# Chesapeake Food Service, Inc.
## Proposal to Friendship Public Charter School — Food Items, 2021–2022

1120 Ridgely Street, Baltimore, MD 21230
Marcus Bell, Vice President — (410) 555-0188

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### Executive Summary

Chesapeake Food Service is a family-owned broadline distributor operating
out of Baltimore since 1978. We serve roughly two hundred accounts across
Maryland and the District, of which about thirty are schools, and we are
pleased to offer Friendship Public Charter School the most competitive
delivered pricing in this market.

Our proposition is straightforward. We buy well, we run lean, and we pass
that through. Where other distributors in this bid will layer on portal
technology and account management structures that ultimately appear in the
case price, we have chosen to compete on the number that matters. Over an
eight-site network across a full school year, the difference is
substantial, and it is money that returns directly to the meal programme.

Our business license and certificate of occupancy are enclosed, along with
two years of audited financial statements prepared by Hanlon & Reeve LLP.
The debarment, price determination and lobbying certifications are signed
and enclosed, as are the equal opportunity and clean air and water
certifications. Insurance is carried at two million per occurrence and four
million aggregate and a certificate naming Friendship Public Charter School
as additional insured is enclosed.

We are committed to student nutrition and to the communities we serve, and
we believe strongly that a school food programme succeeds or fails on
consistency of supply rather than on marketing. That is the value we bring.

### Pricing

Our pricing is submitted separately on the Excel schedule provided.

We price at a flat delivered unit cost per case with no volume tiers and no
rebate mechanism, because we have found that banded pricing chiefly serves
to make comparison difficult and to defer benefit to year end. Our number
is our number from day one.

Delivered case pricing is applied as quoted plus a per-stop delivery charge
which varies with the frequency requested. At two deliveries per week per
site, the charge is $34.00 per stop. At three per week it falls to $28.50
per stop, and at four or more it falls to $24.00 per stop. Sites may elect
different frequencies and may change frequency with two weeks' notice.

At the estimated volume stated in the solicitation and assuming three
deliveries weekly to each of the eight sites across a one hundred and
eighty day calendar, our base year total bid cost is five hundred and
forty-one thousand, two hundred and eighty dollars ($541,280).

Prices are held firm through the base year. We would ask only for relief
under the economic price adjustment provision in the event of a commodity
movement exceeding eight percent, on the same published index basis
contemplated in the solicitation.

### Method of Approach and Implementation

We would begin with a site survey of all eight locations in the two weeks
following award, walking each receiving area with the site's authorised
designee to confirm the delivery window, the receiving point and the
storage capacity. Our experience is that most transition problems are
receiving problems rather than supply problems, and they are best solved
before the first delivery rather than after.

Product is packed to USDA standards throughout. We have not historically
found that schools require pack size changes from our standard
configurations, but we would accommodate reasonable requests where our
suppliers can support them.

On nutritional documentation, our category managers hold CN labels and
formulation statements for the school product range and provide these on
request. We can supply these for any item in the proposed catalogue,
typically within two business days of a request.

We participate in the USDA Foods programme in Maryland and would work with
the SFA to make appropriate use of entitlement, though we would note that
our processing relationships are stronger in the protein categories than
in fruit and vegetable. We think it right to be plain about that rather
than to overstate it.

As to local sourcing, Chesapeake buys from the Maryland and Delmarva
growing region in season and has done so throughout its history. We are
proud of those relationships. We would expect a meaningful proportion of
produce delivered between June and October to originate within the region.

We maintain a pest management programme at our Baltimore facility under
contract with a licensed applicator, serviced monthly.

### Bidder's Experience, Expertise and Reliability

Forty-three years in continuous operation under the same family ownership
is, we would suggest, its own evidence of dependability. We have never
failed to complete work awarded to us and we have never been terminated for
cause.

We deliver on time. Our internal measurement for the last school year was
in the high nineties by percentage, and we are comfortable being held to
that standard contractually.

Our staff know the USDA meal pattern requirements and the District's
Healthy Schools Act obligations, and several of our account team have
worked with DC schools for more than a decade.

We would provide a single point of contact for the network with escalation
directly to the undersigned. We do not operate an ordering portal; orders
are placed by telephone or email to a named person, which our customers
tell us they prefer.

Three references are provided in the questionnaire, all Maryland school
accounts.

We appreciate the opportunity and would welcome the chance to discuss any
element of this proposal with the committee.
