[7] Davidson Brothers began by providing vending services to plant employees in the aviation industry in Southern California.

In 1959, Davre Davidson partnered with William Fishman to establish ARA (Automatic Retailers of America), which became publicly traded a year later in 1960.

[16] The company then acquired Van Houtte USA from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (today part of Keurig Dr Pepper) in 2011, and the Irish firm Avoca Handweavers in 2015.

In July of that year, Aramark and the Colorado Rockies opened what is believed to be the first gluten-free concession stand in major league baseball.

[21] Aramark partnered with The Humane Society in August 2017 as part of their initiative to increase plant-based food offerings for consumers.

The products range from healthcare, dairy, meats, seafood, frozen, canned and dry, paper & disposables, chemicals & janitorial, supplies & equipment, produce, and beverage.

[37] In April 2010, Aramark and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers reached a resolution that called for a 70−80% increase in wages for tomato pickers.

[39][40][41][42][43] In September 2024, Aramark concessions workers with UNITE HERE at the South Philadelphia Sports Complex initiated a four day strike, seeking a better contract.

Major grievances included low wages, lack of healthcare coverage and the separate counting of hours worked at different facilities to avoid full-time classification and benefits.

[44] In 2013, an investigation by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Chris Hedges discovered that the food provided to inmates at Burlington County Jail in New Jersey was substandard and spoiled, and often made prisoners sick with diarrhea and vomiting.

[45] Maggots found in the food preparation areas at Parnall Correctional Facility in Jackson, Michigan, may have been the source of an outbreak of food-borne illness.

[51] In April 2015, the managing board of The Cavalier Daily, a student-run newspaper at the University of Virginia, reported that Aramark literally "served garbage" to inmates in the Saginaw Correctional Facility in Freeland, Michigan.

[56] Activists have called for boycotting Aramark for profiting off the direct provision system, as well as the alleged mistreatment of asylum seekers in Aramark-run centres.

[57] In 2014, asylum seekers in County Meath launched a hunger strike over the "unacceptable living standards" in the Aramark-run centre.

Responding to these reports, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said "Aramark's job is to clean the schools, so our principals and teachers can focus on their fundamental responsibility: education.

A report issued by the Wichita Falls-Wichita County Public Health District determined that one high school was infested with rats and mice.

A bid submitted by the union in spring of 2015 failed after a state review found it did not properly reflect projected costs.