Aramark’s “Erase the Waste” Flim-Flam

Aramark continues to roll out their waste-reduction initiative, and nobody has pointed out that the main thing being wasted its profit margin.

An article from yesterday’s Alligator  reads like a press release, doesn’t even mention Aramark, the private contractor behind GDS. The company’s waste-free pledge puts the burden of social responsibility on students. Is saves them money, because the thrust of its waste-reduction tips involves getting customers to take less food at a time, and therefore keeping the company’s costs low. 

Private food contractors have no interest in preserving the environment or even feeding us well, especially when they enjoy enforced monopolies. They’re only interested in making as much money as possible. The company has a well-established history of cutting costs by feeding customers less.

If UF was serious about its “zero waste by 2015″ campaign or creating a genuinely sustainable campus, it would dump Aramark and start bringing in quality food from local farmers, as other universities have done.

Cunningham outed… Well.. Not quite.

The Alligator finally got word of the political connections of Courtney Cuningham, the UF trustee who helped Aramark land its failed deal with Florida prisons and lobbied for the company through late 2007.

Kind of. It was vague, and it was buried at the bottom of the article. 

“According to Cunningham’s appointment application, he has also held several other government positions and lobbied on issues related to UF.”

At the time he submitted his application (and for some two years after), that could have been in present tense. Cunningham was appointed in 2005 while he was making over $100,000 a year representing Aramark Correctional services to his many friends in the Jeb Bush administration — including Bush himself.

Interestingly, the article notes the board likes to rib Cunningham about his political affiliations — namely his support for Barack Obama. Republicans often privatize government functions in the name of “reform.” John McCain has certainly promised school reform, which often takes the form of “public-private partnerships” in charter schools. Can we expect the same from a democratic administration, under the guise of “change?”