By: Simon J. Elliot, BABC and Aramark & LifeWorks Restaurant Group, 13^th January 2015

Last night marked the first initiative of the BABC Raphael House Task Force 2015 with a Career Briefing session for participants wanting to know more about a career in food and facilities management and with Aramark.

Aramark is a global provider of food and facilities services to people at work, in education, at play and in recovery. With annual revenues of $14B across 22 countries globally, Aramark employees over 270,000 associates and 12 months ago relisted on the New York Stock Exchange.

Simon Elliot who is also a serving Board member of the British American Business Council (Northern California) was representing Aramark & LifeWorks Restaurant Group and Ted Hoovan representing Aramark Refreshment Services presented Aramark to the Raphael House group of 20 or so candidates introducing the Aramark vision of “We Dream, We do.”

Raphael House program participants learned some interesting facts about Aramark, including:

• 270 employees across 22 countries globally
• 1,400 colleges, universities, private schools, school systems and districts
• 1 Billion cups of coffee served each year
• Catering to 100 million sports fans at more than 150 pro and college sports teams
• Serving 2,000 healthcare facilities, 75 million patient days annually
• Putting over 2 million people in uniforms each day
• Provided food to “Los 33”, the Chilean miners trapped underground in 2010
• Healthy for Life ™ wellness program reaches over 2.5 million students
• 7 million hotdogs sold at major league venues
• 500 million meals annually to 5 million students at colleges, university, and K-12 schools
• North America’s largest employer of dietitians with more than 500 registered dietitians on staff

Attendees were introduced to a world of possibilities in the food and facilities sector with Aramark including food, facilities, refreshments and uniform services locally in San Francisco, Bay Area, North America and around the globe.

Sophia Selassie, Employment Placement Specialist at Raphael House explained the process for participants to include a covering letter with their resume explaining what employment opportunities they are interested in, where and why them, emphasizing their embracement of the Aramark customer experience culture – creating experiences that enrich and nourish lives, every day.

The British American Business Council celebrates its 10^th year in support of Raphael House through its annual donation and the 2015 Task Force is focused on practical ways in which the BABC can support the program participants through supporting them back into work, on the path to financial stability and back into housing.

For those who do wish to join us and want to support this great cause, we have the Raphael HouseShelter Upkeep days on 29^th January and 5^th February and then Corporate Chefs on 26th February and events throughout 2015.

If you would like to learn more about Aramark or to get involved with the BABC Raphael HouseTask Force then please contact Simon at Elliot-Simon@Aramark.com.