The company that stood out to me on the list of The World’s Most Ethical Companies was ARAMARK. ARAMARK is a food services company and was the company who provided dining services for my high school. I was curious what ARAMARK had done to earn its spot on the WME (World’s Most Ethical) list. As a food services company, I would imagine ARAMARK has many opportunities to both give back to their community, through providing food or services to the less fortunate, while also having opportunities to cut corners to save money, by skimping on food and sanitary regulations.
I decided to look at ARAMARK’s Mission Statement and see how it matched up with what I could find about their operations. The Mission Statement is as follows:
“Because we value our relationships, we treat customers as long-term partners, and each other with candor and respect. Because we succeed through performance, we encourage the entrepreneur in each of us, and work always to improve our service. Because we thrive on growth, we seek new markets and new opportunities, and we innovate to get and keep customers. And because we’re ARAMARK, we do everything with integrity.”
After digging for information, ARAMARK seems to be doing a lot to try and benefit the community, and is really trying to make a name for themselves as an ethical corporation. ARAMARK has made a company-wide volunteer program to rebuild community centers and provide support for wellness and and nutrition education, promotes trayless dining to help reduce waste, has pledged to reduce the amount of fat, sugar, and salt in their meals, and has called for a 70-80% increase in tomato picker wages. I was happy to see that the company that I paid to feed me for my four years at high school making a real attempt to make a difference in the community and environment as a whole. ARAMARK seems to have set a mission statement focused on all of their stakeholders, and has been holding true to its mission statement in that regard.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly 