The City University of New York has approved a long-term contract with a leading national vendor to consolidate the operation of dining facilities across the University in a move that promises significant improvements to food services on its campuses after the pandemic. The deal with CulinArt Group includes provisions for facilities upgrades, support for food-insecure students and assurances of better workplace conditions for food-services staff.
The contract, authorized last Monday by the CUNY Board of Trustees, will replace a long-standing system in which food vendors were hired and overseen by the campuses. After a two-year bidding and evaluation process, CUNY and CulinArt have agreed to a multi-year arrangement for management of food services on 18 of the 19 CUNY campuses that have dining facilities.
CulinArt will invest $16 million to upgrade facilities and technology and cover transition expenses, and another $2 million to provide students in need prepaid cards to buy foods at the facilities. The contract also includes a profit-sharing provision that could yield revenue for CUNY colleges.
“Our new relationship with CulinArt Group is an important and exciting step in our ongoing efforts to bolster the efficiency of CUNY’s management and to ensure the consistency of quality systemwide,” said William C. Thompson Jr., Chair of the CUNY Board of Trustees. “The contract provides for the delivery of services at a high level for our students and campus communities. It includes provisions to ensure that the vendor provides its employees with fair compensation and safe and healthy workplaces on our campuses. And our partnership will support New York’s economy by sourcing from local and regional food producers, processors and distributors.”
“This important new contract with CulinArt is a reflection of our determination to provide dining facilities across the University that consistently offer good, healthy, affordable meals to our students and ensure high-quality working conditions for their staffs,” said Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. “We are especially proud to have been able to incorporate in it much-needed assistance for students who are food-insecure. It makes this a contract that is right for our times.”
CulinArt, a New York-based company that is part of the large Compass Group family of food companies, brings to CUNY its strong reputation for high-quality food, varied menus, innovative service, modern facility design and fairness to its workforce. The company has agreed to interview all workers now employed by the current campus vendors who are interested in working for CulinArt, pay the city’s prevailing wage rates for food service workers and abide by a “labor harmony” provision that gives workers the ability to unionize. With its deep roots in New York City, CulinArt sources produce, baked goods and other products from local suppliers including small minority-owned businesses that specialize in authentic ethnic products and cuisines.
“CulinArt’s primary goal will be to establish and build student participation and satisfaction at every CUNY college that we serve,” said Thomas R. Eich, CEO of the CulinArt Group. “We fully recognize that CUNY students and their campuses reflect the cultural diversity of the city and our plans will be tailored to the particular needs and preferences of each campus.”
The request for proposals for management of campus food services followed reports in 2018 about conditions at some campus cafeterias and labor complaints to the CUNY Board of Trustees by vendors’ employees. Chairman Thompson announced a plan to explore new management options, promising that CUNY was “committed to ensuring that food service workers enjoy dignity in their workplaces on our campuses.”
An evaluation committee of campus administrators, faculty and student representatives and CUNY central staff reviewed proposals from food-service companies and found that selecting CulinArt as the single vendor for its campuses would offer efficiencies of scale, promote consistency of food service quality throughout the University, improve vendor oversight, support a safe and fair workplace for food service workers and provide assistance to the food insecure on CUNY campuses.
The transition to CulinArt will be gradual, with the company assuming immediate operations at some colleges when campuses re-open and extending to the other campuses as the contracts with their current vendors expire. The company will begin upgrades and other transitional work in preparation for the eventual reopening of campus dining facilities post-pandemic. Each college will work with CulinArt to determine the kinds of services to be provided at its campus, whether traditional cafeteria-style dining, faculty dining rooms, snack bars, pop-up cafes, and grab & go stations.
CUNY’s campuses have long utilized affiliated “auxiliary enterprise corporations,” non-profit organizations that provide non-curricular support to the campuses such as hiring and overseeing food service contractors, bookstore and parking lot operators and other providers of revenue-generating services. The contract with CulinArt will consolidate food services to a single vendor and centralize the oversight of that relationship for the entire system. The term of the contract is 12 years with renewal options and includes provisions that allow either CUNY or CulinArt to terminate the arrangement early under certain circumstances. Of the 19 CUNY campuses that have dining facilities, the College of Staten Island will be the only one that will continue to operate its own food services.
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