Provision of Hot Meals under School Meals Scheme

AI-generated analysis of the documents. Check the official notice and any amendments for current submission details.

1. At a glance

2. Scope of Work

This tender seeks a contractor to provide hot meals under the Department of Social Protection's School Meals Scheme to Our Lady of Lourdes National School. The contract is for the provision and delivery of these meals. The school operates for 182 days per year, and the contractor must provide service on each of these days, barring exceptional circumstances.

The contractor will be responsible for:

• Meal Preparation and Delivery: Providing hot meals that meet specified nutritional standards. The tender documents outline three potential service delivery methods:
• Meals pre-prepared off-site and delivered ready to serve.
• Meals pre-prepared off-site and heated on-site.
• Meals fully prepared on-site. Bidders must confirm the specific service delivery method for which they are submitting their proposal.
• Ordering System: Implementing and managing a food ordering system (e.g., app, website, email) that allows for meal orders and adjustments. This includes defining ordering time limits. Imagery of the ordering system must be provided.
• Food Service and Distribution: Ensuring individual packaging and labelling of meals, and the provision of cutlery and napkins. Imagery of individual packaging and labelling is required.
• Food Plan and Standards: Proposing a food plan that is fresh, healthy, nutritious, and varied, accommodating dietary needs such as lactose-free, gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, and halal options, as well as catering for food intolerances and allergies. The plan must meet the requirements detailed in Appendix 1 of the tender documents.
• Food Quality and Safety: Maintaining high standards of food quality, freshness, and nutritional content. This includes ensuring correct food temperatures from delivery to serving, and preventing food cross-contamination.
• Contract Performance Management: Assigning a Key Account Manager (KAM) with proven experience to oversee service delivery. A CV for the KAM and a nominated backup KAM is required.
• Complaint and Incident Management: Establishing a clear process for managing and resolving complaints and incidents, including product recalls, food contamination, medical incidents, and food quality issues.
• Staff Resourcing: Ensuring continuous resourcing with skilled, knowledgeable, and trained staff, with measures for service continuity, ongoing training, and succession planning.
• Green Procurement and Sustainability: Implementing waste minimisation and management plans, with a focus on food waste reduction and the use of environmentally friendly packaging. A sustainable purchasing policy is also required, favouring local and seasonal produce where possible.
• Organic Ingredients: Incorporating organic ingredients to a minimum of 10% by value (€) in specific food categories (cereals, fresh beef, lamb, pork, poultry, fish, vegetables, and dairy products) where feasible.

The contract value is estimated at €291,782.40. The payment rate is €3.20 (VAT exempt) per student per day for each hot meal provided.

3. Background & buyer context

This procurement is conducted by Our Lady of Lourdes National School, located in Inchicore, Dublin. The tender is for the provision of hot meals under the Department of Social Protection's School Meals Scheme. This scheme aims to provide nutritional support to students in national schools. The estimated contract value falls below the EU procurement threshold of €750,000, indicating a national procurement procedure. The school operates 182 days per year, and the service is critical to supporting the students' well-being and educational attainment. No specific programme or policy drivers beyond the existing School Meals Scheme are explicitly mentioned.

4. Eligibility & selection criteria

Bidders must meet the following mandatory requirements to be considered:

• Turnover requirement:
• A minimum average annual turnover of €97,260.80 for each of the three financial years immediately preceding the tender publication date.
• For consortium bids, this requirement can be met by the combined turnover of consortium members.
• Insurance: The successful tenderer must hold the following insurances for the contract term:
• Employer's Liability: €13 million limit per claim.
• Public Liability: €6.5 million limit per claim.
• Product Liability: €6.5 million limit 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).
• 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.
• Employer’s Liability, Public Liability, and Product Liability policies must include an indemnity to principal’s clause.
• Certifications:
• Registered as a Food Business Operator (FBO) with the relevant competent authority (HSE, local authority, or DAFM).
• Past experience:
• Details of at least three previous contract examples (public or private sector) within the last three years.
• These contracts must have been for hot catering services of a similar nature, scale, and value.
• Collectively, the examples must demonstrate the production/delivery of at least 60% of the number of meals required in this tender.
• Written references from three named referees for each contract example are mandatory.
• Personnel:
• Key Account Manager (KAM): Must have proven experience in successfully delivering services of a similar scope and scale. A CV (max 2 A4 pages) is required.
• Nominated back-up KAM: A CV (max 2 A4 pages) is required.
• Food Safety/HACCP qualification and a minimum of 2 years of experience in a similar role for KAMs.
• Geographic / facility constraints: Not specified.

5. Award criteria & scoring

The contract will be awarded based on a combination of quality and price, with quality assessed against specific criteria. A total of 1,000 marks are available for the qualitative assessment. Bidders must achieve a minimum score of 70% for each sub-criterion and sub-sub-criterion where indicated to pass. Failure to meet this threshold in any criterion will lead to elimination.

Criterion Weight (%) Sub-criteria / Sub-sub-criteria