By Angela Green, Content Executive, H&C News: Irish Government fast track catering contract to care for Ukrainian refugees.
Catering News is sponsored by Two Services
The Irish Government has awarded Aramark with a contract to provide meals to settlement centres welcoming Ukrainian refugees to Ireland.
The contract was fast tracked to ensure people arriving in Ireland from the war in Ukraine are immediately and adequately sheltered and provided with nutritious meals. Standard procurement processes were bypassed as humanitarian needs were prioritised.
Speaking in the Irish parliament last week Thursday the Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman said the State had not been able to use “traditional procurement processes” and had to “short-circuit processes” in order to ensure people were fed and sheltered.
A spokesperson from Aramark provided more details telling us: “We are among a large number of companies who have been approached by the (Irish) State’s International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) to respond to the emergency situation arising from the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
“Having been approached by IPAS, we were, within 24 hours, able to deploy food and catering services to the people in the Ukrainian refugee accommodation service operated by the State. To clarify, we are currently providing food services to one centre. We are proud to be able to deploy our significant capabilities at such short notice during this unprecedented period.
“We have the capacity to deliver large quantities of food and catering services at short notice and we will continue to assist the Irish Government in this national response. We operate to the highest international food quality standards which are independently verified.”
Aramark already provides catering services to three direct-provision centres for asylum seekers, located in Cork, Athlone, and Clare.