Project Information

Bid Title

Request for Proposal for Jail Food Services and Commissary Provider for SCCJC and Juvenile Detention

Issuing Agency

Skagit County

Location

Washington

Published Date

Dec 23, 2025

Closing Date

Feb 19, 2026

Government Level

State & Local

Status

Closed

Original Source

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Bid Documents

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Project Description

SKAGIT COUNTY Request for Proposal (RFP) for Jail Food Services and Commissary Provider for SCCJC and Juvenile Detention Skagit County is seeking proposals from qualified corrections food service and commissary providers. Skagit County is interested in obtaining services for: Daily meal service for SCCJC adult inmates Daily meal service and delivery for Juvenile Detention inmates Commissary services for SCCJC adult inmates Indigent Hygiene items for SCCJC adult inmates Meals are provided to both SCCJC and Juvenile detention three (3) times per day, 365 days per year. Additional qualifications and requirements can be found in the RFP. Questions about this project may be directed to: CJ Andersen, Administrative Lieutenant Skagit County Sheriff’s Office-Corrections Bureau 201 Suzanne Lane Mount Vernon, WA. 98273 360-416-1960 candersen@co.skagit.wa.us Each proposal must be received by the date and time set for closing receipt of offers. RFP is due no later than 4:30pm PST February 19th, 2026, electronically submitted to candersen@co.skagit.wa.us

DOCUMENTS RFP

Attachment Preview

REQUEST FOR

JAIL FOOD SERVICES AND COMMISSARY PROVIDER FOR

SKAGIT COUNTY COMMUNITY JUSTICE CENTER

AND JUVENILE DETENTION

SECTION 1 - Introduction

Skagit County is seeking proposals from qualified correctional food service and commissary

providers. Any potential service provider must have an extreme attention to detail and

awareness of security and safety requirements necessary for working with and alongside the

Justice Center and Detention Center population and corrections and detention staff.

Food Provision:

The selected provider will be required to provide three meals, with the breakfast meal being

cold, to inmates and staff at the Skagit County Justice Center (SCJC) located at located at 201

Suzanne Lane, Mount Vernon, Washington and three meals plus an evening snack to for

juvenile detainees to be delivered to 605 S. 3rd St. Mount Vernon, WA. 98273. Provider

must also offer hot commissary for SCJC detainees for purchase. Meals and hot commissary

shall be prepared on site at SCJC facilities kitchen using inmate labor. Provider will be

required to supervise inmate workers, providing mentoring skills and inmate training

services. The supervision of inmates by the staff of the selected provider should focus first

on security and meal preparation, but secondly upon assisting the inmate workers to

develop both hard and soft employment skills that will increase opportunities for obtaining

continuing employment upon release.

Commissary:

Selected provider to provide snacks, various food items, limited clothing, indigent kits,

hygiene items and other approved goods for sale. Items for purchase must be stored offsite

and delivered to inmates at SCJC. Commissary payment and ordering system must have

seamless integration with County’s current technology systems for payment, which is

Lockdown.

SECTION 2 - Scope of Work

The successful Service Provider generally will provide the following:

•

Daily food services include breakfast, lunch and dinner for Skagit County

Community Justice Center Inmates, Juvenile Detention detainees and

correctional staff. Additionally, Provider will provide an evening snack for those

in juvenile detention. Meals and snacks provided to juvenile detention will

1

require delivery from the Provider to juvenile detention located at 605 S. 3rd St.

Mount Vernon, WA. 98273.

•

Development and implementation of a food service plan with clear

objectives, policies and procedures and with a process of documenting

ongoing achievement of contract obligations (annual evaluations of

compliance).

•

The operation of a kitchen (including kitchen sanitation and

cleanliness), using only properly trained, experienced and licensed

permitted food service professionals.

•

Food services will utilize inmate workers on site at the Justice Center.

•

Mentoring and development of transferable job skills to promote inmate

worker employment readiness.

•

Successful integration with Lockdown for commissary services.

•

Provision of commissary items including hot items, food items, limited clothing,

hygiene items and indigent kits. See the attached Scope of Work for further detail

on the required deliverables

SECTION 3 - Provider Selection

All Providers, by submitting proposals, agree that they have read and are familiar with the

complete terms, conditions and specifications provided in this request for food and

commissary services provider (RFS), and will abide by the terms, conditions, and

specifications thereof.

3.1 Contract Form

The selected Provider and County will negotiate contract terms. If Provider has any

non-negotiable contract terms, Provider should indicate such as part of its proposal.

3.2 Communications

It is the responsibility of the Provider to read and understand all parts of the RFS.

Providers may submit questions concerning this solicitation up to the date listed in

the schedule below. All questions and responses will be shared with all Provider that

have submitted a letter of intent. All communications regarding this RFS from

Providers and other interested parties must be directed through:

CJ Andersen, Administrative Corrections Lieutenant

Skagit County Community Justice Center

Email: candersen@co.skagit.wa.us

Address: 201 Suzanne Lane.

Mount Vernon, WA 98273

Phone: (360) 416-1960

Fax: (360) 416-1924

2

3.3 Admonition to Service Providers - No Waiver of Formality

Once this RFS has been issued, the individual identified above is the sole point of

contact for any inquiries or information pertaining to this RFS. No waiver of any term

of the Terms and Conditions contained in this RFS shall be deemed a further or

continuing waiver of such term or any other term.

3.4 Instructions to Providers

3.4.1 Schedule

This request for proposals will be managed according to the following schedule:

Formal issuance to Providers

Letter of intent from Providers

Notification of SCCJC Tour Attendance

Tour of SCCJC

Deadline for submitting questions

Deadline for Receiving proposal & required responses

Approximate Date of Notification of Provider Short List

Provider Presentations (if requested by Skagit County)

Scheduled food service start date

12/23/2025

1/13/2026

1/21/2026

1/29/2026 6:30pm

2/13/2026

2/19/2026

3/3/2026

To be determined

5/01/2026

Interested Providers are strongly encouraged to submit a letter of interest to

the listed Skagit County Communications contact (see Paragraph 3.2) by

1/13/2026 to ensure receiving notice of any questions and clarifications

concerning this solicitation.

Additionally, Providers who desire to be considered by SKAGIT COUNTY must

first complete and submit their proposal to SKAGIT COUNTY by the deadline

shown above. Providers who do not complete this submittal by the date set

above risk the potential of their proposal not being considered. Further, SKAGIT

COUNTY reserves the right to eliminate a Provider from further consideration

based on answers provided in the Provider’s submittal which do not meet

SKAGIT COUNTY’s requirements.

3.4.2

Provider Tour

Providers will have the opportunity to tour the SKAGIT COUNTY Community

Justice Center’s to view the Skagit County Community Justice Center’s kitchen

layout and very limited on-site commissary storage space (limited to a few

shelves) Providers are strongly encouraged to participate in the kitchen tour.

The Tour is currently scheduled to occur on January 29, 2026, at 6:30 PM.

Providers are limited to sending a maximum of two representatives on the

tour. Providers are required to notify the Communications contact (paragraph

3

3.2) by end of business January 21, 2026. if they are planning on attending the

tour. SKAGIT COUNTY has the right to deny entry to anyone and/or restrict any

items coming into the jail.

3.4.3

Proposal Submission Deadline

Provider responses and proposals must be received by no later than 5:00 p.m.

(PST) on February 19, 2026. Proposals may be submitted by Fax, E-mail or USPS

physical mail (physical mail must be received by the deadline) to the above

listed contact in Sec. 3.2. Any Provider failing to submit information in

accordance with the procedures set forth in this Request for Food Service and

Commissary Providers may be considered unresponsive and subject to

disqualification by SKAGIT COUNTY.

3.4.4 Submittal Materials

Prospective Providers must provide the following materials as part of their initial

submittal:

•

Cover Letter, Food Service and Commissary Description which shall contain at a

minimum how Provider is going to meet all the requirements set forth in this

RFS (including items described in the Scope of Work) and specific descriptions

addressing the following information:

A. Describe your proposed system for each of the following:

1. Food Procurement and Inventory Control

2. Staffing levels, job specifications and descriptions for all

positions. At a minimum, there must be at least two staff

present anytime inmates are in the kitchen area. Explain

your backup plan to maintain minimum staffing. Also, please

describe your employee screening and training process.

3. An employee staffing table indicating the proposed kitchen

staffing, including hours covered, supervision, and plans for

covering unexpected absences, holidays and vacations.

4. A description of the inmate training program including

curriculum and schedule for training and documentation

process.

5. Number of inmate workers requested and times needed.

6. Specific types of work assigned to inmate workers.

7. Planned schedule for monitoring on-site staff.

8. Experience in working with correctional facilities (a minimum

of five years of experience of correctional on food

preparation required).

9. Plan on providing offsite commissary to be delivered to the

jail facility. Provision of hot commissary items to be prepared

at the jail kitchen. Please include your customer service plan

4

for addressing issues with order errors, damaged goods, and

other commissary order issues.

10. Commissary item list with prices and any applicable pricing

increase matrix. See Exhibit A.

11. List of Hot Commissary items including prices.

B. Describe your plans and policies to cover the following emergency

situations:

1. Food shortages (including commissary items) and menu

changes

2. Lockdowns

3. Equipment failure

4. Staffing shortfalls (both Service Provider staff and Inmate

Workers) due to illness, employee denied entry to Justice

Center, or other emergencies

5. Extreme weather

6. Utility Outage

7. Food recalls

C. Description of Service Providers proposed quality assurance program

including HACCP guidelines.

D. Describe how Service Provider will utilize government surplus or other

entitlements

E. Specifically address your capacity and ability to commence food

services by MAY 1, 2026.

•

Proposed solution and break out of cost to provide meal preparation for Skagit

County’s Juvenile Detention, and, secondly, the proposed solution and break

out of cost to provide meal preparation INCLUDING delivery of meals to the

Juvenile Detention Center located at 603 South 3rd Street in Mount Vernon,

WA.

•

Include a Registered Dietitian approved 12-week Cycle Menu (for both Adult

and Juvenile) including meal plans for any alternative diets which may be

ordered/required by inmates. Please be sure to list AS portion sizes which

follow the nutritional guidelines established by the National Commission on

Correctional Health Care and assure that the meals provide no more than 33%

fat (10% saturated fat). Juvenile meals must be compliant with OSPI and other

applicable standards for

• Sample menus must be representative of the actual menus proposed

for service and must include an item-by-item computer nutritional

analysis of the menu with a weekly summary indicating the

percentage of compliance to the highest Recommended Dietary

Allowances and the Dietary Reference Intakes. This analysis must be

signed by a registered dietitian and must include a copy of the

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Commodity Codes

• NAICS 722310Food Service Contractors

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