DINING SERVICES OPERATIONS

Winthrop University, located in York County, South Carolina, is seeking a comprehensive dining services operations contractor through a Request for Proposal (RFP) issued by the State Fiscal Accountability Authority's Division of Procurement Services. The contract encompasses full-scale dining services including residential dining, retail food court operations, coffee shop services, catering, vending services, concessions, and coordination of mobile/remote food vendors. The university requires a contractor with at least five years of substantiated food services experience in higher education settings of similar scope and size, managing dining operations for approximately 1,950 residential students who are required to participate in meal plans. The pre-proposal conference and mandatory site visit are scheduled for February 6, 2025, at 10:30 AM ET at the DiGiorgio Campus Center, with questions due by February 11, 2025, and proposal submissions required by March 12, 2025, at 11:00 AM ET. Proposals will be evaluated based on a 100-point system: 50 points for the technical proposal, 30 points for the business proposal, and 20 points for experience, reliability, stability, and references. The initial contract term will be five years, starting June 1, 2025, through May 31, 2030.

The RFP does not explicitly mention specific set-aside designations or restrictions for disadvantaged enterprises. The current dining services contractor is Sodexo, and the successful bidder will be required to purchase the incumbent's remaining usable inventory at invoice cost. The financial structure mandates that the contractor propose both a guaranteed minimum dollar amount and a percentage return of total net sales (including vending sales), with Winthrop receiving the greater of the two amounts. While specific award values are not definitively stated, the current external catering sales totaled over $393,000 for fiscal year 2024, and the university projects student enrollment growth from 4,712 in Fall 2022 to 5,042 by Fall 2027. The contractor will be responsible for managing existing infrastructure, including multiple dining venues like Eagle Eatery, Markley's food court, Starbucks, Eagle Express C-Store, and 16 vending machines, with a comprehensive inventory of over 400 pieces of commercial kitchen equipment already in place.