DuPage Jail Finally Settles Food Contract

The DuPage (IL) County Jail has approved a one-year contract with A'viands Food & Services Management to manage its foodservice operations, reports the Chicago Daily Herald. A'viands was initially awarded the contract in May 2007 to replace longtime contract holder Aramark, but questions about the bidding process forced the county to revoke the agreement. DuPage extended A'viands’s deal while it rebid the contract, but those bids were then thrown out over nutritional concerns. A third round of bids were also invalidated when menus sent with the RFP used incorrect measurements. A fourth RFP was then issued, drawing responses not only from A’Viands and Aramark but also a new entry, Canteen.

A'viands has already netted around $1.5 million for managing the operation for the past 15 months while the rebid process was conducted. The new contract, which goes into effect on October 23, calls for a fee of around $790,000 to provide 903,375 inmate meals, 82,125 special diet meals, 32,850 staff meals and 14,965 sack meals. The meal figures are based on a daily head count of 971.