Vended Meals Contracts
In a vended meals contract, the contractor provides the
meals only (prepackaged, pre-plated) and does not manage
any
aspect of the school food service. However, if the contractor’s
employees are responsible for the final preparation and/or
serving of the prepackaged, pre-plated school meals, the
contract becomes a FSMC contract and is no longer considered
a vended meals contract.
Currently, all vended meals contracts
involving expenditures in excess of $100,000 must be
competitively bid. School food
authorities (SFAs) receiving federal reimbursement must
follow the required federal and state procurement procedures.
To
ensure regulatory compliance, all SFAs conducting a new
procurement or considering contracting for school meal services
are highly
encouraged to attend the meal
service procurement training
offered by the Nutrition Programs Division in December
and January of each year.
Provided below are links to the regulations,
requirements, forms, and documents to assist you in completing
a successful
procurement or contract renewal. If you have questions
regarding the bid solicitation and contract procedures or
contract
renewal process, please contact our office at 217-782-2491
or 800-545-7892 (in Illinois), or via email at cnp@isbe.net.
 Informal
Bidding Procedures—Vended
Meal Services
If
your contract for vended meal services will not be in excess
of $100,000, you may use informal bidding procedures
to procure the meal services contract.
The following steps
should be part of the informal bidding procedures:
- Develop a written purchase description of the
services/items being solicited;
-
Solicit quotes/bids from three or more potential vendors
based on the purchase description; document vendor names
along with the date and method of contact—be sure
to maintain free and open competition;
- Record all quotes/bids received and any notification
received from vendors declining to bid;
- Evaluate the quotes
for conformance to the purchase description;
- Award the purchase/contract (record the justification for
the award); and
-
Notify the Illinois State Board of Education of the contract
award—provide copies of all documentation for
each step above along with a copy of the final contract
including
estimated contract cost. These documents will be kept on
file for potential audit purposes. In addition, submission
of these documents to our office will be required as part
of the approval process for your application for participation
in the National School Lunch Program.
For assistance in developing
your written purchase description, you may use our Invitation
for Bid and Contract prototype
document for vended meal services located at the Prototype
Documents link provided above as a reference. Feel free to
use any of the prototype contract language that is applicable
to your school’s/district’s needs.
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