Sodexo responds to gift card concerns
It’s far from a full-fledged food fight, but the first banana may have been flung across the proverbial food court.
MRU has been buzzing over a CBC story on Sodexo-affiliated Tim Hortons’ refusal to accept gift cards. In the story, which broke on Jan. 25, Meghan Melnyk, students’ association VP external, was indirectly quoted as having said the issue “has been a frustrating problem for students at the school for many years.”
Brent Mann, Sodexo account general manager at Mount Royal, said he wondered why nothing was said about the Students’ Association-owned Wyckham House’s policy on accepting gift cards.
“I found it to be a little bit of a conflict of interest to tell you the truth, in that (the story) was coming from the Students’ Association,” Mann said.
Mann also said he wished someone would’ve contacted him before the story printed and aired on the radio.
“I’m the GM here and I didn’t hear a word about it until I heard it on CBC at 7 a.m. that day,” he said. “I am probably the most accessible person in this entire university.”
In a recent message to The Reflector, Meghan Melnyk said the incident says something about how Sodexo operates.
“Gift cards and Interac access are issues students have been asking (about) for years,” Melnyk said. “Sometimes it takes a bit more pressure from the media to make the company react because they have a contract (with MRU) until 2015 and they don’t really have to do anything outside their contract.”
Just as a follow-up, CBC independently pursued this story. As for Sodexo commenting, the reporter who did the story told me that he couldn’t get a hold of anyone at Sodexo on campus and that he was re-routed to France.
From interviewing Brent, I don’t think he was implying the Students’ Association leaked the story. He was just unhappy that SAMRU was the only Mount Royal source and therefore the info was coming from you guys.
if he was mad that the SAMRU was the only source perhaps he should have returned phone calls.