Abstract
This analysis of the supplier relationship between Drexel University and Aramark offers a demonstration of the potential for intensifying an anchor institution’s local economic inclusion strategies by leveraging the economic power of supplier partnerships. The operation of a major food service contract represents a substantial set of campus jobs and procurement, but this economic activity often remains outside the remit of economic inclusion efforts when the institution has no contractual influence over it. When an anchor institution can partner with a major supplier that shares a commitment to community impact, it offers opportunities to strengthen an anchor strategy. This article describes how Drexel University and Aramark used their campus food service relationship to deepen Drexel’s anchor mission and core strategic priorities and Aramark’s enterprise sustainability agenda, including the value of the negotiation process, and a set of outcomes in the form of initiatives in food insecurity, local economic inclusion and community engagement, research and technology transfer, and student co-op employment. Both the relationship building process and its outcomes offer a model for other institutions as they look to leverage the untapped economic activity of the major service suppliers.
Highlights
There is an accelerating movement in higher education as an increasing number of institutions are establishing an “anchor mission” to more intentionally invest in the communities in which they are embedded
This study addresses a gap in the literature where these issues overlap: when colleges and universities collaborate on civic-mission-driven goals with their major suppliers
Drexel further articulates a mission as an anchor institution by recognizing an obligation to the neighbors, communities, and other stakeholders located in the West Philadelphia neighborhoods near the University City campus (Office of University and Community Partnerships [UCP], n.d)
Summary
There is an accelerating movement in higher education as an increasing number of institutions are establishing an “anchor mission” to more intentionally invest in the communities in which they are embedded. Drexel used the opportunity of a change in food service providers to build expectations for local purchasing, social impact activity, student participation in food research, and student access to cooperative education employment positions into a new contract, and the early results are promising This analysis builds on existing work that describes the mechanisms of higher education anchor strategies and it represents a meeting point between literature and scholarship that examines corporate social responsibility and sustainable supply chain management. The lessons learned about collaboration are informed by the perspectives of the authors who participate in crafting and supporting Drexel’s anchor mission and in negotiating and cultivating Aramark’s food service contract with the university These lessons represent the authors’ reflections on the implications of such institutional relationships for advancing an anchor mission beyond the powerful but limited scope of direct purchasing.
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