The West Shore School District is requesting proposals for school food service management services. The Food Service Management Company will provide management services according to United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations and guidelines, as well as the Pennsylvania Department of Education policies and guidelines. Food Service Management Companies and/or their representatives may submit proposals to:
West Shore School District
507 Fishing Creek Road, P.O. Box 803
New Cumberland, PA 17070-0803
The West Shore School District Board of Education reserves the right to accept or reject any and/or all proposals or to accept the proposal that it finds, in its sole discretion, to be in the best interest of the school district. A walk-through meeting is scheduled for February 14, 2025 at 12:00 PM Red Land High School at 560 Fishing Creek Road, Lewisberry, PA 17339. All proposals must be submitted no later than 9:00 AM on March 13, 2025. For bid specifications email [email protected] All proposals should be delivered in a sealed envelope and addressed to the Director of Federal Programs and be clearly marked: Food Service Management Proposal.
Vendors have asked multiple questions and requested multiple files. Questions are answered below with files below and useful links to the right. In some cases questions have been rephrased. Files that have been uploaded may be responsive to a specific question, separate file request, or provided as a courtesy to help ensure potential bidding FSMC have the necessary information to complete a full and adequate proposal.
- May we get a copy of the 2023-2024 food service financial audit or the last completed audit?
- Please see links on right.
- May we get a copy of the union contract if applicable?
- Please see links on right.
- May we get a copy of the current ala carte prices?
- Please see links on right.
- May we get a copy of the edit checks and corresponding PEARS reports for the last two months of full operation?
- What are the district goals for food service?
- May we get a copy of the 2022-2023 and the 2023-2024 CNFR?
- Are wages listed for this school year or next school year?
- Wages listed are projected numbers for next year.
- May we get a copy of your commodity allocations? Please provide a copy of your 2024-2025 commodity allocation total and what foods were ordered including DOD, Brown Box and (NOI) Pounds allocated for processing? Please provide the current cost of commodity delivery/processing?
- Please see 2023-2024 Agency Summary Report in downloads.
- May we get a copy of site report for most recent May and October report by building? Please provide a copy of your 2024 August-November detailed meal claims by building including breakfast, lunch, snack, milk and any other meal program? Please provide total catering sales for the 2023/2024 school year.
- Please see downloads for various reports.
- Do you allow the scheduling of a food demonstration?
- No, that option was not selected as part of the RFP
- Calendar for SY 2025-2026
- Are all positions currently staffed? If not please indicate which position are not.
- Are any of the campuses open for lunch for any grade levels?
- Generally, seniors at both high schools have the option of leaving for lunch.
- What is the current POS system and what are annual charges for the license?
- We use Titan, costs are included in the RFP documents.
- Is any of the equipment owned by the current FSMC?
- Please provide current FSMC management labor structure
- General Manager, Assistant General Manager/Executive Chef, office assistant, and multi district nutritionist.
- Are you 100% CEP next year? If so, what is the CEP % per location?
- We anticipate being in CEP next year.
- Please see downloads for ISP data. This is the District’s first year with full CEP and is open to discussion on the most appropriate way to group CEP schools in the PEARS application.
- Are there any price increases planned for future years?
- We generally increase our paid rates by $0.05 or $0.10 per year and will likely continue this trend in case something happens with our CEP status.
- Please give a brief explanation of how breakfast is served in each school. For instance, where the students receive the meal and eat the meal and is there dedicated time for students to eat breakfast in the morning.
- Breakfast and lunch times have been uploaded. Secondary schools eat breakfast in the cafeteria. Elementary schools use combination of eat in the cafeteria or eat in the classroom. This changes as the building needs to have it changed.
- Does your current FSMC provide vehicles, and if so what kind and how many?
- Please provide a current FSMC labor on site, including salary positions.
- Please see downloads for current contract.
- Will the district accept DocuSign?
- This question is vague. The District has used DocuSign for a number of documents, but will not use DocuSign for the RFP proposal submissions.
- Please explain the $72,000 listed in extra income.
- This is anticipated food service investment interest.
- Why don't the meal counts on CR3 match the exact numbers on the ADA of attachment one?
- CR3 is a projection for next year that should be used as the basis of proposals.
- Why are the percentages in CR3 for CEP lower than the information show in other materials of the Q+A?
- This is the first year the FSA has been CEP districtwide (and there are two new schools that didn't exist last year), so some numbers are projected conservatively. Recent determinations by PDE determined increased qualification of high needs schools that led to increased (and retroactive) reimbursements.
- If this is a sponsor to sponsor agreement please provide a copy of the contract/agreement.
- Does the current FSMC own any equipment or smallwares on site that would need to be replaced in a FSMC transition? If so, please provide a list of these items.
- What are your growth projections?
- Who is responsible for health department permits and what is the estimated cost per year?
- The District does not see bills for health department permits.
- Will the FSMC be required to maintain the SFA provided 21-day menu for the full school year or will the FSMC be allowed to transition to their proposed menu after the first 21 days?
- The District expects to transition to a menu developed in partnership with the FSMC nutrition experts and discussed with FSA kitchen managers before final approval of the FSA.
- Please provide a copy of your most recent contract or renewal?
- Please provide a breakdown of the total free and reduce eligible students by school.
- Which school sites will be utilized to provide summer meal service?
- This has yet to be determined, but probably Hillside and Washington Heights. FSA would like to open at Old Trail if we can find a way to make it eligible. These are all open sites.
- Will you please give us permission to use your district logo for our proposal?
- As a matter of general practice, the FSA does not authorize businesses to use its logo in their materials proposals.
- Are we allowed to use images from the district`s website and/or district`s social media pages?
- As a matter of general practice, the FSA does not authorize businesses to use FSA social media/website photographs in their proposals to the FSA.
- We would just like to confirm that there is no attachment 10?
- The District does not run a CAFCP program, so there is no attachment 10.
- Are the proposed meal counts locked? Or are we permitted to include projected growth?
- You are welcome to project growth, but the RFP must be based on the numbers in the RFP documents.
- Is there a minimum FSMC management staffing requirement?
- There is not, but the FSMC must be able to demonstrate it has enough staff/skills for program leadership, nutritional development, administrative function, and staffing while maintaining a cost efficient operation. FSMC should not rely on FSA for primary interviewing responsibility.
- For the current school year with CEP, what % of meals are being reimbursed at free rate and what % of meals are being reimbursed at paid rate?
- Please see downloads for more details about CEP percentages.
- Page 3 (Section 3 State Reimbursements) of CR3 lists “Additional Amount for Lunch if Breakfast participation is <=20%” and “Additional Amount for Lunch if Breakfast participation is >20%”. Right now, both options are accounted for under the State Reimbursements. Which option should be selected? And this option only applies to 50% of the total lunches served on the form. Should it apply to 50% of lunches served or 100% of lunches? If there are schools with varying CEP statuses, should there be different number of meals for both categories?
- It is always hard to predict whether the FSA will qualify for the extra $0.04 per meal or whether it will qualify for the $0.02 per meal as it varies based on how many meals are served. For RFP budgeting purposes the FSA intentionally went with 50% at $0.02 and 50% at @0.04.
- Adult Paid Lunches – Is the total # of adult paid lunches 2,179 as listed on Page 1 of Attachment CR3 or 2,179.59, based on the Adult Meal Revenue reported on Page 4 of Attachment CR3?
- The FSA is predicting 2,179 adult lunches to generate and 1 adult breakfast to generate $10,580.00 in revenue. These numbers are listed in various spots on page 1 and page 4 of CR3.
- Is all the kitchen equipment in good working condition? How many of pieces and what type of equipment is in non-working order?
- Kitchen equipment is generally in good working condition.
- We are currently in the process of contracting for replacement walk-ins at Red Land and Crossroads, one combi at Cedar Cliff, and one steamer at Fishing Creek.