City of

Long Beach Request for Information HE-24-416

Compact Mobile Food Carts

Compact Mobile Food Carts (RFI) | HE-24-416 | 1

Compact Mobile Food Carts (RFI) | HE-24-416 | 1

Overview

Summary

The City of Long Beach seeks to better understand the market landscape for compact mobile food carts, including types of carts, compliance with applicable health codes, market rate/pricing, and standard order fulfillment timelines.

Key Dates

Release Date: March 29th, 2024

Responses Due: April 12th, 2024

The City reserves the right to modify these dates at any time, with appropriate notice to prospective Contractors. Nothing in this Request for Information constitutes an agreement that

Respondents will be retained by the City for any term.

Response Information

Instructions for what to include in your response and how to submit it are detailed in Section 2.

Responses must be submitted electronically via

LongBeachBuys.com.

Official Contact

Abraham Torres rfppurchasing@longbeach.gov

All communication with the City related to this RFI must be directed to the contact listed above.

Assistance & Resources

• Customer Service Form

• rfppurchasing@longbeach.gov

• (562) 570-6200

For assistance using Long Beach Buys, please contact us directly:

mailto:rfppurchasing@longbeach.gov https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=wxE_MWhCak-NO8fmUBg-eJhZqE0zY4JHucmtLMnWlxRUMzlJTVpROTNONUpZQ0tPMzVIQU5WQkk2Uy4u mailto:rfppurchasing@longbeach.gov https://longbeach.sharepoint.com/sites/TEAM-FM-eProImplementation/Shared%20Documents/General/CLM%20template%20versions/longbeachbuys.com

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Contents

1 The Opportunity

1.1 Project Summary

1.2 Goals

1.3 Result of the Request for Information

2 How to Respond

2.1 Timelines & Instructions

2.2 Response Template

3 Exhibit A: Health and Safety Regulations

3.1 California Health and Safety Code

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1 The Opportunity

1.1 Project Summary

The City of Long Beach is requesting information from qualified compact mobile food cart manufacturers and sellers that may be interested in selling carts to the City. The regulatory landscape of sidewalk vending is changing quickly, with California state law Senate Bill 946 Safe Sidewalk Vending Act, decriminalizes sidewalk vending in California and Senate Bill 972 California Retail Food Code allowing sidewalk vendors to easily obtain health permits already in effect as of January 1, 2023, and Long Beach’s ordinance containing public health and safety standards went into effect as of February 26, 2024. The City is rolling out several programs aimed at supporting sidewalk vendors to come into compliance with the new regulatory landscape, including a program that will provide compact mobile food carts to eligible vendors to support their compact mobile food operation (CMFO) while supplies last.

The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to better understand the market for carts and CMFOs

(see Exhibit A for definitions). The City seeks to learn more about compact mobile food carts that meet the following specifications:

• Provide the ability to serve a variety of packaged and unpackaged types of food that current and potential sidewalk vendors are interested in vending.

• Follow all requirements of applicable health codes and have been pre-approved by any environmental health jurisdiction in California.

In particular, the City would also like to understand the following information:

• Market rate/pricing

• Order fulfillment timelines

1.2 Goals

The City’s sidewalk vending support program, Sidewalk to Success, includes the following goals:

o Support sidewalk vending entrepreneurs to fully participate in the newly legalized arena; and o Reduce cost barriers for sidewalk vendors to become licensed and operate in compliance with new regulations, particularly California’s Health and Safety Code.

The City seeks information about carts that meet the following standards:

• Meet all requirements of California’s Health and Safety Code and have been pre-approved by any health jurisdiction in California (see Exhibit A)

• Provide the ability to serve foods including but not limited to:

● Fruit (with cooler)

● Ice Cream

● Corn https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB946 https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB972 https://library.municode.com/ca/long_beach/ordinances/municipal_code?nodeId=1262103 https://library.municode.com/ca/long_beach/ordinances/municipal_code?nodeId=1262103

Compact Mobile Food Carts (RFI) | HE-24-416 | 4

● Hot dog

● Tamales

● Grilled foods (no raw meat)

● Grilled foods (including raw meat)

● Churro

● Shaved Ice/Raspado

● Coffee

We request information from manufacturers and sellers about the following:

• What are competitive pricing standards for compact mobile food carts?

● What are pricing rates for various compact mobile carts ?

● How much are shipping fees to Long Beach? How are shipping fees calculated?

● Are there any additional delivery fees? How are they calculated?

● Taking all pricing and fees together, what are the fully loaded costs?

• Order fulfillment timelines: What ability does the manufacturer have to deliver cart(s) to

City within 1 month after receipt of order (ARO)?

● What quantity of immediately available inventory exists?

● How much time does it take to manufacture multiple carts (if no or limited inventory available) once an order has been placed? Is there an expedited manufacturing and shipping option?

● How long will it take for multiple carts to be shipped to Long Beach? Are there any known supply chain or manufacturing issues that may impact the delivery timeline?

1.3 Result of the Request for Information

This is a Request for Information only. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes, and it does not constitute an RFP or a promise to issue a solicitation in the future. This RFI does not commit the City to any contract whatsoever. The City shall not award a contract directly from this RFI.

The purpose of this RFI is only to obtain information. At this time, the City is not seeking proposals and will not accept unsolicited proposals.

Respondents are advised that all costs associated with responding to this RFI are solely at their expense.

There shall be no evaluation, ranking or selection of respondents because of this RFI. It will not be used to pre-qualify or screen respondents for a subsequent selection process, if any.

If subsequent selection opportunities are issued, the City is under no obligation to advise any respondent to this RFI, although it is the City’s intent to notify all qualified proposers of any such plans via the City’s electronic bid notification system.

Compact Mobile Food Carts (RFI) | HE-24-416 | 5

2 How to Respond

2.1 Timelines & Instructions

MILESTONE

TIME

(PACIFIC) &

DATE LOCATION / ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Release date March 29th, Responses Due April 12th, 2024 at

11:00AM

• Responses should be submitted electronically via

LongBeachBuys.com.

• Late responses will not be evaluated.

• Respondents are responsible for submitting their responses completely and on time.

• Respondents will receive an e-bid confirmation number with a time stamp from LongBeachBuys.com indicating that the respnse was submitted successfully.

The City will only receive responses that were transmitted successfully.

• For technical support, email or call the City during normal business hours at

LBPurchasing@longbeach.gov or (562) 570-6200.

Responses reviewed to determine next steps

4/15/24 –

4/19/24

• The City will use this information to determine the best method to procure multiple compact mobile food carts. Notification of a future contracting opportunity would be issued through the City’s electronic bid notification system.

2.2 Response Template

Respondents are requested to provide all of the following information. Respondents may choose their preferred method of response listed below, or a combination of both:

o Provide brochures, spec sheets, pricing sheets, websites or any other collateral demonstrating salient information.

o Complete the below template (an editable version of the template below has been posted to Long Beach Buys).

file:///C:/Users/meid/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/INetCache/Content.Outlook/X47PW9A6/LongBeachBuys.com file:///C:/Users/meid/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/INetCache/Content.Outlook/X47PW9A6/LongBeachBuys.com mailto:LBPurchasing@longbeach.gov

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Contact Information

PROPOSER CONTACT INFORMATION

Organization

Company Name

Company Address

Website

Primary Contact

Name

Title

Email Address

Phone Number

Questions

1. Type of cart(s) and capabilities: Please check if you are able to offer carts that vend the following the products:

○ Fruit (with cooler)

○ Ice Cream

○ Corn

○ Hot dog

○ Tamales

○ Grilled food (no raw meat)

○ Grilled food (including raw meat)

○ Churro

○ Shaved Ice/Raspado

○ Coffee

○ Other

2. Pre-approvals / Compliance with regulations: Does your product meet all requirements of

California’s Health and Safety Code? Has your product(s) been pre-approved by any health jurisdiction in California? If yes, please list which health jurisdiction and the date it was approved.

○ Yes, my product meets all requirements of California’s Health and Safety code.

○ No, my product does NOT meet all requirements of California’s Health and Safety code.

○ My product has been pre-approved by the following jurisdiction(s) in California:

(approved on / / )

(approved on / / )

(approved on / / )

3. Order fulfillment timeline: How many carts do you currently have available in your inventory?

How long does it take to manufacture multiple new carts once an order has been placed? How long would shipping multiple carts to Long Beach take? Are there any known supply chain or manufacturing issues that may impact the delivery timeline?

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I have carts currently available in my inventory.

It typically takes weeks/months to manufacture an order of carts once the order has been placed.

Shipping from my location in to Long Beach is estimated to take days.

○ We have an expedited shipping option. More details:

(If applicable:) The following are known supply chain and/or manufacturing issues that could impact our delivery timeline:

4. Total cost of product: What are the full costs of an order for multiple carts, including shipping and delivery?

○ Cost of one unit of equipment:

○ Shipping fees to Long Beach:

○ Additional delivery fees:

○ Warranty or other fees:

○ Any other additional cost or fee that would impact the total cost of an order:

Total costs =

5. Please provide any additional information about your compact mobile food cart that is relevant for the City to understand about your product or your company, either below or as an attachment to this response.

Authorization: I certify that I am authorized to submit this response to the RFI on behalf of the organization listed above.

Name Signature Date

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3 Exhibit A: Health and Safety Regulations

3.1 California Health and Safety Code

● On September 23, 2024 Senate Bill 972 was signed by the Governor and became effective

January 1, 2023. This bill modified the California Retail Food Code to relax some structural and operational requirements for lower risk sidewalk food vending operations.

● Compact Mobile Food Operation (CMFO) means an unenclosed mobile food facility that operates from an individual or from a push cart, stand, display, pedal-driven cart, wagon, showcase, rack, or other nonmotorized conveyance. A CMFO is restricted to limited food preparation as defined in the California Retail Food Code section 113818.

• Limited Food Preparation is food preparation limited to one more of the following:

● Heating, frying, baking, roasting, popping, shaving of ice, blending, steaming, or boiling of hot dogs, or assembly of non-prepackaged food.

● Dispensing and portioning of non-potentially hazardous food or dispensing and portioning for immediate service to a customer of food that has been temperature controlled until immediately prior to portioning or dispensing.

● Slicing and chopping of non-potentially hazardous food or produce that has been washed at an approved facility.

● Slicing and chopping of food on a heated cooking surface during the cooking process.

● Juicing or preparing beverages that are for immediate service, in response to an individual consumer order, that do not contain frozen milk products

● Hot and cold holding of food that has been prepared at an approved permanent food facility.

● Reheating of food that has been prepared at an approved permanent food facility and held at the required temperatures.

CMFO Requirements

Unpackaged

CMFO

Foods Pre-Packaged Foods CMFO

Requirements Not Handling Greater than 25 sq/ft of Prepackaged handling raw prepackaged non-potentially potentially raw meats, hazardous food/drinks or hazardous meats, raw whole produce foods raw poultry, poultry, or raw or raw fish fish

Health Permit Yes Yes Yes Yes

Plan Check Yes Yes Yes Yes

Hand Sink Yes Yes No No

Warewashing Sink No Yes N/A N/A

Water Heater No Yes N/A N/A

Mechanical

Refrigeration for

Potentially

Hazardous Food

Yes Yes No Yes*

*Mechanical refrigeration not required if handling only prepackaged ready-to-eat foods (such as ice cream).

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Sink & Plumbing Requirements

CMFO NOT handling raw meats, raw poultry, or raw fish

CMFO handling raw meats, raw poultry, or raw fish

Handwashing Sink

Minimum dimensions: 9” wide X 9” long X 5” deep. Warm water not required.

Handwashing Sink

Minimum dimensions: 9” wide X 9” long X 5” deep. Warm water required.

Warewashing Sink IS NOT REQUIRED if spare clear utensils are provided.

Warewashing Sink IS REQUIRED

NOTE: All utensils/equipment must be washed and sanitized on a daily basis at the commissary and the CMFO must be equipped with an adequate supply of spare preparation and serving utensils when in use.

An integral 3-compartment warewashing sink must be provided that meets the following requirements:

Each sink compartment must have minimum dimensions: 12” wide X 12” long X 10” deep OR

10” wide X 14” long X 10” deep.

The warewashing sink must be stainless steel and equipped with dual integral drainboards that are at least the size of one of the compartments.

Potable Water Tanks Potable Water Tanks

Minimum 5 gallons for handwashing Minimum 20 gallons required: 5 gallons for handwashing and 15 gallons for warewashing Additional capacity is needed if product water is needed. All potable water tanks shall be manufactured and listed to NSF standards for potable water.

Water Heater

Not required

Water Heater

Handwashing sink - a water heater with minimum

0.5-gallon capacity or an instantaneous heater is required and must be capable of supplying a minimum of 100°F running water.

Warewashing sink - a minimum 4-gallon capacity water heater is required and must be capable of supplying a minimum of 120°F running water.

NOTE: Steam table reservoirs cannot be used as a water heater