MAPC School Produce 2025 - Addendum 1.pdf

Metropolitan Area Planning Council

Fresh Produce for Eastern

Massachusetts Schools

Fruit and Vegetable Provision

Invitation for Bids

Addendum 1

Issued: 8/5/2025

IFB #MAPC School Produce 2025 Solicited in partnership with the cities and towns and school districts; including

Acton- Boxborough, Andover, Arlington, Ashland, Bedford, Belmont, Beverly, Billerica, Braintree, Bridge Boston Charter School, Brookline, Cambridge, Canton, Chelmsford, Danvers, Dartmouth, Dedham, Dover-Sherborn, Dracut, Foxborough, Hopkinton, Medford, Methuen, Milton, Needham, New Bedford, Quincy, Reading, Salem, Somerville, Stoughton, Wakefield, Waltham, Wareham, Wilmington and Worcester

Metropolitan Area Planning Council, 60 Temple Place, 6th Floor, Boston MA 02111 www.mapc.org

MAIN PHONE 617.933.0700 MAIN FAX 617.482.7185

http://www.mapc.org/

Addendum 1 Issued: 8/5/2025

1. A vendor conference occurred at 9:00 am, Wednesday, July 30, 2025 via Zoom. Kelsi

Champley and Bob O’Neil hosted the meeting. Jeff Kotzen of JW Lopes and Jim Mullett of

Produce Connection were the vendors in attendance. No questions were asked during the vendor conference. The following items were discussed:

Contract Length:

• The contract will not be for an entire calendar year, but from the date of execution through

June 30, 2026.

District Participation:

• Added Worcester, 46 drop locations

Specifications, Ordering, Delivery and Fees:

• Addied imported specifications to be used when the same domestic product is not available.

Import costs are more volatile (tariffs, inflation, conditions, etc) and should be separated from domestically grown

• Changed sourcing of several specifications to Southeast US instead of Mexico due to price and availability

• 6.6 Performance Standards ---All cases of fresh cut produce must be labeled with a pack date and a delivery date. To properly manage Shelf life

Procurement Timeline:

• Advertise and Issue Bid – Mon, 7/28

• Pre-bid Call – Wed, 7/30 at 9:00am

• Written Questions - Fri, 8/1 at 3:00pm

• Written Response an Addenda – Mon, 8/4

• Bid Due and Opening – Wed, 8/13 at 4:00pm

• Award – Fri, 8/15

• First Delivery Target Date - Mon, 8/25

Questions and Answers

The following were submitted questions provided in writing via email. If you believe you have submitted a question that has not been addressed, please contact Kelsi Champley directly.

1: Page 8 states that schools can't buy anything other than bid items. Is the way we handled this last year not allowed? And if we are to supply other items do they have to open another account with us?

Answer: Page 8 states that “Vendors should keep in mind that completely new items that are not substantially equal to those products included in Bids MAY NOT be added to weekly vendor’s online order guide once contracts have been awarded. However, schools may still purchase other items through alternate procurement methods.”

• School districts can still purchase other non-contracted items from the awarded vendor, though these items cannot be combined with the contracted items on the vendor’s on line order guide. It is the responsibility of each district’s food service director to manage the non-contracted item’s specification, price and procurement method.

• Alternate procurement methods may allow for a vendor to separately list non-contracted items on the online order guide if they are completely separate and not combined with the list of contracted items and clearly marked as non-contracted items. Any changes or additions to the on-line order guide must have approval from MAPC

• Each district’s food service director is responsible to manage the alternate procurement methods and account set up.

2: Page 14, Item 4.14 allows for 15 days to execute, but your schedule is written for 10 days. Which one is it?

Answer: At the time of award, there will an attached notice of Authorization to Proceed, while the contract is being signed. The vendor must accept orders within 15 days of this notice.

The goal is to service the school districts that may require delivery during the week of August

25th.

3: Page 21. All processed items must be packed no more than 2 days prior to delivery.

Answer:

• All cut and portioned produce (50x 2/3/4oz packs), cut tomato (5lb packs) and all cut fruits (excluding apples) and will be delivered to school districts within two days of cutting

(pack date) and will have a minimum of four days of shelf life after delivery.

• All cut vegetables (and apples) must have a minimum of seven days shelf life after delivery. There is no requirement for pack date.

4: Although I understand the desire is to keep things fresh, but this is not a reasonable request in the produce industry and an unfair requirement. And I say that as a company that has the best ability to be successful and even we can't meet this requirement without incurring higher costs or lying.

Answer:

• School districts across Eastern Massachusetts are interested in accessing high-quality fruits and vegetables at the best prices. Having all cut and portioned produce (50x

2/3/4oz packs), cut tomato (5lb packs) and all cut fruits (excluding apples) delivered to school districts within two days of cutting helps achieve the program goals. It is expected that all extra costs incurred to meet this requirement will be included in the vendor’s operational costs and the Total Unit Case Price.

• Pursuant to Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 266, Section 67A, anyone in any matter relative to the procurement of services who intentionally makes a material statement that is false, omits or conceals a material fact in a written statement, submits or invites reliance on a material writing that is false, submits or invites reliance on a sample or other object that is misleading, or uses any trick, scheme or device that is misleading in a material respect will be subject to sanction pursuant to the laws of the

Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

5: This has the very likely effect of not being able to deliver popular, local items like Little Leaf

Lettuce because we can't control their pack dates and the time it takes to get in house and then to schools.

Answer: All cut vegetables (and apples) must have a minimum of seven days shelf life after delivery. There is no requirement for pack date.

6: Page 22. 6.7 Allows payment by credit cards, but is not clear on if we can recover the additional cost associated with taking credit cards. By the way, everyone in the world these days adds a surcharge for this.

Answer: Anticipated credit card costs should be included in the vendor’s operational costs and the Total Unit Case Price, as described below.

• Total Unit Case Price is defined as the Delivered Price (which is inclusive of the product price + applicable freight + all processing costs including yield loss, labor, packaging and overhead) plus the Distribution Price (which represents the additional charge the Vendor places on the product for getting it to the individual school locations and should include all other operational costs, fuel surcharges, wage increase, commodity price protection, etc.).

• The prices offered are guaranteed not to change except as permitted by the terms and conditions of the IFB and the signed contract.