NIGP 39070: Seafood, Fresh

NIGP 39070 Fresh Seafood, Item code, covers state and local procurement of fresh and value-added seafood products for school nutrition programs, institutional feeding, and municipal market retail operations. School districts represent the dominant buyer category, purchasing seafood as part of broader school lunch and breakfast program supplier awards; recent activity also includes cooperative purchasing vehicles aggregating multiple districts and regional planning agencies, institutional customers (youth training centers), and economic-development-focused municipal procurement. Scope encompasses fresh-caught or landed seafood suitable for K-12 populations, locally sourced seafood products meeting regional dietary guidelines, and value-added seafood items through processors or commissaries, typically procured through sealed-bid IFBs, RFPs, or RFIs as line items within broader food commodity awards or as standalone category awards.

School districts across Georgia, Massachusetts, and Nevada drive the current activity. The Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), acting as a cooperative purchasing entity on behalf of 13 regional planning agencies and their constituent Massachusetts school districts, issued an RFP (BD261217MAPC1MAPC1130351) closing July 2, 2026, seeking local seafood products for K-12 populations, with a vendor conference scheduled for June 16, 2026, and an earlier RFI (BD261217MAP03MAP03129966, due May 29, 2026) gathering supply-chain information from New England harvesters, distributors, and processors. Individual Georgia school districts including Hancock County (IFB #SN002-2027, due June 26, 2026), Early County (due June 8, 2026), Dougherty County (IFB due May 19, 2026), Houston County (ITB 27-001, due April 17, 2026), and Lamar County (six separate IFBs covering diverse categories, due May 20, 2026) have each solicited sealed bids for groceries encompassing seafood as one line-item category among 200+ food products. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Office for Administration and Finance Operational Services Division is reopening Contract GRO42 for K-12 School Nutrition Products (BD261080OSD03OSD03128294) with a newly added Category 3 Locally Sourced Foods and bids due August 26, 2026. Procurement activity is concentrated in school nutrition supply chains requiring compliance with USDA Child Nutrition standards, Buy American provisions (domestic agricultural content thresholds), HACCP plans, and insurance minimums of $500,000 to $1 million general liability. No recent solicitations identified seafood as a standalone, high-dollar procurement category separate from integrated grocery or broadline food service awards.