EMA Foods Co LLC

EMA Foods Co LLC, a Tupelo, Mississippi-based sole proprietorship, supplies food service subsistence items exclusively to the Federal Bureau of Prisons as a prime contractor under 100% small business set-asides, with no subcontract activity. The vendor operates with complete reliance on total small business set-aside purchase orders across the Bureau of Prisons' nationwide facility network, competing in NAICS codes centered on food manufacturing (All Other Miscellaneous Food Manufacturing, Perishable Prepared Food Manufacturing, Poultry Processing, and Cheese Manufacturing) and PSC codes covering meats, poultry, fish, food oils and fats, and dairy products.

EMA Foods' customer base is tightly concentrated within the Department of Justice Bureau of Prisons system. The top five facilities by award count—Federal Correctional Complex Beaumont (44 awards), Federal Correctional Complex Coleman (42 awards), Federal Correctional Complex Tucson (29 awards), Federal Correctional Complex Terre Haute (25 awards), and Federal Correctional Complex Pollock (25 awards)—account for 165 awards or 22% of the vendor's total award population. By potential value, Coleman ($1.7 million) and Beaumont ($1.5 million) lead, followed by Pollock ($626 thousand), Victorville ($587 thousand), and Tucson ($552 thousand), representing 37% of combined potential value. The concentration reflects EMA Foods' role as a quarterly subsistence vendor; the vendor holds no framework contracts, GWACs, or multi-award IDVs, instead winning individual firm fixed-price purchase orders for each quarterly cycle at each facility.

EMA Foods' product portfolio is concrete and repetitive: frozen and fresh proteins (beef, chicken, pork, turkey, fish fillets), poultry products (chicken leg quarters, breaded chicken, ground chicken), dairy items (cheese, liquid eggs, milk), frozen vegetables, pasta, cereals, canned goods, and specialized dietary items certified for kosher and halal compliance. Representative awards include a $117.7 thousand Federal Correctional Complex Forrest City meat contract, a $95.7 thousand Federal Correctional Complex Beaumont chicken order, a $74.6 thousand Federal Correctional Institution Fort Dix subsistence award, and numerous quarterly contracts in the $10 thousand to $50 thousand range across the Bureau of Prisons network. All awards are structured as competitive small business set-aside purchase orders under firm fixed-price terms, with delivery typically required within 30 to 90 days.

Activity has remained relatively flat to declining in recent years. The vendor recorded 36 awards in 2022, 52 in 2023, 44 in 2024, 50 in 2025, and 27 awards in 2026 (a shortened calendar year in the source snapshot). The combined potential value across all 766 awards since 2011 stands at $13.4 million, with $13.1 million already obligated. Only four awards with ultimate completion dates in the next twenty-four months carry $160 thousand in combined potential value, indicating minimal recompete cliff exposure in the immediate window. The vendor's entire footprint consists of purchase orders to individual Bureau of Prisons facilities; no standing IDVCs, blanket purchase agreements, or agency-wide vehicles anchor the relationship.

EMA Foods operates with no identified subcontract role and carries no parent prime relationships. The sole proprietorship model and exclusive reliance on total small business set-asides position EMA Foods as a small specialist vendor competing on price and past performance in quarterly food procurement cycles across a distributed Bureau of Prisons customer base. The vendor's margin profile and growth trajectory are constrained by the quarterly nature of the procurement cycle and the distributed, low-dollar-value purchase order structure characteristic of prison food service contracting.