About the ProjectProject Objective

The South Seattle Community Food Hub (SSCFH) is requesting the services of an outside firm or consultant to guide this community-led project through the process of selecting and implementing a new governance structure and legal entity. The selected partner will be responsible for completing the items identified in this project’s scope of work. The SSCFH invites you to submit a proposal to furnish materials in accordance with the terms, conditions and specifications contained in this document.

South Seattle Community Food Hub Overview

The SSCFH is an emerging community-driven effort building vital infrastructure for a more equitable, sustainable, and accessible regional food system. The focal point of this multi-phase project is a processing, storage, and distribution facility, which will center BIPOC, Immigrant, and Refugee communities. Presently, the SSCFH is led and governed by a volunteer Advisory Committee and is fiscally sponsored by one of the Advisory Committee member organizations, Food Lifeline.

The SSCFH will be beginning construction work on its facility next year. The Advisory Committee is seeking to determine what governance structure the SSCFH will utilize in order to transition the project into its next phase as a physical entity. The Advisory Committee intends to sunset and allow the new governance structure to stand up before the facility opens.

 Scope

The South Seattle Community Food Hub anticipates a project scope that includes exploring governance model and organizational structure options, facilitating a process to uncover organizational needs, assessing options, making recommendations, implementing the transition to a new governance model, coordinating the forming of a new legal entity, and appropriately engaging constituent communities in the process.

Phase 1:  Discovery – Explore options for governance models.

• Evaluate SSCFH’s current environment including constituent communities, similar or related food system infrastructure projects and organizations, relevant government initiatives, and current and potential funding sources.
• Integrate insights from SSCFH’s Value Chain Assessment report.
• Research governance models of other food hubs in the country.
• Identify possible governance models from a legal, financial, and community leadership perspective. Models may include 501(c)3 nonprofit, fiscally sponsored project under another organization’s 501(c)3 status, cooperative business or nonprofit, B-Corp,LLC, and other entities/structures

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Phase 2:  Assessment – Thoroughly assess options and provide alternatives.

• Apply an understanding of the project’s mission, vision, values, and plan for financial sustainability through the Assessment phase.
• Identify and support appropriate engagement with community constituents, such as hunger relief organizations, small growers and producers, mutual aid groups, and other food systems entities that are potential users of the SSCFH building on previous outreach.
• Prioritize requirements based on the SSCFH’s needs for community leadership and financial sustainability and evaluate alternative approaches for meeting those needs
• Develop and assess options for the SSCFH’s governance model including the legal entity and decision-making model
• Develop and present a recommended governance model as well as the most viable alternatives.

Phase 3: Decision Making and Communication – The Advisory Committee decides which option to pursue.

• Facilitate discussions and a decision-making process for the Advisory Committee to come to a consensus on which governance model to pursue.
• Develop a communication plan and communications materials to explain the governance model and the transition process to project constituents.

Phase 4:  Implementation – Plan and execute the implementation and include community

• Document and present findings in a concise high-level plan and a comprehensive plan which includes roles and responsibilities of the new governing body.
• Identify needs for expertise or professional services, such as legal and accounting services and provide estimated budgets.
• Plan and execute the transition from the Advisory Committee to the new governance model and new legal entity.

Each phase of the project will be expected to conclude with a meeting wherein the consultant presents the finished work of the phase and shares documents related to this work and presentation with the SSCFH committee members.

Timeline

SSCFH intends to work with a partner over 6-10 months and anticipates that this project will be executed according to the timeline executed below.

Proposal Timeline

Project Services

Contract terms and conditions will be negotiated upon selection of the winning bidder for this RFP in the form of a statement of work (SOW). All contractual terms and conditions will be subject to review by the South Seattle Community Food Hub’s legal counsel and will include scope, budget, schedule, and other necessary items pertaining to the project. The SSCFH would like the project to begin within 30 days of contract signing.

About the South Seattle Community Food HubThe South Seattle Community Food Hub (SSCFH) is an emerging community-driven effort building vital infrastructure for a more equitable, sustainable, and accessible regional food system. The focal point of this multi-phase project is a processing, storage, and distribution facility designed to achieve 3 core objectives:1. Increase the capacity, resiliency, and collaboration between hunger relief agencies across the region through shared infrastructure.2. Create additional market access for local producers, such as the hunger relief sector. Help build needed infrastructure to support this market access and local economic development related to the food system.3. Support and promote a more local, just, and sustainable food economy by prioritizing food hub resources, services, and infrastructure for BIPOC, Immigrant, and Refugee -led and -serving growers and community-based organizations that have not traditionally had access to such infrastructure.

Background on the South Seattle Community Food Hub

Community and regional food access partners, and King County (KC) and the South Seattle Community Food Hub Advisory Committee, with fiscal sponsor Food Lifeline, are aligned in efforts to strengthen local food systems, improve the capacity of the hunger relief sector, and thereby increase access to healthy, affordable food for underserved communities. 

These efforts hit a major milestone in 2014, when KC adopted the Local Food Initiative—a roadmap for reinforcing and enhancing local food systems across the KC region. Since its formation, the KC Local Food Initiative and associated efforts have discovered two major weaknesses of the local food system: a deficiency in affordable food related infrastructure and a lack of coordination among stakeholders. Specifically, the County and partners have observed that:

• There is insufficient aggregation, processing, storage, and kitchen space to connect local food producers adequately and efficiently with target distribution channels, such as food access organizations and institutions.
• The diversity of food organizations and farm businesses complicates coordination of their activities and the exploration of creative partnerships, and
• BIPOC, Immigrant and Refugee -led and -serving farms and community-based organizations disproportionately experience challenges accessing needed infrastructure and resources to serve their stakeholders, who are also disproportionately experiencing the impacts of hunger and food insecurity.

To address these challenges the South Seattle Community Food Hub Advisory Committee, with fiscal sponsor Food Lifeline and with the support of KC’s Local Food Initiative, will be building a shared-use, collaborative food facility in south Seattle. The food facility would allow hunger relief agencies to increase their capacity, collaborate and innovate to serve more of Seattle’s food insecure population, and to source more local, sustainable, and culturally significant food from local growers. Farmers would also access the food facility for aggregation, packing, storage, and processing of produce for distribution to hunger relief agencies as well as to institutional retail channels.

As the South Seattle Community Food Hub engages in a thorough community needs assessment process and begins preconstruction activities, the Advisory Committee seeks a consultant to facilitate the transition to a new governance model to operate the Food Hub and serve community needs.

Project Advisory Committee

An advisory committee guides the South Seattle Community Food Hub project. The committee makes project decisions in support of the project’s goals and objectives, brings forward community concerns from their networks and their own both lived and professional experience, and facilitates the stewardship of the project into its next phases. The selected firm will work in partnership with the Governance Subcommittee, with project staff, and with fiscal sponsor Food Lifeline, who will together provide feedback at critical points throughout the project.

Advisory Committee organizations include Black Farmers Collective, City of Seattle, East West Food Rescue, FareStart, Food Lifeline, Harvest Against Hunger, King County Local Food Initiative, Meals Partnership Coalition, Nurturing Roots Farm, PCC Markets, Pierce County Agriculture Program, Seattle Food Committee, Seattle Neighborhood Farmers Markets, Silent Task Force, Solid Ground, and Viva Farms.

Proposal DetailsProposal Guidelines

The Proposal should describe the methodology to be used to accomplish each of the project tasks and services as they are defined in the Scope of Work. The Proposal should also describe the work that will be necessary to satisfactorily complete the tasks and service requirements.

Please note that this Request for Proposal (RFP) cannot identify each specific, individual task required to implement this project successfully and completely. The SSCFH relies on the competency of the proposing firm/consultant to be knowledgeable of the general areas identified in the Scope of Work and of adequate competence to include in its proposal all required tasks and subtasks, personnel commitments, hours, direct and indirect costs, etc.

Amendments to proposals are allowed prior to the proposal due date and must be made in writing. A vendor may withdraw its proposal at any time by notifying the Submittal Contact in writing. Amendments or withdrawals offered in any other manner than described will not be considered. Proposals cannot be amended after the proposal due date.

Proposal Submission

Responses should be organized into the following sections:

1. Letter of Interest
   1. Must include firm name, address, telephone number, and fax number. Letter must be signed by person authorized to bind firm by contract

2. Organization/Company Profile
   1. Type of ownership (e.g., individual, partnership, or corporation)
   2. Number of years in business
   3. Listing of primary disciplines and services provided
   4. Size of firm (i.e., number of staff and contractors)

3. Project Team
   1. Provide an overview of how the team would be structured
   2. Identify key personnel proposed for this project including their roles, number of years at the firm, and any special skill sets they bring
   3. Include bios for key personnel and their experience on comparable projects
   4. Identify subcontractors, if any, to be utilized and include resumes showing their experience on comparable projects

4. Experience/Qualifications/Reference
   1. Include sample(s) of similar work performed for another organization
   2. Provide a minimum of three references
   3. Highlight any work done for nonprofit and community-based organizations
   4. Highlight any work that centers equity and shows examples democratic, cooperative, or community-based governance

5. Equity
   1. Is your firm registered with the Washington State Office of Minority and Women's Business Enterprises?
   2. How does a commitment to equity show up in your firm’s policies and practices?
   3. How do you consider diversity, equity, and inclusion in how you interact with clients like us?

6. Understanding of Project Requirements and Specifications
   1. Demonstrate your understanding of the task and services requested
   2. Describe your approach to meet the objectives, including key activities and tasks
   3. Provide a proposed project schedule including milestones and project completion

7. Cost Proposal
   1. Provide a detailed fee proposal that reflects the project phases and/or milestones. The fee proposal should include all anticipated reimbursable expenses as a separate line item, and the charge rates of the people who would perform the work (please identify tasks to be performed by subconsultants). The SSCFH anticipates a fixed fee for service.
   2. All quotes shall be held firm for a minimum of ninety (90) days after the proposal due date to allow adequate time for the SSCFH to consider each proposal and make an award.
   3. The budget for this work shall not exceed $55,000.

Appendices: Any additional documents that the bidder deems valuable to this proposal should be included as an appendix. This may include CVs of key project staff, documents that highlight work completed on previous projects that are similar in scope, etc.

Evaluation of Proposals

All proposals submitted will be evaluated by the South Seattle Community Food Hub Governance Committee. At the discretion of the committee, short‐listed companies will be requested to make a formal presentation. Staff who would be assigned to this project should be present at the presentation. The SSCFH’s request for a presentation shall not constitute acceptance of a proposal. Those proposers will be notified to arrange specific date and time. All expenses related to the travel for in-person meeting (if needed), proposal development and collateral materials for the presentation are entirely the responsibility of the bidder and shall not be chargeable in any manner to the South Seattle Community Food Hub. Proposals will be rated based on experience, pricing considerations and overall service capabilities. The SSCFH reserves the right to award or reject any or all RFPs and shall select a provider based on its assessment as to which proposal best meets its needs at the most cost‐efficient price. No single factor shall solely determine the selection.

Additional Information or Clarification

The SSCFH’s objective is to ensure that you are provided with the information you need to provide the most complete response to this RFP as possible. As such, the SSCFH welcomes questions related to this RFP. Questions or requests for clarification must be emailed by 2/14/24 at 5:00 PM Pacific to ky magdalene, Project Manager, at hello@communityfoodhub.org. All intended bidders will receive responses to all questions via email.

Each bidder must submit their final proposal by 3/1/24 at 5:00 PM Pacific via email to ky magdalene, Project Manager, at hello@communityfoodhub.org. No late proposal will be accepted. Electronic submissions only will be accepted. Please include all proposal materials in one document and include your firm’s physical address in your proposal. Please name the document file with your firm’s name.

Proprietary and Confidential Information Notice

This RFP contains proprietary and confidential information of the South Seattle Community Food Hub, which is provided for the sole purpose of permitting the recipient to respond to the RFP submitted herewith. In consideration of receipt of this RFP and related datafile, the recipient agrees to maintain such information in confidence and not to reproduce or otherwise disclose this information to any persons outside the group directly responsible for responding to its contents. There is no obligation to maintain the confidentiality of any information that was known to the recipient prior to receipt of such information from the SSCFH, or becomes publicly known through no fault of the recipient, or is received without obligation of confidentiality from a third party owing no obligation of confidentiality to the SSCFH.