School Nutrition Enterprise Solution

The vendor is required to provide a fully integrated cloud-based school nutrition enterprise solution (SNES).
- To replace existing systems and manual paper-based processes with a single solution provider, delivering a comprehensive, front-to-back integrated experience, including coordination of all required components– point of sale (pos), all system software, project management services, implementation services, training services, and ongoing support services.
- The transition from the current environment shall be executed efficiently, minimizing disruption to students, families and schools.
- The proposed solution must support statewide operations and offer seamless, cloud-based modules to manage the current school nutrition program with applications covering the free and reduced application database, free and reduced application submission, online meal payment system, point of sale (POS), inventory management, menu planning, nutrient analysis, purchasing portal, online menus, professional standards tracking, student transportation application, and capabilities to support future centralized kitchen initiatives.
- The price for the SNES shall be an all-inclusive fee, including all applicable taxes, software, modifications, installation, transportation, system maintenance costs, labor, materials, and equipment required for a complete and operable system solution with postimplementation support.
- State plans for new regional kitchens
• Regional kitchen initiative is a strategic effort to enhance local food sourcing in public schools, aiming to meet the farm-to-school meal goal of having thirty percent (30%) of food served in public schools come from locally sourced products by 2030.
• The SNES shall be a system that supports the state for the expansion of regional kitchens across the state. 
• These facilities are designed to process and prepare meals using locally sourced ingredients, thereby supporting local agriculture and reducing reliance on imported food.
• funding allocation:
o Fiscal year 2025 to 2026:
▪ Expansion of the existing Whitmore regional kitchen to serve central, leeward, and windward district complex areas.
o Fiscal year 2026 to 2027:
▪ Further planning, design, and land acquisition for the identified sites, along with assessments of receiving school kitchens
• Legislative context: the initiative aligns with act 175 (2021), which mandates that by 2030, thirty (30%) of food served in public schools must be locally sourced.
• Broader impact: the establishment of regional kitchens is expected to:
o Support local agriculture by generating a consistent demand for locally grown products and offering a stable, reliable market for farmers and ranchers.
o Enhance food security by reducing dependence on imported food strengthens the state of resilience against supply chain disruptions. 
o Promote economic development by creating jobs in both the agricultural and food service sectors.
• Next steps: although sb894 is under consideration in the legislative process, plans are currently underway for the state to conduct site assessments and develop regional kitchens. 
• The initiative represents a significant step toward achieving state local food sourcing goals and fostering a more sustainable and resilient food system.
- The state intends to leverage the capabilities of the proposed SNES to improve the business processes within food services by:
• Enhancing the effectiveness of food service procedures within the state.
• Enhancing productivity and reducing excessive paperwork and repetitive manual processes.
• Increasing transparency and accountability in the use of public funds.
• Enabling decision-makers and stakeholders at every level with access to timely, accurate, and appropriately detailed data.  - Menu planning, to food production, to online menus
• The SNES should have a consolidated library for menu items, recipes, and nutrient analysis, allowing staff to develop, analyze, and download menus to school sites. it needs to provide access to relevant information like item usage, commodity status, and inventory balances.
o The system needs to manage cafeteria orders, allowing managers to determine and adjust order quantities online.
o It should generate production forecasts based on orders, enable review and editing by production managers, and provide historical data for evaluation.
o Routing and distribution capabilities should simplify route maintenance, provide load factor information, and produce individual delivery notices for schools.
o The system should automate department -mandated production records, help managers plan meals, track production, serving, and leftovers for better forecasting, and support hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) record-keeping. 
o It needs "backflushing" capabilities for raw material decrementing and tracking of waste and production losses.
- The offeror shall develop, host, implement, deploy, and support staff to design, integrate, train, maintain, and service the school nutrition enterprise solution with the following cloud-based module capabilities:
• Meal application processing
• Inventory management
• Menu planning and nutrient analysis
• Online menus
• Accounts payable and receivable
• Centralized ordering
• Procurement
• Point of sale (pos)
• Production planning records
• Online payment system
• Reporting
• Professional standards tracking (department compliance)
• Transportation
• Interfaces
• Catering
• Central kitchen
- Implementation timeline
1. “Front of house” focused
• Point of sale
• Meal application processing
• Online payment system
• Custom configuration of the system needed to enable the asset-limited, income-constrained, employed (ALICE) meal program
• Transportation module
• Data conversion and reports
• Interfaces:
o Single-sign-on
o Student information system data interfaced via operational data store (ODS)
o Confirmed eligible direct certification data from programs interfaced via the ODS
o Application programming interface (API)-based integration with school bus transportation (SBT) online portal currently managed by state to allow SBT to post new requests for payment (including payment amount, student demographics, etc.) and to get paid information (including payer demographics, phone number, email, receipt number)
2. “Back of house” focused
• Menu planning and nutrient analysis
• Centralized ordering
• Procurement
• Accounts payable and receivable
• Production planning records
• Inventory management
• Online menus
• catering
• Central kitchen
• Professional standards tracking (department compliance)
• Reports (remaining)
• Interfaces (remaining).
- Contract Period/Term: 2 years
- Pre-Proposal Conference Date: June 24, 2025
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: July 2, 2025