Mark This: Episode 44, Building Community
Host: Heather Dotchel, Corporate Communications:
Guests:
Rebecca Owens, Director of Community Relations, Aramark
Melissa Schwartz, Vice President for Enterprise Growth Strategy, Aramark
It's time to Mark This!, a podcast in which we peel back the corporate curtain to reveal the cool and innovative people, programs, and projects that are happening all over Aramark's varied lines of business.
I'm Heather Dotchel. As a member of Aramark's communications team, I see and hear amazing things that are happening across our company every day. These remarkable initiatives happen because we have remarkable people behind them, building opportunity, building innovation, and building community.
ABC Day, short for Aramark Building Community Day, is Aramark's annual global day of service that brings our people together with a shared purpose. Each year, employees across our organization step away from their day-to-day roles to support the communities where we live and work. Guided by our regional Star Teams and powered by employee-led projects, ABC Day reflects who we are at our core, a company that believes service goes beyond our business, and that the greatest impact is created when our people lead with passion, care, and commitment to their communities.
We've spoken about ABC Day on the podcast before. It is a day that is deeply beloved at Aramark. Today, we are going to talk to Rebecca Owens, the director behind Aramark's community initiatives, and Melissa Schwartz, Vice President for Growth Strategy. We're going to explore how our community relationships and business growth work hand in hand.
Rebecca, welcome to the podcast. What's it like being part of ABC Day since rejoining the community relations team?
Well, Heather, first, I just want to thank you for having me on this podcast today and including me. I am super appreciative of the time. I rejoined Aramark back in August, and after a few short months, we were fully back in swing for ABC Day planning. For me, ABC Day is extra special because I was part of the inaugural team back in 2014 that helped plan and develop the program. So I am super proud at how far it's come and how it's been part of our Aramark culture and how our employees around the world are committed to serving their local community. And it's, of course, been great to work alongside so many colleagues that were here during my previous tenure and have the opportunity to work with so many new team members here at HQ and across the business.
Melissa, you were in Las Vegas for ABC Day and are now joining us to talk about how this work affects our communities well beyond a singular day of service. Can you let your audience know a bit about your role at Aramark?
In my role as the vice president of growth strategy, I really focus on helping Aramark turn our ideas into real sustained progress. And ultimately what this means is helping bridge strategy into actually execution and bringing our growth plans and ideas into how we show up and we serve our clients. We collaborate across the country and invest in our communities. A big part of the work that I focus on is building strong client relationships, encouraging cross line of business collaboration, and fostering that growth mindset in our teams. Ultimately, my role is about creating that company-wide momentum so growth isn't isolated, but something we drive together. It deeply ties to what ABC stands for in investing what we're doing in the communities and how we do it together.
Looking at both the scale and the results from this year, what made it particularly meaningful in 2026?
2026 was definitely a bit different because there were a lot of celebrations happening. First, we have Aramark's 90th, but also the 250th anniversary of our country, this semiquincentennial. In Philadelphia, we had the opportunity to be the beautification sponsor for several projects in partnership with the city of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia 250 Initiative, but most importantly, our people made the difference. We had about 160 employees signed up to be a project leader in 13 countries to lead around the world. We were super proud of them donating their time to more than 100 community partners. That's incredible reach and impact. And we hear from so many nonprofit partners throughout the year that they're grateful and supportive and appreciative, and they get excited when ABC Day is coming because they know we lift up our sleeves, we serve with passion. And this year was no different because the added heat across the country surely made the day even more exceptional and truly showing the colors of our people of just having a wonderful time and just knowing the purpose.
The scale was indeed vast. And in the United States, we did have four signature cities, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Kansas City, and Washington, DC. Melissa, how did we decide on those locations as areas of particular focus?
That's a great question because while ABC Day is global, we're really intentional about where we put our extra focus. Philadelphia is our anchor. It's our global headquarters and a community where we have deep roots and a large employee presence. So this is consistently a key area of focus for us. From there, we look at a couple other key factors. We focus on cities where Aramark has strong local leadership, a critical mass of employees, as well as the ability to take on projects that truly have a high impact on the community. We look for places where our teams, as Rebecca highlighted, can really lead themselves locally and create impact that lasts well beyond a single day of service.
We also align these choices with where Aramark is investing strategically. Cities like Las Vegas, Kansas City, and Washington DC are important from a business growth perspective and a community presence standpoint. They are markets where we're growing, hosting major events and expanding partnerships, and we want our community commitment to show alongside that growth. For those four cities, they really sat at the intersection of what we look at from a people, a purpose, and a momentum perspective.
So Rebecca, what kinds of projects did the teams take on this year and how did those efforts translate into real measurable impact for the communities we serve beyond volunteer hours or project counts?
Our project leaders develop projects that align with our key pillars, and those key pillars are food insecurity, workforce hospitality readiness, and environmental sustainability. That gives the project leaders flexibility to determine what makes the most sense when they're having those initial conversations with their nonprofit partner.
This year, our employee volunteers participated in projects such as assembling snack pack kits, preparing and serving meals, creating hygiene kits, building and landscaping gardens, mural painting, beach cleanup, donation drives, and so much more. These are the projects that lead to those true measurable results that we're talking about besides the impact data that we pull together. But when communities and children have snacks for afterschool programs, on the weekends, on spring breaks when they might not have that at home, building gardens and creating healthy food options so that these produce markets, people can come in the community and take food back home, these are key pieces and impact that our employees are doing together to support their neighbors, to support one another. And together as Aramark, we truly transform communities and the people who live there. It's in our DNA and it shows up each year, and everyone should be super proud.
The energy at Aramark on ABC Day is certainly unmistakable and it does have to do, I think, with the fact that we are building in our own communities.
Melissa, by putting ABC Day projects directly in the hands of employees and their teams, could you talk to us about how Aramark turns this global day of service into something personal? It's not a everyday business day. It's deeply personal, it's deeply local, and it's deeply connected to the community.
Well said. There are two words that always come to mind when I think about Aramark and their employees, passion and pride. This local ownership of ABC Day is what makes that difference because it allows our passion of pride to really shine. It starts with our local Star Teams in the various communities that we live in. They choose the partners that we're working with. They shape the projects and they guide the execution of what makes it come to fruition. This ownership at the local level really allows these teams to have longstanding year-round relationships with the nonprofits they support. This allows ABC Day. It's not just a standalone. It's not a one-day event. It's an extension of the work our people are already doing and investing in the organizations they know and they trust.
So while, yes, this is a global initiative, yes, we put a little bit of extra focus on one single day, it becomes deeply localized in what we're doing, not only in April, but what we're doing in the summer, what we're doing at the holidays. It's a continuous process and where we're providing impact after the day itself.
Yeah. And the impact continues within those communities too. The project that I was on in Philadelphia, there was an empty lot at the beginning of the day. And over the course of the day, it was cleaned up. Art was painted across the whole thing. There were planters that were built, plants that were planted, benches that were created and painted. There were paths made. And at the end of the day, there was a fully functional, beautiful park where an empty lot had stood just hours before. And the neighborhood around us was just so excited because they are so proud of their neighborhood and they had a festival going on. The people who lived exactly next door were like, "We bring our dog over here and now we can enjoy it too." It's really, really spectacular.
And Heather, I think it's just so great because it ties directly back to what Rebecca talked in the beginning around we're supporting Philadelphia in the beautification efforts as we celebrate our 250th anniversary this summer. So it's great. What you are forgetting to mention though, it was a good 90 degrees that day. So a little bit different than your day job sitting behind your desk in that heat, but it just shows everyone's passion and commitment of having over 160 associates in Philadelphia out there making two different parks beautiful.
The sweat equity was present that day for sure.
Indeed. Now, Melissa, you mentioned Star Team. So I do want to dig into that a little bit. This year was an opportunity for us to reinvigorate our Star Teams. Can you explain what a Star Team is and how this year's approach re-energize the engagement and leadership at the local level?
What is a Star Team? They are regional hubs that foster employee engagement, cross-functional collaboration, and enable innovation and growth. Anyone in the company, depending when you join, are part of a Star Team. You're already signed up, you're in the email distribution, and these employee volunteers and people that are part of Star Teams donate their time, their expertise to reinforce our company's culture and values. And Star Teams create those tangible, meaningful impact and cultivate that deeper sense of pride and purpose at Aramark.
I think, as Melissa talked about a little bit early on, Las Vegas and Kansas City and kind of that business and growth that's happening, that's where we had the chance in the community relations team to think about those regions and how do we reinvigorate and help build those local Star Team leaders to get people more involved because what we're trying to do is have that year-round work. It isn't just about that one day that we're all touching upon, which is super important and how we galvanize employees for that effort of ABC Day, but how we Aramark building community, we build it by doing things together year round.
So this year, we helped to bring energy and help reinvigorate Las Vegas and Kansas City, two teams we'll talk about. We hosted signature projects there and they are large scale projects that we partner with our city or care force team on to help lead them. Those projects had over 50 people participate in those areas working with our ABC partners or new partners, but really gives them a chance to share what they're doing, get employees to come out to this big day of service, but then to say, "Hey, this is our partner. This is what we do. Here's different activities that you can be a part of through the year." Whether it's a cleanup, whether it's a back to school, whether it's the holiday giving, there's many ways.
And so ABC Day had great participation, but we do hope that it helps reengage employees in those local regions. Everyone's sitting next to each other, painting together, assembling together, digging out together and sweating together, right? That's part of the day. A lot of sweating together.
I mean, it's clear. We as Aramark employees don't just work in these communities. We live in these communities. So that connection obviously is important, as you've explained, in how ABC Day projects are designed and supported.
Melissa, how does the day reflect the way we show up year-round as a trusted partner and community member? This is in areas where we have business. Can you explain how that informs each other?
Absolutely. We already talked about Aramark employees amplify pride and passion. Another area that shines within Aramark is really our hospitality gene, and that shows up in how we're rooted in service. And that ABC Day is a real great example of how that translates to something that's true every day for us. At the core, we don't think about communities as the places we just do business in. We think about the places where we're invested in. Our teams live there. Our clients are there. Many of our employees are already connected to the local nonprofit communities and the partnership and work that they do, so it's personal.
ABC Day builds upon that. It allows us to reflect on the way we show up as a trusted partner every day. It starts with listening first to understand what are the needs. We're building those relationships so that the nonprofit organizations know that they can trust us to deliver on what they need, and we're always supporting the priorities that matter the most in the communities. So whether it's serving a client, volunteering alongside a nonprofit partner or really collaborating with local leaders, that mindset is the same as we're here for the long term.
Rebecca, as we wrap up this episode, what is the one takeaway you hope our Mark This! listeners have about Aramark's commitment to the community?
I hope our employees know that they make an impact, they make a difference. Whether they are putting a sock and deodorant into a bag or they're putting a granola bar and applesauce into a bag or planting and digging dirt, it is so important. They are making a difference one person at a time, one employee at a time, together as full error mark.
I hope that what employees get from participating in ABC Day, or if you had to stay back, that you couldn't join but needed to support the client and solve so many photos and you're thinking about what I can do next year, that you sign up, say yes to a volunteer activity. Whether it's ABC Day, whether it's another time during the year that it may work, talk to your local Star Team, talk to your ABC Day project leader you may have and find out how you can continue to impact your community, your fellow neighbors in a meaningful way. And also, that shines light on Aramark of who we are as an organization. And so it's truly important that there is these bigger extensions to who we are and the reputation as an organization, and we should all be proud.
It's fantastic to be part of a company that provides sustenance to communities, whether that is in the form of snack, meals, shelter, or camaraderie.
If you'd like to know more about ABC Day, visit our newsroom on aramark.com to access more information. Thank you, Rebecca and Melissa, for keeping us up to date, and thank you to our listeners at Mark This! for joining us.
