(no subject)
At school, I've been working on labor stuff. We've been letting students know about the shit that the new food service company on campus puts workers through. My friend did some research on compass foods, the larger company that owns the food service company at our school, Bon Appetit. If it wasn't so fucked up, this information would be kind of comical because the same company that feeds me at school everyday is involved almost every other fucked up thing in the world!:
We decided to look into Compass Group and investigate their other
subsidiaries, and then we discovered some really depressing news. Compass
is the 12th largest employer in the world, and operates in 70 countries.
Canteen, a subsidiary of Compass, has contracts with 52% of the private
prison sector, and many public prisons as well.
Additionally, Compass (its subsidiary Eurest) was sub-contracted by
Halliburton to provide services in the Iraq War for US and UN forces.
Huge scandals erupted when Compass corrupted UN officials, swindled the UN
out of money, and then hid documents which proved it. Now UN documents
have been made public. (We found them on wikipedia.)
Compass also made news in the Iraq War when four people of US/UN forces
were killed protecting a Eurest convoy (Blackwater). This brought to
question the billions of dollars in overhead being paid to Halliburton and
Compass through tax dollars and the UN budget. Before the convoy was sent
out, top officials were told by troops that they were lacking in
sufficient equipment, as has been the case with many other troops and
convoys throughout the Iraq War. However, top officials ignored these
complaints, though, in future public statements have asked for more funds
from Congress to buy equipment. That begs the question of what they were
doing with all the funds they had in the first place which simply
disappeared into corporate giants such as Halliburton and Compass.
So basically, bon appetit is not at all a socially responsible or
sustainable company, and in practice contradicts all of its marketing,
promises, and purported goals. (If you look at bon appetit's website, you
can find where they claim to have no connection to prisons based on their
desire to be socially responsible. They also claim to compost, support
local farms, and provide a nutritious vegetarian menu. None of which are
true, considering the scarcity of compost and recycling, the joint
decision with wesleyan university to cancel the inclusion of the Earth
House food co-op in the meal plan, and the lack of complete proteins for
vegan and vegetarian diners.)
Additionally, though this news is even less surprising, Compass owns
several franchises, such as Starbucks, Burger King, Taco Bell, and many,
many more.
We decided to look into Compass Group and investigate their other
subsidiaries, and then we discovered some really depressing news. Compass
is the 12th largest employer in the world, and operates in 70 countries.
Canteen, a subsidiary of Compass, has contracts with 52% of the private
prison sector, and many public prisons as well.
Additionally, Compass (its subsidiary Eurest) was sub-contracted by
Halliburton to provide services in the Iraq War for US and UN forces.
Huge scandals erupted when Compass corrupted UN officials, swindled the UN
out of money, and then hid documents which proved it. Now UN documents
have been made public. (We found them on wikipedia.)
Compass also made news in the Iraq War when four people of US/UN forces
were killed protecting a Eurest convoy (Blackwater). This brought to
question the billions of dollars in overhead being paid to Halliburton and
Compass through tax dollars and the UN budget. Before the convoy was sent
out, top officials were told by troops that they were lacking in
sufficient equipment, as has been the case with many other troops and
convoys throughout the Iraq War. However, top officials ignored these
complaints, though, in future public statements have asked for more funds
from Congress to buy equipment. That begs the question of what they were
doing with all the funds they had in the first place which simply
disappeared into corporate giants such as Halliburton and Compass.
So basically, bon appetit is not at all a socially responsible or
sustainable company, and in practice contradicts all of its marketing,
promises, and purported goals. (If you look at bon appetit's website, you
can find where they claim to have no connection to prisons based on their
desire to be socially responsible. They also claim to compost, support
local farms, and provide a nutritious vegetarian menu. None of which are
true, considering the scarcity of compost and recycling, the joint
decision with wesleyan university to cancel the inclusion of the Earth
House food co-op in the meal plan, and the lack of complete proteins for
vegan and vegetarian diners.)
Additionally, though this news is even less surprising, Compass owns
several franchises, such as Starbucks, Burger King, Taco Bell, and many,
many more.