Chef Michael Smith and Sodexo Join Forces for a Sustainable Alliance
Michael Smith, Canada's best-known chef and Sodexo Canada are pleased to announce that they have created a broad based strategic alliance. Sodexo and Chef Michael will begin collaborating on several areas including sustainable culinary practices, employee training and development, while also supporting the company's hunger charity; the Sodexo Foundation.
Burlington, Ontario - Michael Smith, Canada's best-known chef and Sodexo Canada are pleased to announce that they have created a broad based strategic alliance. Sodexo and Chef Michael will begin collaborating on several areas including sustainable culinary practices, employee training and development, while also supporting the company's hunger charity; the Sodexo Foundation.
Smith is a passionate advocate for the food service and hospitality industry and a natural fit for Sodexo, a leading provider of Quality of Life Services including food and facilities management. Chef Smith is personally excited by the opportunity to align professionally with Sodexo, “I am a huge fan of the company and see this as a way to continue reaching out to consumers everywhere.” Michael is internationally known for his dedication to the indigenous producers of Canada as well as his contemporary creative cuisine.
“Sodexo's culinary team across the country lives our values of Team Spirit, Service Spirit and the Spirit of Progress. With Michael joining our extended culinary team, there's no doubt in my mind that they will strengthen these values and enrich the overall dining experience for our customers” adds Jon Kristjanson Senior Vice President at Sodexo. “I am also grateful that Michael will help Sodexo in our fight against hunger, which despite our overall prosperity as a country plagues millions of Canadians.”
Chef Michael is the winner of the James Beard Award for Cooking Show Excellence and host of Chef at Home, Chef at Large and The Inn Chef on Food Network Canada and in 26 other countries. Currently Michael is in production on a brand new series - Chef Abroad that is set to air Fall 2008 on Food Network Canada. Michael is an award winning cookbook author, newspaper columnist, roving Canadian cuisine ambassador, restaurant chef and home cook. His third cookbook, Chef at Home is a smash hit across Canada.
Sodexo has been included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, World Index, and STOXX Sustainability Index for three consecutive years. This year, Dow Jones also recognized the company as a super sector worldwide leader on sustainability. The company's corporate citizenship priorities include fighting hunger and malnutrition, improving the quality of life of those served, promoting health & wellness, conducting ethical business, and promoting sustainability. Sodexo's food and environmental platform in North America focuses on sourcing and providing locally grown foods, improving nutrition, promoting local economies, energy conservation and carbon reduction, reducing the use of toxic chemicals, integrated waste management and minimizing packaging.
Sodexo, Inc. (www.sodexo.com), part of the international Sodexo Group, is the leading integrated food and facilities management services company in the Canada, the US and Mexico, with $7.3 billion in annual revenue and 125,000 employees. Sodexo serves more than ten million customers daily in corporations, health care, long term care and retirement centers, schools, college campuses, government and remote sites. Sodexo Canada is a member of Sodexo Group, and funds the Sodexo Foundation an independent charitable organization that, since its founding in 2001, has donated more than 350,000 free meals to at risk youth in Canada.
