Sodexo

Web site

http://www.sodexho.ucdavis.edu

http://sodexousa.com

Sodexo, formerly known as Sodexho and headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, is the largest food-service provider in North America. Sodexo was renamed from Sodexho in January 2008 and previously from Sodexho Marriott in mid-2001. Sodexo has drawn more attention from the public after it was mentioned in the documentary Super Size Me, a film (Academy Award nominee) that exposed the health hazards of eating fast food (McDonalds specifically). Some students consider what they serve to be not so tasty, however quantitatively it is quite a deal (at least in the dining commons).

Sodexo is also branded as University Dining Services on campus.

Sodexo runs many on campus food services:

• Dining Commons
  

• The Silo (including the Silo Pub and excluding the Crepe place)
  

• Scrubs Cafe
  

• Genome Center Cafe
  

• The licensed Starbucks cafe at the ARC
  

• Restocking vending machines
  

• Concessions at sporting events and for select events/days
  

• Auxiliary residence hall convenience stores such as Trudy's, Crossroads, and The Junction.
  

• Bio Brew

Sodexo is also available as a catering service for various campus events. Depending on the location of an event, you may be required to have them cater if you have catering on campus. See info and list of caterers approved by Campus Events & Visitor Services for more details.

Sodexo composts their organic matter, or sends it to a biogas facility.

Brenan Connolly is the General Manager of Resident Dining Services and Gina Rios is the Retail General Manager of University Dining.

Several SPAC-registered groups on campus are eligible to work Sodexo events as fundraisers for their clubs. Sometimes the expected outcome does not match the actual result.

In spring 2004 there was a movement by Sodexo employees seeking university employment (and thus university benefits), but it didn't go very far.
In winter 2007, Sodexho workers, Students organizing for Change, and AFSCME are fighting for Sodexo employees to become university workers. This would allow for them to get better wages, more affordable health care coverage, better hours, better pensions, and respect. However, very few former Sodexo employees wanted the change. Most employees lost their saved vacation and sick pay. Student employees lost benefits and job security. Most part time employees also lost hours as part time employees can only work 19.5 hours a week and students may only work one University job. Many students who worked for Sodexo had to seek employment elsewhere so they could maintain one University job as well as another job to provide enough money to live on.

Over the 2008-2010 academic years, the Student-Farmworker Alliance at UC Davis campaigned against Sodexo for the Coalition of Immakolee Workers Campaign for Fair Food. Education in the form discussions held with students in the dining commons during the fall of 2009, and in the Education for Sustainable Living Program during the spring of 2010 as well as a protests outside of the Segundo Dining Commons in spring of 2009as part of Students for Sustainable Agriculture's Real Food Week (formerly known as Local Food Week)

• August 29, 2007 news brief outlining the amended contract through 2010
  

• an October 23^rd, 2007 factsheet

• Tasty treats at campus convenience stores -- for a price (2003-11-04)
  

• DC Convenience Stores: Swiping students’ money Editorial (2003-11-06)
  

• Sodexho workers seek university employment (2004-04-22)
  

• Guest opinion: Sodexho employees deserve equal treatment (2004-04-29)
  

• Sodexho settles lawsuit for $80 million (2005-05-03)
  

• Sodexho student food workers seek benefits, status of UC employees (2007-02-26)
  

• Green Dorm Food - UC Davis transformed a student cafeteria into a sustainable eating haven (2009-12-31)
  

• http://theaggie.org/article/2009/11/10/uc-extends-sustainability-policy-to-food-service (2009-11-10)

Comments:

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Is any of the food supplied by Sodexho in the dining commons organic? I didn't think it was until an employee claimed that since ladybugs and caterpillars were regularly found in food items "At least we know it's organic!" A cruel joke? -AJL

Usually if the item is organic, it will say so on the menu...as for bugs in food...i think thats unlikely since all produce is washed and kept refrigerated before it is put out. -jasmin

I've seen insects in produce many times. Yes, the produce is washed, but the insects are good at clinging to leaves too. This doesn't disgust me at all, and it's not a health concern. Keep in mind that the insects are washed clean too. It's only Victorian-based society that's hyper-sensitive about these matters. Keep in mind that people in many parts of the world, today, intentionally catch insects to eat. Is that any more disgusting than eating shrimp, really? —SteveDavison

2005-06-09 22:05:17   Don't be a Sodex Ho... PACK YOUR LUNCH!! —KarlMogel

2007-02-26 12:49:01   Avoid Sodexho! Food terrible, not a great place for students to work and inefficient management. —MyaBrn

2007-05-08 09:47:55   I am surprised that the Sodexho food workers issue has not been discussed here... —MyaBrn

Yeah, there should definitely be a blurb here. Wanna add it? :)

2007-05-08 10:14:57   I was just going to say that I was a student employee for Sodexho (8 years ago) and now am a UCD staff member. My time at Sodexho wasn't great and the only thing that kept me there was the really stellar supervisor I had. I heard so many other horror stories from other student employees. But It doesn't make sense to me that Sodexho student employees want to push so hard to be considered UCD employees. In order to receive the benefits of working as a UCD employee one needs to work over atleast part-time 20hrs/week for 1000 hours. This is why students who work for UCD do Not get benefits. UCD students are also not represented by a union. It would only benefit the small number of non-student employees who work more than part-time. Just my 2 cents, I don't want any controversy, but I can see where Sodexho Employees are coming from. When I worked there it was my first "real" job and I didn't know any better. —MyaBrn

• I think the debate has gone beyond whether to benefit a few employees in Sodexho but rather it has become the supporting of the "worker's rights" ideology. It has created a life of its own. —SteveOstrowski
  

2013-01-09 15:34:59   I worked at Sodexo food catering for about a quarter in '10. It was a really bad experience. I had bad supervisors, they didn't take into account that when you say your class started at a certain time, you needed toget off a few minutes earlier to go to class, and just a lot of of other issues. Also, we have been told to serve food that we've dropped and tomato sauce that was expired. If an event is Sodexo catered, stay away.

Other than that, my friends have had decent experiences at the DCs. I think catering is probably a really high stress job and that explains the shitty hours (I think there's a law about a 15 minute break after two hours of work—it's been awhile, I don't recall—but they often took it to mean, in an 8-hour work period, you could get off a half hour early), but I think it's kind of terrible that I served expired food, to a group of hundreds of RAs from around California. I hope standards have gotten better since I worked there, but it's also troubling on another level that they are really the only providers of food to campus students, though that is another political issue —HannahToru