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FRONT BURNER

Mission and Installation Contracting Command con- $71 million for food services,
tracts are vital in feeding more than 200,000 soldiers allowing the Fort Lee Garrison
every day. In fiscal 2017, the command executed leadership to not only shift
more than 1,300 contract actions for accommodation
and food services valued at more than $344 million. an estimated savings of $31
(PHOTO BY T. ANTHONY BELL, FORT LEE PUBLIC AFFAIRS.) million to other installation
priorities but also provide the
Full performance of the best support to its soldiers.
contract by Cantu Services “It’s not just about the
Inc. to provide meals at Fort money, but the motivation and
Lee began in September 2017 innovation of a new contractor
after a month-long phase in and a fresh perspective,” she
during August. The installation said. “Knowing that a contrac-
boasts one of the Army’s larg- tor comes on board with an
est dining facilities at 75,000 excellent past performance,
square feet and two stories they are pleased to see that
with a capacity to feed 3,600 soldiers in 90 minutes. services have improved based on initial feedback.”
Officials from the Mission and Installation Contracting Working from a draft request for proposal, officials from
Command (MICC) office at Fort Eustis, Va., in partnership the contracting operations directorate, MICC-Fort Eustis and
with the customer and end users in industry, awarded a full MICC-Fort Lee met with the customer at the end of 2016 at
food service contract this summer to a small business after Fort Lee to finalize the proposal. In January and February,
receiving multiple responses for its request for proposals they engaged with representatives from the food service
that maximized the basis for a competitive range. industry to tweak the proposal based on input.
The director of MICC contracting operations at Joint “It was very streamlined in evaluation with very few
Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas, said that his- ambiguities that could lead to questions. The whole pack-
torically competition by small businesses has been low in age was so succinct that industry knew what they were
response to the Randolph-Sheppard Act. getting. When you have a good package, they’re going to
“They have a chance now. It will only help enhance bid on it,” Hogston said.
competition because a lot of them go into it thinking an As part of its process, the team was able to create a more
award is an automatic for the state,” Pat Hogston said. definitive cost model to determine a fair and reasonable
Debbie Frankovich, the director of contracting for MICC- price per meal, with few exceptions, such as locality, col-
Fort Lee, explained that the Randolph-Sheppard Act priori- lective bargaining agreements and labor rates. Hogston said
tizes contract opportunities to provide food services and the cost model will also serve as an instrumental tool for
vending facilities at federal and military locations for award negotiation purposes by contracting officers throughout
to vocational rehabilitation programs employing individu- the MICC.
als who are blind as a means of enhancing their economic Based on the successful pilot of the contract package,
well-being. This serves as a social program enacted by Con- officials are making it the standard going forward with plans
gress in 1936 to promote self-sufficiency for the blind and to use it for contracted food services at Fort Jackson, S.C.,
visually impaired. In every state there is a licensing agency Fort Benning, Ga., and Fort McCoy, Wis. This includes the
that chooses the blind vendor who will compete for the use of the same acquisition strategy, solicitation, contract
food service contract. Once the state is found to be in the line item number structure and source selection, with the
competitive range, contracts for full food services are ne- exception of tailoring respective workloads.
gotiated with the agency. Hogston pointed out that this standardized approach to
“The competitive range is determined through an evalu- food services also greatly reduced the procurement acquisi-
ation of initial proposals submitted and the independent tion lead-time. PALT is a critical measure of time between
government cost estimate,” said Frankovich, adding that she the initiation of an acquisition and delivery of goods or
considers this a rare instance in which the state licensing services. He said the contract “was on the street for 35 days”
agency was found to be outside of that range. and reduced the PALT to about 100 days, which considerably
Small businesses tend to believe that because a state- beat all goals for a multimillion-dollar contract of its size.
licensing agency has been in the competitive range for food A similar approach for base operations requirements for
service contracts for so long, it almost impossible to award the Installation Management Command and Fort Belvoir,
a contract to anyone other than the agency, she continued. Va., is currently being pilot tested. The MICC team leading
“That tendency discourages some small business from those efforts plans to engage with industry at Fort Belvoir
committing a large amount of resources to building and in November.
submitting a proposal,” she said. “Once you start using standardized packages, it’s going
The MICC-Fort Lee director believes the contract award to save tremendous manpower for us and our customers,
can also lead to even lower costs as small businesses are because we don’t have to reinvent a contract,” Hogston
encouraged to be more competitive when it comes to price. said. “We’ll already have a 90 percent solution, and they’ll
MICC-Fort Eustis awarded a five-year contract valued at just add their workload.”
8 GOVERNMENT FOOD SERVICE • JANUARY 2018