At school, at work or at home, the world focuses around the three standard meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner. This fascination leads to the question “where is the food coming from?” For Grand Valley State University, the answer is simple: outside contractors.

The university outsources its food service with a contract to Aramark. According to Aramark’s website, the company provides its food service to over 600 learning institutions across North America.

Most students at GVSU receive their meals through the campus dining service. There are standard food locations like the Fresh Food Company and The Connection, as well as other options including Kleiner Commons and River Landing, but all four main areas offer the same kind of food. Certain campus brands like Zoca are creations of Aramark’s service and are not exclusive to GVSU.

According to Deb Rambadt, campus dining marketing director, the university earns money through multiple avenues.

“Campus dining generates revenue through the sale of food (meal plans, debit dollars, cash, credit, debit),” Rambadt said.

Campus dining is not funded through tuition or contracts with outside food providers. Instead, GVSU gets its revenue exclusively from selling the goods it provides for students; money does not come from anywhere else. One of the spotlight features of campus dining is its meal plan system, which provides students with meals and dining dollars for the semester.

Rambadt said meal plans have been a staple at GVSU for over 50 years. Nonetheless, according to the campus dining website, 76 percent of meal plans sold in 2014 were from students who were not required to have a meal plan but chose to add one on after their freshmen year.

“Plans have evolved over the years with student needs,” Rambadt said. “We rely on student feedback.”

Additionally, GVSU is a Pepsi campus, though campus dining does not handle that contract. Rather, GVSU has a pouring rights contract directly with Pepsi’s business and finance department.

Doug Wentworth, director of auxiliary services at GVSU, said the university has had a contract with Pepsi for over 10 years. The contract was renewed last summer and will be in effect until 2024. At that point, GVSU will seek out competitive bids and analyze both Coke and Pepsi to make a decision.

“Pepsi gets an exclusivity to Grand Valley,” Wentworth said. “That means exclusivity to the fountain drinks and to the beverages in the categories that they compete in.”

GVSU decided to sign with Pepsi because of the products they sell. Wentworth said the university communicated with students and conducted a market survey related to sales. This helped them make their choice.

“What we really look at is, what are the students looking to have and what they want,” Wentworth said.

There are many sources that provide data as to what students want, such as students working in campus dining, resident assistants and Student Senate. These help the food committee choose what is sold and what to sell in the competing products window.

Wentworth said any venue that comes on campus is required to sell Pepsi. Besides the exclusivity deal, GVSU also makes a commission on total sales. This includes bottles, cans and any Pepsi product sold on campus.

The profit generated by the Pepsi contract and the Aramark sales is funneled back into GVSU. Rambadt said that Aramark uses the profit created by the program to provide improvements to its services. The contract with Pepsi helps fund campus activities, providing donations for many student organizations.

“Student organizations get donated product,” Wentworth said. “For example, Transitions. All that product is donated.”

Wentworth added that both GVSU and the students benefit from this contract. Wentworth and Copeland agreed that obtaining the products students want is integral when deciding what to purchase.

“Nobody is required to buy a meal plan; nobody is required to buy beverages here,” Copeland said. “It’s in our best interest to meet what the students want.”

For more information about meal plans at GVSU, visit http://www.gvsu.edu/campusdine/.