A camp that I used to work for does this, and has for about 40 years. In that case, they are contracted for a per-meal basis. I think they have eased up on it now, but for a year or two when I worked there, this meant lots of counting and having to maintain very accurate records, which were often not quite in agreement between camp and food service office. Also, there was an issue with many of the "local" residents being hired by the food service provider and compensated very well, while the camp staff were getting by with meager staff salaries. Whether or not you can say to your staff that "its not fair, but get used to it" is something to think about.
Whether to go this route or not, I guess it depends upon if you want control, or if you want your food service dicatated in advance by a contract.
The camp I mentioned uses Aramark Corp. currently (at least they were last year), but has used other contractors in the past. In the late 90's they went through 3 before settling on Aramark for good reasons. Aramark is a big national company and they do a good job as far as I've heard, and when I've visted there, the food has seemed good to me. In that situation, the Aramark people come from a nearby university (they are not doing much in the summer after all). But I'm sure the issues of local people washing dishes and making 10X the pay of camp staff who are doing more work for less money is still present. How could it not be.
A lot of school districts farm-out their food services too. So maybe a local school food manager in your town has some ideas of contractors in your locale.
Interested to hear what you decide and how it goes.
Regards,
Nick Carr, Ranger
Camp Agawam CVC BSA
