Your organization provides food to Chicago Public Schools. How did that start? And do you think there’s a role for hospitality companies such as yours to play, in addressing the food issue in our community?

There are few local contacts, particularly in urban communities. Going back 12 years, Aramark was coming into Chicago and they wanted to somehow break through into the Chicago public school system. And then the president of their K-12 dining division reached out to several local contacts, and those 2 or 3 people that he talked to pointed to me.

Slightly before Aramark approached me, we landed our first contract with them on the business dining side (AT&T). The second one was Chicago Public Schools on the food service side. And we started with one employee on that account. That account grew to 50 or so employees over the last decade. 

We used this as a stepping stone to build from and eventually get into other lines of business. We didn’t rely solely on that contract, as most contracts have life cycles.