SBE: Emergency Notice: Lanter Distributing, LLC Sp

The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) has posted an emergency procurement opportunity for the receipt, warehousing, and delivery of USDA Foods, including dry, cooler, and frozen items, to approved public and private nonprofit schools, correctional facilities, emergency disaster-relief agencies, summer food services programs, and other such entities. This emergency contract will be awarded to Lanter Distributing, LLC, who has previously provided these services to ISBE. The emergency contract will be in effect from March 12, 2024 to June 9, 2024, with an estimated total expenditure of $1,100,000. This emergency procurement is necessary due to ISBE's failure to properly execute a change order to reflect a Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase for the existing contract with Lanter Distributing, LLC, causing the contract to exceed the maximum allowable amount.

The contract will be funded entirely with federal funds, and ISBE made efforts to include contractors certified under the Business Enterprise Program, but found that there were only two registered BEP vendors, neither of which were located within the state of Illinois. As this is an emergency procurement, there are no set-aside designations or restrictions on the types of organizations that can respond. The incumbent vendor, Lanter Distributing, LLC, will continue to provide the required services, and the contract will need to integrate with any existing infrastructure or technology used by ISBE.