Anti-Prison Activists Stage Hunger Strike at University of Chicago

Students to hold 24-hour hunger strike in response to University’s contract with prison food vendor

CHICAGO, IL – 10 University  of Chicago  students are going without food for 24 hours to protest their school’s newly announced contract with a subsidiary of Compass Group, a leading provider of prison food services worldwide.

Hunger strikers and their allies, including formerly incarcerated individuals, will hold a press conference on Friday,  May 6 at 4:30 p.m. in front of the UofC’s main dining hall, and call on the University not to do business with corporations that profit from prisons. They will then join a group of fifty students who will march to the University’s administrative building for a picnic to break the hunger strike.

“Compass Group is one of the corporations that has driven mass incarceration”, said hunger striker Natalie Naculich, “it is unethical for UChicago to give money to corporations that profit from paramount social injustices.”

The hunger striking students are members of Fight for Just Food, an on-campus group calling on UofC to transition to a self-operated catering system. Compass Group provides food services to prisons around the world through subsidiaries like Chartwells and Eurest.  In the U.S., Compass Group built up and retains an ownership stake in Trinity, a company that profits from the food service provision of 300,000 inmates at over 400 jails and correctional facilities across the United States.

“We are hugely disappointed that Richard Mason [UofC’s head of dining services] has refused to even consider the possibility of dining hall self-operation,” said Fight for Just Food member Tunisia Tai, “Eight out of the ten top U.S. universities already self-operate their dining, and self-operation is also better for dining hall workers”.

The students’ hunger strike is inspired by prisoners who have used the tactic to protest conditions in prisons with Compass Group contracts.  In January, prisoners at the Regina Correctional Centre, in Regina, Canada staged hunger strike after they were served raw eggs by Compass Group-subsidiary Chartwells.  Their campaign is also part of a wave of student activism against prison. In 2015, Columbia University announced it would divest from private prison companies following a student-led campaign.

The University of Chicago has a long history of involvement with corporations that profit from service contracts in prisons.  Until this year, it has had a dining contract with Aramark, which provides food services to over 600 prisons in the US.  The chair of the University’s Board of Trustees, Joseph Neubauer, was the CEO of Aramark for over 30 years and has donated tens of millions to the University. “It’s time for the University of Chicago to stop ignoring how it supports and benefits from mass incarceration”, said hunger strike participant Anna Nathanson.

This campaign comes on the heels of the University of Chicago’s announcement in December of plans to open an adult level one trauma center, following years of advocacy by the Trauma Care Coalition. Many of the students in the Fight for Just Food were previously involved in the Trauma Center Campaign.  “We’ve seen activism be succesful on this campus before, and we’re prepared to make it succesful again”, added Nathanson.

What: Press conference & rally in response to contract with privatized prison services provider
When: Friday May 6, 4:30 pm
Where: Bartlett Dining Commons, 5640 South University Avenue
Who: The Fight for Just Food and allies, including former prisoners