ARAMARK Renews Food Service Contract With Houston Independent School District, Continuing Five-Year Partnership.

Business Editors

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 26, 2002

ARAMARK (NYSE:RMK), a world leader in managed services, has renewed its food service contract with the Houston Independent School District (HISD), continuing a partnership between ARAMARK and the HISD that began in 1997.

Annual sales of the contract are initially estimated at approximately $4 million. Under the terms of the contract, ARAMARK will continue to provide food service for more than 200,000 students in the HISD.

ARAMARK has provided food service to the school district for the past five years. Last year, ARAMARK introduced "One World Cafe," an ARAMARK school dining program that offers new recipes and food concepts based on student input, at more than 100 schools in the HISD and plans to expand the program to an additional 150 schools over the next year.

ARAMARK also provides plant and operations management and custodial services as well as uniform services, including sales and laundering of supplies, to the HISD.

"We deeply value our partnership with the Houston Independent School District and we look forward to continuing to deliver solutions that meet the changing food service needs of thousands of students each year," said Joseph Neubauer, Chairman and CEO of ARAMARK. "This relationship demonstrates our ability to deliver a broad-based managed services solution to clients with a variety of requirements."

The Houston Independent School District comprises 286 schools, grades K-12. The HISD is the largest school district in Texas and the seventh largest in the United States.

In the K-12 education sector, ARAMARK is a leading provider of food, facility and other support services to more than 650 school districts nationwide. The company provides food service management and planning, serving more than 200 million meals each year to students in grades K-12.

ARAMARK also provides a range of other services to schools, including plant and operations management, custodial and uniform and maintenance supply services.

About ARAMARK

ARAMARK is a $9 billion world leader in providing managed services, including food, facility and other support services, uniform and career apparel and childcare and early education. ARAMARK has leadership positions serving the business, education, healthcare, government, sports and recreation sectors.

ARAMARK is ranked No. 1 in the outsourcing services category and is among the Top 50 companies overall in FORTUNE Magazine's 2002 "Most Admired Companies in America." Headquartered in Philadelphia, ARAMARK has approximately 200,000 employees serving customers in 17 countries.

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