of SWAN, said.
There were a lot of new people present at the march that weren’t previously involved with Shred the Contract, according to Svilar. He hopes this inspires more people to join.