food service

16:53 Jan 30, 2011 

Oh, I know this company of old, among other things, they provide the (revolting!) catering in the hospital where I've been all too often recently!

'Catering' is certainly the traditional term I'm most familiar with from the UK, however, even as long ago as when I was leaving the UK, 'food service' was certainly creeping into usage, albeit with something of a US twang to it... a bit like F&B [food & beverage], which sounded very odd when we first started hearing it, but has now become commonplace...

16:23 Jan 30, 2011 

"Self-operated" is something that sounds OK to me, though I probably wouldn't use it myself. "Self-managed" though sounds odd and potentially very confusing

15:34 Jan 30, 2011 

Ahhaa! Tony clearly looked at their website more thoroughly than I did; so it is a question of whether it was Franglais rather than Inglish. I had also been unaware of this particular US vs UK difference of usage.

13:42 Jan 30, 2011 

Since when? According to their corporate website (and as I've always understood it), they are an originally FRENCH company, opened in Marseilles in 1966.

I feel sure they will have a presence in India, naturally.

13:27 Jan 30, 2011 

I think it's a matter of US vs UK English. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foodservice
This will not stop me from giving the credits. I was more interested in the adjective, outsourced/in-house than in the noun.

13:00 Jan 30, 2011 

We help school districts improve their self-operated or outsourced food service, custodial, maintenance and grounds programs.

12:56 Jan 30, 2011 

Note that Sodexo itself is an Indian company and uses the term "Foodservices" as a single word (that is not likely to be found in any English dictionary) on its website:
http://www.sodexo.com/group_en/search-results.asp?SearchInpu...

So do you follow their slightly bizarre terminology or use a more accepted formulation?

12:50 Jan 30, 2011 

In that case, if 1 = outsourced staffing and management and 2 = in-house staffing and management, the description of the latter as "self-managed" seems confusing as it ignores the status of the staff being managed.

12:42 Jan 30, 2011 

Yes DB, that is exactly it. In (1) the employees work for the outsourced company and in (2) the employees work for the institution (hospital, school, etc.).

12:39 Jan 30, 2011 

I find that both "self-managed" and "food service" sound odd. Catering is the more usual term for the latter. What exactly does "self-managed" mean in this context? Are the staff preparing and serving the food directly employed or not?

12:36 Jan 30, 2011 

I asked my client the same question and she suggested "self-managed food service" and "food service contractor." The second one seems valid but not the first one. What do you think?