# ANACOSTIA FARM COLLECTIVE
## Response to RFP — Supply and Delivery of Food Items
### Friendship Public Charter School, SY 2021–2022

2214 Martin Luther King Jr Ave SE, Washington, DC 20020
Yolanda Reyes, Managing Director — (202) 555-0173

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## Section One — Executive Summary

Anacostia Farm Collective is a District-based food hub aggregating from
thirty-four farms within the Chesapeake foodshed. We were formed in 2014
specifically to make regionally grown food available to institutions that
want it and cannot reach it through conventional broadline distribution.
We currently supply eleven institutional accounts including four DC public
charter schools.

We are the smallest bidder Friendship is likely to consider, and we want to
be direct about what that means. We will not be the cheapest bid. What we
offer is the highest local content available in this market and a supply
relationship that is legible all the way back to the farm.

**Enclosures.** Business license (DC BBL 410203000891); Certificate of
Occupancy; audited financial statements FY2019 and FY2020, prepared by
Mercer Group CPAs; current DC Department of Health food establishment
certificate, expiring 2022-06-30; our two most recent health inspections,
dated 2020-09-22 and 2021-01-14, both passed; certificate of insurance;
Attachments B, C and D signed; equal opportunity and clean air and water
certifications signed; certification of local percentage under B.2.

**Exceptions.** We take three exceptions to the solicitation as issued.
They are set out in full at the end of this response with the price effect
of each. We would rather state them plainly now than discover them at
contract execution.

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## Section Two — Pricing

Submitted on Schedule C in the Excel workbook provided.

**Rate structure: seasonal piecewise unit pricing.** Because our supply is
regional and genuinely seasonal, a single annual unit price would require
us to carry the winter cost of out-of-region sourcing across the whole
year. Instead we price produce in three seasonal bands. Non-produce
categories — grocery, dairy, protein — are priced flat.

| Band | Months | Produce index | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peak regional | June – October | 0.88 × base | in-region supply at volume |
| Shoulder | April – May, November | 1.00 × base | mixed regional and contracted |
| Out-of-region | December – March | 1.19 × base | sourced outside foodshed |

Base delivered produce case price, mixed: $31.20. Grocery, dairy and
protein are quoted flat on Schedule C.

Applying the band weighting across the 180-day school calendar — which
falls disproportionately in the shoulder and out-of-region bands — our
**base year total bid cost is $624,315.**

We recognise this is materially above the likely low bid, and roughly six
percent above what we would guess the middle of this field looks like. We
believe the local content justifies it against the Geographic Preference
criterion and against the Healthy Schools Act local provisions, and we
would rather present an honest seasonal structure than a flat price that
conceals the same economics.

Prices firm for the base year within the stated bands.

---

## Section Three — Method of Approach and Implementation Plan

### Food and packaging

Produce is packed to USDA No. 1. Because we aggregate from multiple farms,
pack configuration varies more than a broadline distributor's would, and we
would agree standard configurations with the SFA during onboarding rather
than assume them. Every case is labelled with the originating farm.

Quality assurance is farm-level: each member farm carries GAP certification
and we audit annually. Any item rejected at receipt is credited on the
delivery ticket.

CN labels and formulation statements are held for all processed and grocery
items and are provided through our shared drive per account. Whole produce
does not carry CN labels; for those items we supply the crediting
documentation the meal pattern requires.

### Utilization of USDA Foods

This is our weakest area and we will not overstate it. We are not currently
an approved USDA Foods processor. We would work alongside a processor
designated by the SFA, or support the SFA in managing entitlement directly,
but we cannot manage drawdown and diversion in-house today.

### Geographic preference

**Sixty-one percent (61%)** of the product value we propose to supply will
be locally grown or raised within 250 miles of Washington, DC, measured
across the full contract year. In the peak regional band that figure
exceeds eighty percent. Certification of the percentage is enclosed under
B.2 and we accept the SFA's audit right.

All thirty-four member farms are within the Chesapeake foodshed; nineteen
are in Maryland, nine in Virginia, four in Delaware and two within the
District itself.

### Healthy Schools Act

We supply four DC charter SFAs under HSA requirements today and our
certification of local percentage is designed to support the SFA's local
sourcing subsidy claim directly.

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## Section Four — Bidder's Experience, Expertise and Reliability

**Knowledge of USDA and District requirements.** Our operations lead spent
six years in DC OSSE child nutrition administration. We are fluent in the
HSA and in the meal pattern; we are less fluent in USDA Foods entitlement
mechanics, as stated above.

**Dependability.** On-time delivery for SY2020–21 was 96.1% against
contracted windows, and order fill accuracy 97.4% by line. Both are below
what a broadline distributor will quote. The gap is almost entirely
weather-driven crop shortfall in the peak band, where we substitute within
category rather than fail the line.

**Warehouse and facilities.** Our aggregation facility on Martin Luther
King Jr Avenue is DC Department of Health certified. Two most recent
inspections enclosed, both passed. Pest management is contracted monthly
with a licensed applicator and audited semi-annually.

**Customer service.** Named account lead, orders by phone, email or shared
order sheet until 3:00 PM for next-day. The managing director is reachable
directly and is on the escalation path for every account.

**Proven organizational capacity.** Seven years in operation, eleven
institutional accounts, thirty-four member farms. Our largest current
account is three sites. **Friendship's eight sites would be the largest
network we have served**, and we would staff a dedicated route and a
second driver for it, funded within the pricing above.

**Response to values statement (C.1).** Friendship's values statement
speaks to educational outcomes and to the community the school sits in. We
are based in Ward 8, we employ from Ward 8, and two of our member farms are
inside the District. When Friendship spends with us, a measurable share of
that spend stays within the same community the students come from. That is
the whole reason the Collective exists, and it is why we are bidding
despite being the highest price on the table.

**References.** Three DC institutional accounts, provided in the
questionnaire.

---

## Exceptions and Qualifications

We take the following three exceptions to the solicitation as issued.

**Exception 1 — D.1 Delivery Requirements, delivery windows.**
Schedule A specifies delivery windows at several sites beginning at 5:30
AM. Our aggregation model consolidates farm deliveries overnight and we
cannot reliably load before 5:00 AM. We request windows beginning no
earlier than 6:30 AM at all sites.
*Price effect if not granted: +$18,400 (second overnight shift).*

**Exception 2 — B.5, price firmness across the full term.**
We request that the out-of-region band (December–March) be subject to
renegotiation if the published PPI for fresh vegetables moves more than
twelve percent between award and 1 December. Our regional supply cannot
absorb that movement the way a national distributor's can.
*Price effect if not granted: +$9,750 (risk premium carried in base).*

**Exception 3 — C.3 Specifications, pack configuration.**
We request that pack configuration be agreed jointly during onboarding
rather than fixed at award, for produce categories only. Aggregated supply
cannot guarantee a single fixed pack across thirty-four farms.
*Price effect if not granted: we would be unable to bid produce categories.*

Total price effect of exceptions 1 and 2 if declined: **+$28,150**, giving
an adjusted base year total bid cost of **$652,465**.
