Sodexo Serves Up a Healthy Plate of Diversity with BCA
By Michelle Posehn, Senior Recruiter, Talent Acquisition Group

James Fulton, Executive Chef

Take a look at the most admired companies in the world and inevitably, they will all have one thing in common: an emphasis on diversity. Sodexo recognizes that having an employee workforce that is diverse and representative of the global community it serves is a competitive advantage. We have partnered with the BCA (formerly the Black Culinary Alliance), a non-profit networking group whose goal is to connect culinary and hospitality students of color with professionals in the industry.

The BCA was founded over 15 years ago as an alumni chapter by a group of graduates from the Culinary Institute of America. Alex Askew, President of the BCA, explains that the BCA was founded to emphasize three things: education, awareness and exposure.

"We needed to promote education, educating about the world of food as we knew it,” says Alex Askew. “We needed to ask who we were as [people of color] in food service and what kind of contributions have been made, and we needed to expose those people as role models to others."

Askew explains that even before diversity was a "buzzword" in the food service industry, the BCA was looking at how to promote commonality among people of color and "gel to form bigger circles" of networks. Sodexo, with its emphasis on a diverse workforce, was a natural partner for the BCA. "Sodexo got the fact that everything we do should be the byproduct, showing different career paths and being open to new ideas. Sodexo’s openness has been trailblazing."

Recently, the Sodexo staff at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City hosted a unit tour for BCA member students. According to Askew, events like this allow students to learn about the competition they will be faced with once they graduate college. In addition to providing opportunities for BCA students to work side by side with chefs in the kitchen, Sodexo is also partnering with BCA to develop initiatives around mentoring and enhancing job search skills through training in interviewing techniques and resume writing.

As a result of our partnership with BCA, Sodexo recently hired James Fulton as an Executive Chef at our account at Fort Valley University, and we look forward to engaging additional BCA culinarians in the future.

Learn more about Sodexo’s college and internship initiatives by visiting Student Opportunities.