Catering/Food Service Management Company Request for Proposal SECTION A - RFP INSTRUCTIONS A-1.PURPOSE OF PROCUREMENT This Request for Proposal (RFP) is being issued to establish a firm fixed price contract with a qualified vendor who will provide Food Service Management Services to the Mohammed Schools of Atlanta Food Authority (hereinafter, SFA or "School") as further described in this RFP. A-2.SCOPE The Mohammed Schools of Atlanta will receive sealed proposals for breakfast meals and lunch meals cooked daily that meet USDA and State requirements for reimbursement. Vendors are invited to submit proposals on the enclosed forms based on the specifications supplied by the school. The proposal covers the furnishing of component breakfasts and lunches, exclusive of milk, from August 2015_to the last day of the school year2016. Proposals must be received at _735 Fayetteville Road, Atlanta, Georgia 30316 no later than May 15, 2015 at which time and place the proposals will be opened. Proposals received after the time specified will be deemed late and will be rejected, and returned to the vendorunopened. NOTE: Mohammed Schools of Atlanta reserves the right to accept or reject any or all proposals with sound documented reasons, and to waive informalities and minor irregularities in proposals received. A-3.OVERVIEW OF THE RFP PROCESS The objective of this RFP is to select a qualified vendor to provide the goods and/or services outlined in this RFP to
the SFA. This RFP process will be conducted to gather and evaluate responses from vendors for potential award. All qualified vendors are invited to participate by submitting responses, as further defined below. After evaluating all vendors responses received prior to the closing date of this RFP and following negotiations (if any) and resolution of any contract exceptions, the preliminary results of the RFP process will be publicly announced, including the names of all participating vendors and the evaluation results. Subject to the protest process, final contract award(s) will be publicly announced thereafter. A-4.SCHEDULE OF EVENTS The schedule of events set out herein represents the SFA's best estimate of the schedule that will be followed. However, delays to the procurement process may occur which may necessitate adjustments to the proposed schedule. Description Date Time RFP Issued N/A Deadline for written questions sent via email to the School Nutrition Director. Friday, May 15, 2015 5:00 p.m. ET Response from SFA to Written Friday, May 29, 2015 5:00 p.m. ET Questions RFP Close date and time Friday, May 15, 2015 5:00 pm et Proposal Evaluation Completed [X] to [Y] Weeks after Closing N/A (on or about) Negotiations Invitation Issued [X] to [Y] Weeks after Closing TBD (emailed) (on or about); discretionary process Final Evaluation (on or about) [X] to [Y] Weeks after Closing N/A Finalize Contract Terms [X] to [Y] Weeks after Closing N/A Notice of Intent to Award* [NOIA] [X] to [Y] Weeks after Closing N/A (on or about) if over 100K Notice of Award [NOA] (on or about) 10 calendar days after NOIA N/A
A-5.CONTACT PERSON FOR SFA Brenda G Rasheed School Nutrition Director Contact information Nutrition.Director@MohammedSchools.org A-6.CONTRACT TERM The contract will be effective for an initial term of one year commencing onjuly 1, 2015 Through June 30, 2016, with up to four (4) options to renew, at the sole discretion of the SFA, for 1 year terms each with the same terms and conditions applied. A-7.DEFINITION OF TERMS "Request for Proposal" (RFP) is a Competitive Proposal ( previously known as Competitive Negotiation), means a method of procurement whereby a technical proposal is solicited that explains how the prospective contractor will meet the objectives of the solicitation and a cost element that identifies the costs to accomplish the technical proposal. While price alone is not the sole basis for award, price remains the primary consideration when awarding a contract under the competitive proposal method. ( from FSMC Guidance for SAs - Jan 09 - FNS website) "FSMC" is a Food Service Management Company, which means a commercial enterprise or a nonprofit organization that is or may be contracted with by the SFA to manage any aspect of the school food service. An FSMC is a company that is acting on behalf of a school food authority by actually being in charge of or directing any aspect of the food service and must meet applicable program requirements. ( from FSMC Guidance for SAs - Jan 09 - FNS website)
"Vendor" means a merchandiser of complete meals, meal components, or raw materials. ( FSMC Guidance for SAs - Jan 09) "SFA" means School Food Authority. "Meal component" means one of the five food items that compose the reimbursable school lunch or one of the four food items of a school breakfast. "SBP" means " School Breakfast Program" in agreement with all regulations of 7CFR 220 "NSLP" means "National School Lunch Program" - in agreement with all regulations of 7CFR 210 "CNP" means Child Nutrition Program "CFR" means Code of Federal Regulations which is the codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the Executive departments and agencies of the Federal government. A-8.PROPOSAL SUBMISSION By submitting a response to this RFP, the vendor is acknowledging that the vendor: 1. Has read the information and instructions, 2. Agrees to comply with the information and instructions contained herein. All proposals shall be placed in a sealed envelope, and will consist of a technical and a cost proposal. The front of the envelope shall be clearly labeled as follows: Mohammed Schools of Atlanta ATTN: School Food Service Proposal. Brenda G Rasheed 735 Fayetteville Road Atlanta, Georgia 30316 A-9.QUESTIONS Additional information and questions may be obtained from the School Nutrition Director at Nutrition.Director@mohammedschools.org
A-10.COMMUNICATION Any explanation desired by a FSMC regarding the meaning or interpretation of any part of this request for proposal must be requested in writing by May 15, 2015 in order to allow sufficient time for a reply to reach all Vendors before proposal opening. Email is acceptable. Oral explanations or instructions given before the award of the contract shall not be binding. Any information given to a prospective FSMC shall be furnished to all prospective Vendors as an addendum to the solicitation. Addendums sent to all prospective FSMCs will be sent by email and mail Addendums sent to the prospective FSMCs must be signed and attached to the proposal as acknowledgment of receipt, and acceptance of the addendums to the proposal. A-11.CONTRACT AWARD The contract will be awarded to the responsive and responsible vendor whose proposal will be most advantageous to the SFA, price and taste are factors considered. Unsuccessful offeror's will be notified promptly. The SFA reserves the right to reject any or all Proposals if there is a sound, documented reason that is in the best interest of the SFA. The SFA also reserves the right to waive informalities and minor irregularities in Proposals received. All or Nothing: The School intends to award this contract on an ALL or NOTHING basis. Proposals failing to include all of the requested items, locations, goods and services WILL BE REJECTED. SECTION B - TECHNICAL PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS B-1. MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS As specified with each requirement listed in the EXHIBIT 1 - TECHNICAL RESPONSE WORKSHEET - Mandatory Questions, the vendor must indicate whether its proposal meets the individual requirements by marking either a "YES" or "NO" in the response block provided. A Pass/Fail evaluation will be utilized for all mandatory requirements. Ordinarily, to be considered responsive, responsible and eligible for award, all questions identified as mandatory must be marked YES to pass. There may be rare instances in which a response of NO is the correct and logical response in order to meet the mandatory requirement (e.g. responding NO that the vendor does not possess any conflicts of interest). Otherwise, any mandatory
questions marked "NO" will fail the technical requirements and will result in disqualification of the proposal. DO NOT INCLUDE ANY COST/PRICING INFORMATION IN YOUR RESPONSE TO THE MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS STATEMENTS. B-2. MANDATORY SCORED REQUIREMENTS As specified with each requirement listed in the EXHIBIT 1 - TECHNICAL RESPONSE WORKSHEET -Mandatory Scored Questions the vendor must indicate whether it will meet the individual requirement (if any) and provide a supporting narrative in the space provided or on an additional page if needed. To be considered responsive, responsible and eligible for award, any and all requirements identified in the Mandatory Scored Response section of the Technical Response Worksheet must be met. There may be rare instances in which an item within the Mandatory Scored Response section does not create an individual requirement which must be met, but, instead, merely requires a response. All requirements labeled Mandatory Scored must be met by the vendor. Failure to meet any mandatory scored requirements may result in disqualification of the proposals. The narrative description, along with any required supporting materials, will be evaluated and awarded points in accordance with Section D of this RFP. DO NOT INCLUDE ANY COST INFORMATION IN YOUR RESPONSE TO THIS WORKSHEET. B-3. ADDITIONAL SCORED RESPONSES All items labeled Additional Scored Responses represent information that is requested by
the SFA. Vendors are encouraged to provide a thorough narrative description in the space provided in the Additional Scored Response Questions. Answers along with any requested supporting materials will be evaluated and awarded points in accordance with SECTION D. DO NOT INCLUDE ANY COST INFORMATION IN YOUR RESPONSE TO THIS WORKSHEET. SECTION C - COST PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS C-1. COST PROPOSAL Each vendor is required to submit a cost proposal as part of its response. The cost proposal will be evaluated and scored in accordance with SECTION D of this RFP. By submitting a response, the vendor agrees that it has read, understood, and will abide by the following instructions/rules: 1. The submitted cost proposal must include all costs of performing pursuant to the resulting contract; and 2. Cost proposals containing a minimum order/ship quantity or dollar value, unless otherwise called for in the RFP, will be treated as non-responsive and may not be considered for award; and 3. In the event there is discrepancy between the vendor s unit price and extended price, the unit price shall govern; 4. In the event there is a discrepancy between (1) the vendor s pricing as quoted on the RFP s provided cost worksheet and (2) the vendor s pricing as quoted by the vendor in one or more additional documents, the former shall govern; and 5. The prices quoted and listed in the cost proposal shall be firm throughout the term of the resulting contract, unless otherwise noted in the RFP or contract. C-2. COST STRUCTURE AND ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS The SFA's intent is to structure the cost format in order to facilitate comparison among all vendors and foster competition to obtain the best market pricing. Consequently, the SFA requires that each vendor s cost be in the format outlined on the Exhibit 3, The Cost Worksheet. Additional alternative cost structures will not be considered. Each vendor is cautioned that failure to comply with the requested format, submission of an incomplete offer, or submission of an offer in a
different format than the one requested may result in the rejection of the vendor s proposal. Enter all information directly into the COST WORKSHEET(s), EXHIBIT 3. Prices must be in US Dollars. SECTION D - EVALUATION PROCESS D-1. PROPOSAL EVALUATION, NEGOTIATIONS AND AWARD All timely proposals will be evaluated in accordance with the following steps. The objective of the evaluation process is to identify the proposal which represents the best value to the SFA based on a combination of technical and cost factors. Based on the results of the initial evaluation, the SFA may or may not elect to negotiate technical and/or cost factors as further described in the RFP. In the event negotiations of the technical and/or cost factors occur, the revised proposals will be reevaluated in accordance with the provisions of SECTION D-8 of this RFP. Once the evaluation process has been completed (and any negotiations the SFA desires to conduct have occurred), the apparent successful vendor(s) will be required to enter into discussions with the SFA to resolve any exceptions to the SFA's contract. The SFA will announce the results of the RFP as described further in Section E-11 of this RFP. D-2. ADMINISTRATIVE/PRELIMINARY REVIEW First, the proposals will be reviewed by the SFA to determine the proposal s compliance with the following requirements: 1. Proposal was submitted by specified proposal close date and time.
2. Proposal is complete and contains all required documents 3. Technical Proposal does not include any pricing from the Cost Proposal D-3. EVALUATING PROPOSAL FACTORS If the vendor s proposal passes the Administrative/Preliminary Review listed above, then the vendor s responses to the Technical Evaluation Worksheet will be submitted to the Evaluation Team for evaluation. D-4. REVIEW OF MANDATORY AND MANDATORY SCORED QUESTIONS The Evaluation Team will review each proposal in detail to determine its compliance with mandatory RFP requirements. Responses to both Mandatory and Mandatory Scored Questions will be evaluated on a pass/fail basis. If a proposal fails to meet a mandatory and/or mandatory scored RFP requirement, the SFA will determine if the deviation is material. A material deviation will be cause for rejection of the proposal. An immaterial deviation will be processed as if no deviation had occurred. All proposals which meet the requirements of the Mandatory and Mandatory Scored Questions are considered Responsive Proposals at this point in time and will be scored in accordance with the point allocation SECTION D-8. D-5. REVIEW OF ADDITIONAL SCORED INFORMATION QUESTIONS For all proposals determined to be Responsive Proposals, the Evaluation Team will review and score the responses to the Additional Scored Questions (if
any) in accordance with the point allocation in Section D-8. The vendor will receive a total technical score at the conclusion of the evaluation of the RFP Proposal Factors. D-6. EVALUATING COST PROPOSAL AND TOTAL COMBINED SCORE The cost proposals will be reviewed and scored in accordance with Section D-8. D-7. COST SCORING The SFA may utilize lowest cost, lowest total cost, and total cost of ownership (TCO) or greatest savings to determine the most competitive cost proposal. The cost proposal may be scored on an overall basis or at the category/subcategory/line level (as applicable) relative to other proposals. The vendor deemed to have the most competitive cost proposal overall, as determined by the SFA, will receive the maximum weighted score for the cost criteria. In the alternative, in the event the cost proposal is scored at the category, subcategory or line level, the SFA may assign the maximum score per category/subcategory/line for the most competitive proposal at that level. Other proposals will receive a percentage of the weighted score based on the percentage differential between the most competitive cost proposal and the specific proposal in question. D-8. TOTAL SCORE The vendor s cost score will be combined with the vendor s technical score to determine the vendor s overall score (or total combined score ).
Scoring Criteria ( GENERAL RULE - USE TOTAL COMBINED SCORE OF 1000 POINTS) The evaluation is comprised of the following: Category Criteria Points Cost 1. Cost of proposed products Enter # herepoints and/or services 400 suggested Technical/Proposal 2. "Mandatory" Requirements Pass/Fail Factors Technical/Proposal 3. "Mandatory Scored" and/orenter # herepoints Factors Additional Scored Responses 600 suggested