After 44 years of Sodexo dining services, St. Kate’s signs new contract with Chartwells
By Skylar Mattson
On Friday, Feb. 6, the Senior Director of Purchasing, Contracts, and University Services announced that St. Kate’s will be signing a new dining and catering contract with Chartwells and not renewing its current contract with Sodexo when it ends this spring.
The dining committee, composed of faculty, staff, and select student representatives, selected Chartwells to take over St. Kate’s dining services out of 3 companies (Sodexo, Bon Appétit, and Chartwells).
Chartwells currently serves 350 universities across the nation, including St. Mary’s, St. Cloud State, and Winona State. They will be stirring things up at St. Kate’s, as they have agreed to make an up-front investment of $2 million for updates across St. Kate’s dining services outlets, which will include renovations in the dining hall. Additionally, they plan to expand The Pulse’s hours of operation to include weekday lunches. Chartwells has also agreed to make annual pledges of $20,000 to the CSJ Food Access Hub and $10,000 to the Katies End Hunger program run by Access and Success.
While the dining committee was making its decision, 102 members of the St. Kate’s community signed a petition demanding that they not vote to continue St. Kate’s dining and catering contract with Sodexo because they did not feel that Sodexo is well aligned with St. Kate’s mission of Catholic and social justice.
Hara told The Wheel that “Chartwells is very supportive of our social justice and sustainability values. The Chartwells team shared several examples of programs and operations strategies that align with our social justice and sustainability values. This, combined with their openness to partner on setting prices that communicate value to our community members, as well as supporting our meeting and event needs, helped them stand out in the review process.”
Ella Rustand (Exercise Science) shared, “I am very happy to hear that St. Kate's has signed with Chartwells and will be leaving Sodexo in the past. After doing some research on Chartwells and their sustainability and ethical initiatives, I have high hopes for the quality of their food and the treatment of their employees.”
Chartwells contract with St. Kate’s is set to end the summer of 2036. The campus community can expect to start seeing changes within dining spaces on campus beginning this summer.
