NIGP 39397: Food Products, Scrap or Waste

NIGP 39397 Food Products, Scrap or Waste is an Item code under which state and local governments procure food service supplies for school nutrition programs, institutional feeding, municipal waste diversion, and food waste collection and processing. Recent solicitations show school districts dominating activity—Tattnall County Board of Education, Lamar County School District, Houston County School District, DeKalb County School District, Meriden Public Schools, and Douglas County School System have all posted food product bids in the past four months—alongside emerging municipal waste-stream procurement from Invest Atlanta, the City of Gainesville, the District of Columbia, and the City of Detroit, which are increasingly treating food waste and organics as a managed commodity rather than refuse. The work splits into two streams: forward supply (food procurement for meal programs and retail grocery operations) and reverse supply (collection, processing, and conversion of food scrap and organic waste into compost or distributed material).

Geographic activity concentrates in Georgia and Florida, with secondary presence in Connecticut, Oregon, Texas, and Washington, D.C. Recent opportunities include Tattnall County Board of Education issuing a sealed-bid IFB for School Nutrition Program food products due July 22, 2026; Invest Atlanta posting a dual-track RFP for retail grocery market operators and food distributors in Priority Communities due August 6, 2026; the City of Gainesville, Florida issuing an RFP for residential curbside food waste collection and processing (approximately 29,000 homes, initial term through September 30, 2027) due March 19, 2026; the District of Columbia Department of General Services posting an IFB for organics collection and disposal services across municipal facilities (non-guaranteed maximum $950,000 annually, five-year ID/IQ structure, 51% District resident hiring target, SBE set-aside) due March 25, 2026; and Houston County School District soliciting direct-delivery food, paper, and chemicals (approximately $14 million annually) due April 17, 2026. School district procurement heavily emphasizes sealed-bid competitive delivery models with USDA compliance, Buy American domestic sourcing, and fixed pricing. Municipal waste-stream procurement is emerging as a specialized service category with high startup and operational costs, insurance requirements, and living-wage mandates.