Provision of Cold Meals under School Meals Scheme

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1. At a glance

2. Scope of Work

This tender seeks a contractor to provide cold meals under the School Meals Scheme to St. Sylvester’s Infant School. The estimated value of the contract over a maximum three-year term is €270,648. The service is required for 180 days per year, excluding exceptional circumstances.

The contractor's responsibilities include:

• Meal Provision: Supplying cold meals that meet specific nutritional and quality standards. The contract is for "Cold Lunch Club" meals.
• Menu Planning: Developing and providing a food plan that offers fresh, healthy, and nutritious food with variety and choice. This plan must accommodate students with special dietary requirements, including intolerances, allergies, and religious observances (e.g., lactose-free, gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, halal options).
• Ordering System: Implementing and managing a food ordering system (e.g., app, website, email) for club meals, including details on ordering procedures and time limits for adjustments. Imagery of the ordering system must be provided.
• Food Service: Delivering meals to agreed drop-off points at the school premises. This includes individual packaging and labelling of meals, and the provision of cutlery and napkins where required. Imagery of individual packaging and labelling must be provided.
• Food Standards Compliance: Ensuring high standards of food nutrition, quality, variety, and freshness. This includes maintaining correct food temperatures in compliance with food legislation from delivery to consumption, and preventing cross-contamination for dietary requirements.
• Contract Management: Assigning a Key Account Manager (KAM) responsible for service delivery, with proven experience in similar services. The KAM's CV, not exceeding two A4 pages, must be submitted.
• Complaint and Incident Management: Establishing a clear approach for managing and resolving complaints and incidents, including product recalls, food contamination, customer complaints, medical incidents (foodborne illness, allergies), and food quality issues.
• Green Procurement and Sustainability: Detailing an approach to waste prevention and minimisation, with a focus on food waste reduction. This includes using environmentally friendly, recyclable, compostable, or biodegradable packaging materials and reducing plastics and non-recyclable materials. A sustainable purchasing policy that considers local suppliers, seasonal produce, and waste minimisation in purchasing decisions is also required.
• Reporting: Providing monthly status reports on key information.

The service must be provided on every school day, with specific response times for complaints and incidents outlined in the Service Level Agreement (SLA).

3. Background & buyer context

This procurement is conducted by St. Sylvester’s Infant School, located in Malahide, Co. Dublin. The tender is for the provision of cold meals under the Department of Social Protection’s School Meals Scheme. The scheme aims to provide nutritional support to children attending schools in disadvantaged areas. This specific tender falls below the EU procurement threshold of €750,000, allowing for an Open Procedure. The contract value is €270,648 over a maximum of three years. The procurement is driven by the need to secure a reliable and compliant catering service for the school's meal scheme.

4. Eligibility & selection criteria

Tenderers must meet the following mandatory criteria to be considered:

• Turnover requirement: A minimum average annual turnover equal to or greater than €90,216 for each of the three financial years immediately preceding the publication date of the tender. This requirement can be met by the combined turnover of consortium members. Audited financial statements for the last three years are required.
• Insurance:
• 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.
• Policies must include an indemnity to principal’s clause.
• Certifications: Registered as Food Business Operators (FBOs) with the Health Service Executive (HSE) or the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine (DAFM). A copy of the acknowledgement of notification or approval certificate is required.
• Past experience: A minimum of three previous contract examples within the last three years. These contracts must be for food 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 referees for three contract examples are mandatory.
• Personnel: A Key Account Manager (KAM) with proven experience in delivering similar services must be assigned. A CV (max 2 A4 pages) for the proposed KAM is required.
• Geographic / facility constraints: Not specified.

5. Award criteria & scoring

The contract will be awarded based on a combination of quality and price. 1,000 marks are available for qualitative assessment. A minimum score of 70% is required for each sub-criterion and sub-sub-criterion where indicated. Failure to achieve this minimum score will result in elimination.

Criterion Weight (%) Sub-criteria / Thresholds