Local small business owner and mother Margie Aipopo has taken her food fight with the Washington State Ferries to the streets or, to be exact, the ferry lanes.

She and her daughters Nicole and Emily, who help run the Cheesecake Café, espresso stand and gift shop located at the Anacortes Ferry Terminal have been walking the ferry lanes asking locals and tourists to sign a “Keep Ferry Food Local” petition in an attempt to keep their family business.

Earlier this year Washington State Ferries administration shocked not only Aipopo but also Bremerton based food vendor Olympic Cascade Services by choosing an out of state corporation to run almost all the terminal and onboard food services for all the ferries instead of renewing the contracts of the current, locally owned businesses.

The “Keep Ferry Food Local” petition, which currently has almost 5,500 signatures, asks Governor Jay Inslee to not allow WSF to choose an out-of-state corporation to run the Washington built and government owned ferry system’s food services.

“We are asking the governor to look at all this support we have to keep supporting the local economy,” said Nicole Aipopo in a recent interview with the Skagit Valley Herald. “Shouldn’t we keep Washington government contracts with Washington-owned businesses?”

The petition was started by Susan Meyers whose family owns Olympic Cascade Services. The company has provided onboard galley service for many of the ferries for the past 10 years, including the boats that run to the San Juans, but lost out to Centerplate this year.

While the Aipopos have stuck to a grassroots campaign in their attempt to save their business, Olympic Cascade Services filed a legal injunction against WSF alleging they did not do due diligence in the bidding process and even violated their own mission statement by not supporting local, women and minority owned businesses. Olympic Cascade was granted an injunction preventing WSF from signing the contract with Centerplate but later lost in court. According to their attorney, Warren J. Rheaume they’ve filed an appeal based on the way that Centerplate calculated their finances in their bid to WSF.

“The definition of Gross Sales used by Centerplate – improperly deducting large categories of proceeds like credit card charges and subcontractor sales – would clearly result in lower commission payments to the state,” said Rheaume. “Had WSF in fact properly analyzed the financial proposals, and done so in a manner that allowed a true comparison of the proposals, it would have found Olympic’s proposal to be the ‘most advantageous.'”

By law the ferry system is required to put their food services contracts up for bid every ten years, according to Ian Sterling, Washington State Ferry spokesman. Nine vendors put in a bid for the contract.

“Centerplate checked all the boxes better than everyone else,” said Sterling “There was a lot of competition. Unfortunately when there is a winner, there is always a loser.”

The fact that Centerplate is a Connecticut-based company is only one of Meyers’ and Aipopo’s concerns with WSF’s choice. The company has been plagued by lawsuits from employees complaining of wage theft and poor working conditions and is currently under investigation by a the Ohio Ethics Committee and the FBI for allegations that they coerced their way into a contract with the Greater Columbus Convention Center.

Kristina Arsenault, WSF new director for community services and planning, is in favor of hiring Centerplate Inc. who is also the current food vendor at the Seattle Mariners Stadium. In an earlier interview she noted that she has found many positive reports regarding Centerplate and its business practices. She notes that it has been contracted with Steamship Authority in Massachusetts for 23 years and are “admired and well loved.”

“They [Centerplate] do a really good job representing the local market,” said Arsenault. “The local branding possibilities are huge. They’ll be able to pull in many new local brands and we have to consider those businesses and employees as well.”

In the meantime though, the Aipopo women will keep pounding the pavement, garnering more signatures for their petition and hoping that all of the local support will have an effect.

As one petition signer noted, “A powerful step in creating a sustainable economy that works for ALL OF US, is to re-localize food and businesses. Please let this be reflected in food served on the State Ferries!”