USDA on Sunday announced that it is planning a webinar on Tuesday to outline how interested parties can submit proposals to help the agency purchase and distribute up to $3 billion in agricultural products for those in need of food.
USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service plans to partner with regional and local distributors, whose workforce has been significantly impacted by the closure of many restaurants, hotels, and other food service entities, to purchase at least $100 million per month of fresh produce, $100 million per month of a variety of dairy products, and $100 million per month of pork and poultry products.
The initial outline of the program was first announced Friday.
The agency says it will issue a solicitation in the next two weeks to invite proposals from offerors to supply commodity boxes to nonprofit organizations, identified by the offeror, on a mutually agreeable, recurring schedule. USDA will award contracts for the purchase of the agricultural products, the assembly of commodity boxes and delivery to identified nonprofit organizations that can receive, store and distribute food items.
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An informational webinar for interested participants will be held at 2 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, April 21, 2020, to provide an overview of the program and instructions for submitting offers.
Registration for the webinar is now open; a recording will be made available following its completion.
USDA says interested parties can email questions to USDAFoodBoxDistributionProgram@usda.gov. To receive updates by email, subscribe online by visiting: “Stay up to date on USDA Food Purchases” available on the AMS Commodity Procurement website.
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