Eight vendor proposals were received and evaluated by a screening committee consisting of three members representing purchasing and auxiliary services, and Carla Chance, vice chancellor of finance and business services.
Mike Ziegler
– Staff Writer –
On March 24, the committee in charge of selecting the STLCC dining services provider will recommend to the board of trustees that Treat America remain the campus dining services provider for the next five years, according to the proposed board of trustee agenda minutes.
The selection committee will also recommend that Coca-Cola be awarded a five-year contract for the pouring rights and Canteen be awarded a five-year contract for the vending rights Christina Hart, STLCC-Forest Park campus auxiliary services manager, said that each contract also includes five one-year optional contract renewals.
Eight vendor proposals were received and evaluated by a screening committee consisting of three members representing purchasing and auxiliary services, and Carla Chance, vice chancellor of finance and business services, according to Hart.
Of the eight proposals, the screening team selected four semi-finalists. Those chosen include Canteen Vending, Consolidated Management Company, Fresh Ideas Food Service Management and Treat America Food Services.
“We disqualified some of the companies because they had no locations close by,” Hart said. “We wanted to go by and see their normal operations, to see the quality of the food and how people looked, sanitation, sustainability; those things.”
The 16-member selection committee in charge of choosing the most qualified services included the screening team, six student representatives, three auxiliary service members, one faculty member, one campus life manager and one staff professional. The committee evaluated each proposal by visiting vendor facilities, sampling typical cafeteria and catered meals, and listening to presentations describing the services they would provide.
The selection committee then scored each proposal on a scale based on financial plans, management and supervision, experience with higher education, general services, selections and prices, safety, sanitation and sustainability, Hart said.
Treat America was chosen due to its experience currently serving the college and receiving the highest score among evaluations completed by selection committee members, Hart said.
“We just decided to stay with what we knew because of the number of issues that come up in the transition as well as the fact that most people are satisfied with Treat America,” Hart said.
The number of issues that typically come up when choosing a new service provider, Hart said, include hiring new people to work with the company and college, learning the different billing processes for the three campuses that provide dining services, and the different campus layouts.
“Our experience has been, when you get a new service provider, the transition takes the first year of just learning how to do everything,” Hart said.
Meramec student Vincent Hayden, a student committee member, had some concerns with Treat America’s choice of presentation location.
“When we went and did [Treat America’s] site visit at Florissant Valley, they have good food there, but the quality of food you get at Florissant Valley isn’t the quality of food you get here at Meramec,” Hayden said.
Based on committee scoring documents, Fresh Ideas scored highest on various criteria submitted by the evaluation team, beating Treat America 85.2 to 81.6 out of 100 points. After further scoring by the selection team, however, Fresh Ideas earned a total score of 193.3 points from the three committees and Treat America earned the highest score with 216.6.
“Most people really did like Fresh Ideas. If you look at the scores you’ll see that Fresh Ideas won based on the survey evaluations, negligibly, but it won,” Hayden said.
Treat America will continue to receive a subsidy from the college, according to bid documents. No amount will be set until contract negotiations begin after passing board approval.
Hart said providing a subsidy to Treat America is required to meet student expectations of dining services.
“For us to provide the kind of variety and quality people want, we have to subsidize it,” Hart said. “It’s always that balance of they could reduce that subsidy but I think then what you see is a death spiral of no food, no service, no quality.”
The college will receive approximately $62,000 from Canteen and $261,450 from Coca-Cola per year in commissions according to bid proposals. This is an increase
from approximately $40,000 per year over five years from the previous contract with Canteen and down from the previous ten-year contract with Coca-Cola. The contract with Coca Cola provided $3 million in commissions, Hart said.
More information to come in the March 31 issue, including a breakdown of bid proposals, student and faculty reaction, and more.
