Aramark controversially lands contract to provide meals to Ukrainian refugees

Aramark, who are known for providing catering to direct provision centres and the US prison system, has landed a contract to deliver meals to Ukraine refugees without a procurement process.

Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman confirmed the news in the Dáil today, responding to a question from People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett.

The Dun-Laoghaire TD said Aramark was “a very controversial company” which had been criticised for their poor quality of their catering in American prisons and in Ireland's inhumane direct provision system. He also referenced the recent protests at the National Gallery by artists for its decision to employ the company.

“They were recently caught up in unofficial strike action because they didn’t give redundancy terms to catering workers in the old Bank of Ireland site,” he said.

Minister O’Gorman said the State hasn’t been able to use “the traditional procurement processes” and had to “short circuit processes” in order to ensure people were fed and sheltered.

Richard Boyd Barrett noted that he was contacted by a local catering company and they had been informed “without any tendering process Aramark have been given all of the contracts for providing catering for the refugee hubs for Ukrainians”.

In response, Mr O’Gorman said the State was dealing with a crisis “the country has never had to experience before”.

“We’re dealing with it in a way that ensures that every Ukrainian who comes to this country, who seeks shelter, who seeks security, can be given it,” he said.

“That has meant we haven’t been able to use the traditional procurement processes, we’ve had to short circuit processes in order to ensure that people get fed, in order to ensure that people get shelter and if we didn’t do that and if we had long delays I have no doubt deputy that you and others would be raising and condemning the Government.

“And you would be right, we’ve had to move quickly, we have moved quickly and that’s why 16,000 people are being sheltered and are being fed.”

When news of the contract with the National Gallery was made public, several artists removed their work from an exhibition at the gallery, it was petitioned by the public to cut ties with Aramark, and a protest took place outside the gallery which was organised by the End Direct Provision action group. The contract is worth €7.5 million over three years.

In an email to National Gallery staff on March 31st, Director Sean Rainbird cited the war in Ukraine as an event that ended this controversy.

“The invasion of Ukraine brought an abrupt end to the extensive reaction within the wider arts community to our cafe tender,” he wrote. “It perhaps also brought a sense of perspective about a true upheaval, not least as thousands of refugees arriving here will need to be accommodated somewhere, something preoccupying the OPW very closely.”

Aramark released a statement to Hot Press in regards to helping the Irish State respond to emergency situation.

"We are among a large number of companies who have been approached by the State’s International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) to respond to the emergency situation arising from the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

|Having been approached by IPAS, we were, within 24 hours, able to deploy food and catering services to the people in the Ukrainian refugee accommodation service operated by the State. To clarify, we are currently providing food services to one centre. We are proud to be able to deploy our significant capabilities at such short notice during this unprecedented period.

We have the capacity to deliver large quantities of food and catering services at short notice and we will continue to assist the Irish Government in this national response. We operate to the highest international food quality standards which are independently verified."