Students from the Queen’s Alma Mater Society (AMS) are calling on the university to end an exclusivity agreement with beverage company Coke Canada Bottling, in an effort to highlight local vendors.
“We’re really home to like a lot of great local vendors who produce on a small scale and sustainably,” says AMS Environmental Sustainability Commissioner Jessica Wile.
“Especially if you’ve been to the Memorial Centre farmers market, I always see some great vendors there, as well as some more local general stores.”
Wile would like to see more local, sustainable producers being able to sell on campus.
“Those producers, even though they have sustainable actions, ethical treatment of workers, mostly fair trade, that kind of thing, they don’t have the opportunity to sell at large locations at Queen’s University, even though this is kind of like an economic hub of the city,” Wile says.
“So it kind of puts them at a disadvantage and takes away money from the local economy. Whereas, Coca Cola is obviously quite a large producer.”
The undergraduate society is asking the Queen’s administration to refrain from renewing an agreement with Coke that would limit products from competing companies on campus.
“If Coca Cola sells a certain type of pop, we can’t have a sustainable, locally grown soft drink sold there,” Wile says. “So it really kind of takes away the ability of local producers to compete and that kind of like just set the ball rolling for me and got me fired up. And I have been on it ever since.”
Wile says that Queen’s admin staff have been supportive in giving her a seat at the table for further discussions.
The university says that “Queen’s recently formed a stakeholder group from across the campus, including representatives from our undergraduate and graduate student governments, to review the future of exclusivity contracts for a cold beverage supplier on campus. That group will hold its first meeting later this month, and will welcome community input.”
Queen’s associate director of housing and ancillary services, Jenn Pete, says, “More information on the cold beverage stakeholder group and how to provide input will be communicated to the campus community after the group has had the opportunity to meet.”
Wile says that the campaign to open up Queen’s to more local and sustainable products isn’t just about Coca Cola.
A petition opposing the renewal of the Queen’s and Coke Canada partnership will begin circulating campus as soon as next week.