Provision of hot meals under the School Meals Scheme to St. Mary's NS

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1. At a glance

2. Scope of Work

This tender seeks a contractor to provide hot meals under the School Meals Scheme to St. Mary's National School in Castlefinn, Co. Donegal. The contract is for the provision of catering services for the school's students. The estimated value of the contract is €276,057.60. The school operates for 182 days per year, and the contractor must provide service on each of these days, barring exceptional circumstances.

The core activities for the successful tenderer include:

• Meal Provision: Supplying hot meals prepared either off-site and delivered, or fully prepared on-site. The specific service delivery model will be confirmed by the tenderer.
• Ordering System: Implementing and managing a food ordering system (e.g., app, website, email) allowing for meal orders and adjustments. This includes defining order deadlines and modification cut-off times. Imagery of the ordering system must be provided.
• Food Service and Distribution: Managing the distribution of meals to students, including individual packaging and labelling. Provision of cutlery and napkins is also required. Imagery of individual packaging and labelling must be provided.
• Food Plan Development: Proposing a food plan that offers fresh, healthy, and nutritious meals, with variety and options for seasonal changes. The plan must accommodate students with food intolerances, allergies, and religious observances (lactose-free, gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, halal).
• Food Standards Compliance: Ensuring high standards of food quality, freshness, and preservation of nutritional content. This includes maintaining correct food temperatures from delivery to serving, and preventing cross-contamination for allergies and intolerces.
• Contract Management: Assigning a Key Account Manager (KAM) responsible for service delivery. A nominated back-up KAM is also required.
• Complaint and Incident Management: Establishing a clear process for managing and resolving complaints and incidents, including product recalls, food contamination, customer complaints, medical incidents (foodborne illness, allergies), and food quality issues.
• Staff Resourcing: Ensuring continuous staffing with individuals possessing the required skills, knowledge, and training. This involves managing resources for quality and continuity, providing ongoing staff training, and implementing succession planning for resource replacement.
• Waste Minimisation and Management: Detailing an approach to waste prevention, with a focus on food waste reduction, in line with national targets. This includes using environmentally friendly packaging materials and reducing plastics. A waste management plan for the school campus, including daily collection of food waste and pest control measures, is required.
• Sustainable Purchasing: Demonstrating how the purchasing policy contributes to environmental and social sustainability, favouring local and seasonal produce, minimising waste in purchasing decisions, and ordering optimum quantities.
• Organic Ingredient Inclusion: A minimum of 10% of food by value (€) must be certified organic in categories such as cereals, fresh beef, lamb, pork, poultry, fish, vegetables, and dairy products, where possible.

The contract value is stated as €3.20 (VAT exempt) per student per day for each hot meal provided.

3. Background & buyer context

This procurement is conducted by St. Mary's National School, Castlefinn, under the Department of Social Protection's School Meals Scheme. The scheme aims to provide nutritional support to children attending national schools. The tender is being issued as an Open Procedure, indicating it is open to all eligible economic operators. The estimated contract value falls below the EU procurement threshold of €750,000, necessitating compliance with specific Irish regulations. The school operates 182 days per year, and the contract duration is not explicitly stated but implies coverage for the school year.

4. Eligibility & selection criteria

Bidders must meet the following mandatory criteria to be considered:

• Turnover requirement: A minimum average annual turnover of €92,019.20 for each of the three financial years immediately preceding the tender publication date. For consortia, this requirement can be met by the combined turnover of members.
• Insurance: The successful tenderer must hold the following insurances:
• Employer's Liability: €13 million limit per claim.
• Public Liability: €6.5 million limit per claim.
• Product Liability: €6.5 million limit per claim.
• Motor Cover: Minimum €1.3 million for third-party property damage per accident.
• Crime Insurance: €100,000 per claim.
• Cyber Liability: €1 million per claim and in aggregate.
• Professional Indemnity: €6.5 million limit per claim (only relevant for Service Delivery Models 2, 3, or 4 involving fit-out works).
• Certifications: Tenderers must be registered as Food Business Operators (FBOs) with the Health Service Executive (HSE), local authority, or Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine (DAFM).
• Past experience: Tenderers must demonstrate experience by providing details of at least three previous contract examples within the last three years. These contracts must be for hot catering services of a similar nature, scale, and value to this tender. Collectively, these examples must demonstrate the production/delivery of at least 60% of the number of meals required in this competition. Written references from three named referees for these contracts are mandatory.
• Personnel: A Key Account Manager (KAM) must be assigned with proven experience in delivering similar services. A CV (max 2 A4 pages) for the KAM and a nominated back-up KAM is required. The KAM must have a minimum of 2 years of experience in a similar role.
• Geographic / facility constraints: Not specified for this tender.

5. Award criteria & scoring

The evaluation of tenders will be based on a combination of qualitative assessment and price. The total marks available are 1,000, with the price component not explicitly stated but implied to be the remaining percentage after qualitative scoring. Tenderers must achieve a minimum score of 70% for each individual sub-criterion and sub-sub-criterion where indicated to avoid elimination.

6. Submission requirements

Tenderers must submit their response using the provided Tender Response Document (TRD). Key submission requirements include:

• Method statement / response document: Completed TRD, with specific sections for Tenderer details, mandatory confirmations, insurance declarations, selection criteria responses, award criteria responses, personal circumstances, and previous contract examples.
• CVs: Curriculum Vitae (max 2 A4 pages) for the proposed Key Account Manager (KAM) and nominated back-up KAM.
• Pricing schedule: Not explicitly detailed as a separate schedule, but turnover figures must be provided in the selection criteria section. The fee structure is €3.20 per hot meal (VAT exempt).
• Case studies: Details of at least three previous contract examples, including client name, contact details, contract value, duration, description, and volume of meals.
• Declarations:
• Mandatory Site Visit Declaration (Appendix 1 of CFT).
• Declaration of no conflicts of interest and no anti-competitive behaviour (on own headed paper).
• Confirmation of Personal Circumstances (Section 7 of TRD).
• Tax Clearance Access Number and Tax Reference Number for online verification.
• Mandatory site visit: Tenderers must confirm attendance at a mandatory site visit. Details (date, time, contact) are to be found in Table 1 of the published CFT.
• Submission portal: Submissions must be made via the eTenders platform. Specific format rules are not detailed but implied by the TRD structure.
• Supporting Documentation:
• Audited financial statements for the last three years (with unqualified audit report).
• Copy of FBO registration acknowledgement or approval certificate.
• Written references for each of the three previous contract examples.

7. Key dates & process

8. Contract terms that matter

• Term: The contract term is not explicitly stated but is implied to cover the school's operational days (182 days per year). Extension provisions are not detailed.
• Payment terms: Payment will be made on a 30-day arrears basis, at a rate of €3.20 (VAT exempt) per hot meal provided.
• Key SLAs/KPIs: Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are detailed in Schedule D of the Services Contract (Appendix 5). Specific KPIs include:
• Complaints to be fully resolved within 3-5 days.
• Monthly status reports reporting key information.
• Liquidated damages or penalty regimes: Not explicitly detailed in the provided text, but service credits may apply.
• Termination clauses: Either party may terminate with 14 days' notice if a breach continues for 14 calendar days. Termination for breach is also possible within 30 days of a written request if the breach is remediable.
• IP ownership: Not specified.
• Sub-contracting rules: Not specified.
• Parent-company guarantee or bond requirements: Not specified.

9. Risks, red flags & unusuals

• Mandatory Site Visit: Attendance at a mandatory site visit is a strict requirement. Failure to attend will result in the tender being deemed non-compliant and eliminated from evaluation.
• Specific Service Delivery Models: Tenderers must confirm the Service Delivery Method for which they are submitting their proposal, indicating a potential preference or requirement from the school.
• High Insurance Requirements: The insurance limits, particularly Employer's Liability at €13 million, are substantial for a contract of this estimated value, potentially favouring larger, established providers.
• Detailed Qualitative Scoring: The award criteria are heavily weighted towards qualitative aspects, with significant marks allocated to food quality, standards, contract management, and green procurement. This requires detailed responses and a strong understanding of the school's specific needs.
• Organic Ingredient Mandate: The requirement for a minimum of 10% certified organic ingredients by value presents a specific sourcing challenge that tenderers must address.
• Tight Complaint Resolution: The 3-5 day timeframe for full complaint resolution is a demanding SLA.
• Long Contract End Date: The submission deadline is 31 July 2026, which is unusually far in the future for a contract of this nature. This may indicate a planning lead time or a potential for contract extension beyond the initial term.

10. SME fit assessment

This tender is likely best suited for established catering companies with a proven track record in school or institutional catering. The significant insurance requirements (€13 million Employer's Liability) and the need to demonstrate experience with at least three comparable contracts within the last three years may present a barrier for very small or new businesses.

• Credibly bid: A viable bidder would likely be a medium-sized catering firm with existing infrastructure, robust quality control systems, and experience managing contracts of a similar scale. They would need to demonstrate compliance with food safety regulations and have established supply chains capable of meeting the organic ingredient requirement.
• Consortium/sub-contracting: The TRD allows for "Other parties (if any) involved in this Tender submission," including "Subcontractor 1 / Consortium Member 1." This suggests that consortia or subcontracting arrangements are permissible, which could enable smaller businesses to participate by partnering with others to meet the eligibility criteria.
• Indicative bid-prep effort: Preparing a compliant bid would require significant effort. This includes gathering financial statements, references, developing detailed responses to the qualitative award criteria (food plans, management systems, sustainability policies), and potentially preparing imagery of ordering systems and packaging. An estimate of 10-20 working days for a dedicated bid team would be reasonable.
• Pwin signal: The high insurance requirements and the detailed qualitative assessment suggest a focus on quality and reliability. The long lead time to the submission deadline could indicate that the incumbent provider (if any) has had ample time to prepare for this tender. The specific requirements around organic ingredients and waste management also point towards a desire for a provider aligned with modern sustainability goals.

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