RFI Hot Food Delivery Service.doc

United States

Department of Agriculture

Forest

Service Procurement & Property Services

Incident Procurement Operations

At Incident Management Support

File Code: 6320

Date Issued: December 12th, 2025 Responses Due: February 17th, 2026

REG:

USDA FOREST SERVICE REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI)

SUBJECT:

Forest Service Incident Support: Hot Food Transportation Service (HFTS) Product Service Code: S203 – Housekeeping - Food NAICS Code: 722320 – Caterers, Small Business Size $9 Million THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT INTEND TO AWARD A CONTRACT SOLELY ON THE BASIS OF THIS RFI OR TO OTHERWISE PAY FOR THE INFORMATION SOLICITED. This RFI does not constitute a solicitation for proposals or the authority to enter into negotiations to award a contract. No funds have been authorized, appropriated, or received for this contemplated effort. This RFI is for planning purposes only and shall not be considered as a request for proposal or as an obligation on the part of the Government to acquire any products or services. No entitlement to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by the Government will arise as a result of contractor submission of responses to this RFI or the Government’s use of such information.

The Government reserves the right to reject, in whole or in part, any contractor’s input resulting from this RFI. Responses to this RFI will not be returned. Whatever information is provided in response to this RFI may be used to assess tradeoffs and alternatives available for future needs. The information provided may be utilized by the US Forest Service in developing its acquisition strategy and in its Statement of Objective, Statement of Work, and/or Performance Specifications. The information resulting from this RFI may be included or combined with other submissions in one or more options considered in the analysis of alternatives. Any proprietary information that is submitted may be used in establishing requirements of any future acquisitions, but specific information will be safeguarded as proprietary providing it is marked in accordance with FAR 3.104-4.

Description:

This is not a solicitation announcement. The purpose of this announcement is to gain knowledge of potential qualified sources for availability of Hot Food Transportation Service vendors. This RFI/Sources Sought Notice is for planning purposes only and shall not be considered as an invitation for bid, request for quotation, request for proposal, or as an obligation on the part of the Government to acquire any products or services. Your response to this Sources Sought Notice will be treated as information only. No entitlement to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by the Government will arise as a result of contractor submission of responses to this announcement or the Government use of such information. This request does not constitute a solicitation for proposals or the authority to enter into negotiations to award a contract. No funds have been authorized, appropriated, or received for this effort.

Scope:

The Forest Service is conducting market research to determine industry capabilities for obtaining Hot Food Transportation Service vendor information. This is a Request for Information only and not a solicitation for award. The Forest Service understands this is a fluid situation where the landscape of availability is constantly changing. The primary purpose of this announcement is to identify potential sources, product offerings, availability and/or challenges to procuring and obtaining such items to rapidly meet emerging requirements. Therefore, to the extent practical, additional market research may be conducted prior to posting any solicitation to capture the snapshot of the availability at that specific point in time. The Forest Service urges those companies that can provide the following category of items to respond even after the initial response due date.

Work assigned to the Hot Food Transportation Service team may be at the incident command post (ICP), incident base, spike camps, off site locations including but not limited to fire caches, and other designated areas of the incident. Many sites are remote. The sites for established base camps can be schools, recreation centers, Federal Buildings/parking lots or sites that would be considered remote as farmland, open areas, and/or fields. Site locations are determined by incident needs and active fire location.

The intent is to gain information and identify contractors/vendors who possess the capabilities, equipment and staffing to provide Hot Food Transportation services on Forest Service wildland fire incidents, and to establish an estimated range for daily pricing.

Typical day on an incident:

· Report to Food Unit Leader (FDUL) or equivalent at least an hour before breakfast (approx. 0400) and dinner (approx. 1600) service.

· Ability to support transporting non-hot food provisional sack lunches if needed. As lunches are typically the incidents responsibility, this is less likely to occur, however flexibility is required to meet incident needs.

· Loading transport vehicles with provided meals.

· Driving to and from dedicated remote locations, typically an hour from ICP, however flexibility will be required to meet incident needs.

· Remain at remote location to meet storage and delivery requirements effectively and safely. Serving meals is NOT required or expected from the Hot Food Transports, remote locations will provide serving staff.

Responsibilities:

· The Vendor will provide 2 personnel for duty at designated incident camps. All crew members shall be able to routinely lift objects up to 45 pounds when performing the duties required of this solicitation and work shifts no more than 16-hour days.

· The crew is required to have a unique identification that recognizes themselves and the vendor company.

· Vendor provided equipment and responsibilities:

· Self-contained and thermostatically controlled hot food holding capability with minimum holding temp of 140 degrees Fahrenheit

· Six (6)hour hot holding capability minimum.

· Contractor provided disposable aluminum steam table pans.

· Contractor provided 12” x 24” x 4” heavy duty, 75 gauge, disposable aluminum steamtable pans.

· Minimum capacity 200 hot meals.

· Daily transport of breakfast and dinner

· Exterior lighting at service doors (side and rear).

· Contractor provided oven mitts for hot pan transfer.

· Rodent, insect, dust and rain protection (environmental protection).

· Min of two (2) employees with ServSafe certification.

· Contractor responsible for all loading/unloading of mobile food delivery transportation.

· Contractor must meet the NWCG incident guidance for work-rest-ratio

· The Government will provide coolers for cold meal items. If space is available in Transport vehicle, there will be no additional charge nor fee allowable under this agreement.

Federal Government Required Specifications:

· English speaking requirement: Communications between vendor crew personnel and Government incident personnel is mandatory for safe and effective performance. Vendor representative and crew supervisor will be able to proficiently communicate in English, in the language of the crew, and read and communicate the Incident Action Plan, Safety Alerts, etc. National Wildfire Coordinating Group Glossary: https://www.nwcg.gov/publications/pms205/nwcg-glossary-of-wildland-fire-pms-205

· All radio communication on Government-assigned frequencies will be in English.

· Vehicle & Equipment Requirements: The vendor will provide dependable equipment that meets all applicable state and federal laws relating to motor vehicles and equipment. Vendor crew members cannot at any time drive any government owned, leased or rented equipment. Any crew member driving vendor owned vehicles must have current driver license. The Government reserves the right to conduct inspections at any time based on the safety standards of the Hot Food Delivery Service Checklist.

· All transportation vehicles will be in sound mechanical condition with sufficient horsepower and mainframe configurations to ensure successful performance on roads and highways, or in terrain described in these specifications. It is required that the vendor have at least one vehicle that is pick-up styled vehicle with 4x4 for back haul of supplies, trash and camp assigned work.

· All vehicles will be able to be legally driven on highways under their own power and be able to travel at a minimum of 50 miles per hour.

· Equipment used will be licensed and legally operable on all roads.

· An audible reverse warning device (backup alarm) if equipped. If not equipped with an audible alarm, a human spotter trained in back up procedures will be utilized.

· Campsite: When the Government cannot provide a campsite after the first shift worked, the Government will pay actual lodging expenses or the per diem locality rate published by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) web site (www.gsa.gov), whichever is less. Double occupancy of hotel rooms may be required. Any associated lodging taxes are reimbursable as documented. Lodging receipts, as well as documentation by incident personnel that a campsite was not provided, should be submitted as supporting documentation with payment documents.

· Reimbursement for meals and incidental expenses (M&IE) is based on per diem locality rates minus any Government-provided meals. The maximum allowable rates are referenced at the US General Services Administration website: https://www.gsa.gov/travel/plan-book/per-diem-rates

· If the resource is allowed to return to its dispatch location during off-shift time, Remain Overnight Allowance (RON) is not authorized.

· The maximum RON that will be allowed is based on the number of operators or crewmembers provided under the dispatch.

Vendor Response Requirements:

If your company may be interested in this requirement and has performed similar services, please respond via the submission instructions in this document.

As permitted by FAR Part 10, this is a market research tool being utilized for informational and planning purposes. Your responses will assist the Government in the development of its acquisition strategy for a possible Request for Quote (RFQ), to be issued at a later date.

This notice shall not be construed as a RFQ or as any commitment or obligation on the part of the Government to issue a solicitation. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this request, so proposals will not be considered.

Response is strictly voluntary - it is not mandatory to submit a response to this notice to participate in any formal RFQ process that may take place in the future. However, it should be noted that information gathered through this notice may significantly influence our acquisition strategy.

Submission Instructions:

Responses with required minimum information listed below, via email are due:

· Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 by 1630 MDT

· to Donald.Keever@usda.gov.

Questions by email ONLY!!!!

Submittal of Information: (This is strictly market research)

· Company Name

· Point of Contact

· Address

· Email

· Phone

· UEI

· Technical Information

· Equipment

· Key Personnel/Staffing

· Past Performance/Experience Questionnaire

· Specific location(s) service can be provided (consider a 48-hour response time, as “Nationally” will not be considered an acceptable answer). https://www.fs.usda.gov/business/incident/dispatchlookup.php?tab=tab_d

· Daily pricing estimate considering all specifications with equipment, staff and mileage (at a minimum) included.

Caring for the Land and Serving People Printed on Recycled Paper