by Bev Dribin
4th post in a series on our journey to create ARAMARK Building Community, the company’s signature community initiative to strength the capacity of the country’s local community centers.
With the "green light" to move forward, it was time to pilot ARAMARK Building Community, our new, branded signature initiative focused on strengthening the capacity of local community centers. We chose several of our most important business markets – Houston, Chicago and Philadelphia - to demonstrate the power of the concept and to test different program models.
Holly Montalbano, ARAMARK Vice President of External Affairs in Houston, quickly identified a local community center partner for the first local pilot partnership. "From our first meeting with Neighborhood Centers, Inc. (NCI), we were hopeful that we had found the perfect partner," says Montalbano. A network of 59 community centers serving more than 200,000 people of all ages, NCI provided the types of services that ARAMARK could contribute to, but more importantly, was committed to forming mutually beneficial public-private partnerships to help those who need it most.
The ARAMARK team wanted to make it clear that, while we were coming to the table with certain assets and resources, we had no set agenda of what the program would look like. "Our first priority was to understand NCI's needs, particularly in our focus areas – workforce readiness, basic human services and health and wellness – to identify some opportunities for collaboration in our first year," says Montalbano, "The folks at NCI were very willing to jump in with us and figure out together how we would combine forces for the community."