We have all seen and experienced the food at the Simmons University— food poisoning is not uncommon, foreign objects are regularly found in meals, and mold runs rampant, leaving many students food insecure. While we would like to believe that this experience is unique, it is not. Our dining halls are serviced by Aramark, a corporation with an ongoing pattern of poor food quality in the institutions they serve.

Not only that, but Aramark is an unethical company with a history of prison labor and exploitation. Aramark contracts with prisons for millions of dollars, profiting off of the mass incarceration of millions of Black and brown people each year. In these prisons, the food quality is far worse than at Simmons, with inmates being served soup filled with maggots and tacos filled with rocks. Aramark is a large and far-reaching corporation— too large to be reformed.

Simmons claims to be committed to social justice, yet they are actively benefiting from the suffering of millions of people of color. The other path forward is for Simmons University to disaffiliate from Aramark.

Students at numerous other universities have successfully organized against Aramark for similar reasons. As Arizona State University activists explained: “Over the past two decades, there have been dozens of lawsuits, human rights violations, and highly concerning corporate actions by Aramark. Aramark has been a repeat offender for the following objectionable actions: serving prisoners substandard food that resulted in sickness, using discriminatory hiring practices against POC, and even serving a disgustingly racist meal at NYU during Black History Month in 2018. There are so many more instances of similar injustices.”

For these reasons, we demand that Simmons University cut ties with the Aramark Corporation. This is a reasonable demand that has been accomplished by other universities.

Students will continue to get sick until Simmons University cuts ties with Aramark.
Students will continue to be hospitalized until Simmons University cuts ties with Aramark. Corporation.
Students will continue to distrust their school until Simmons University cuts ties with Aramark.
Students will continue to be food insecure until Simmons University cuts ties with Aramark.

Our dining halls and our college experience will not improve until Simmons University cuts ties with Aramark.

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