The president of a community college in Jackson, Mich. has spent thousands on alcohol, meals and trees for his home in recent years -- without needing approval from his board or anyone else. He's done so from a private account that includes $21,000 from a no-bid five-year contract "resigning bonus" from food service conglomerate Aramark.

“The first time Joseph Neubauer took Aramark Corp. private in 1984, the deal was worth $889 million. When he and other managers led a leveraged buyout of the nation’s largest food services company a second time, the price tag zoomed to $6.24 billion. Neubauer and his family, whose holdings soared in value to almost $1 billion."

The foodservice (or food service) industry (US English; catering industry in British English) encompasses those places, institutions, and companies responsible for any meal eaten away from home. This industry includes restaurants, school and hospital cafeterias, catering operations, and many other formats.The companies that supply foodservice operators are called foodservice distributors. Foodservice hard goods like ovens and refrigerators are often sold by large buying groups. Major foodservice distributors include US Foodservice and Sysco.Some companies manufacture products in both consumer and foodservice versions. The consumer version usually comes in individual-sized packages with elaborate label design for retail sale. The foodservice version is packaged in a much larger industrial size and often lacks the colorful label designs of the consumer version.Foodservice sales to restaurants and institutions are estimated to be approximately $400 Billion, about equal with consumer sales of foods through grocery outlets. The foodservice industry is one of the largest employers in the United States. Major foodservice providers include Compass Group, Sodexho, Aramark, and the Crown Group.