Combined Synopsis/Solicitation
Request for Proposals for Fresh Milk & Dairy Products support for DLA Troop Support to military customers in the South Carolina Zone.
Department of Defense · Defense Logistics Agency
AI summaryDLA Troop Support (Defense Logistics Agency) wants one company to supply fresh milk and dairy items to military customers at Fort Jackson and Coast Guard Station Charleston, South Carolina, in a contract expected to run February 7, 2027 to February 2, 2030. It is a firm-fixed-price (FFP: one set price per item) indefinite quantity contract (IQC: orders placed as needed), with no set-aside, and the lowest price among technically acceptable offers wins (lowest price technically acceptable, LPTA). The response due date is November 6, 2026, 3:00 PM Eastern, and only a real milk and dairy distributor can qualify, not a middleman. More in the summary
AI summary Beta
This summary may miss requirements: 2 of 6 attachments weren't read (Attachment 1- SOI - revised.xlsx, Attachment 3 - Delivery Schedule.xlsx). Check the attachments on SAM.gov.
DLA Troop Support (Defense Logistics Agency) wants one company to supply fresh milk and dairy items to military customers at Fort Jackson and Coast Guard Station Charleston, South Carolina, in a contract expected to run February 7, 2027 to February 2, 2030. It is a firm-fixed-price (FFP: one set price per item) indefinite quantity contract (IQC: orders placed as needed), with no set-aside, and the lowest price among technically acceptable offers wins (lowest price technically acceptable, LPTA). The response due date is November 6, 2026, 3:00 PM Eastern, and only a real milk and dairy distributor can qualify, not a middleman.
Who can bid (6)
- Be a current, functioning commercial milk and dairy distributor with your own physical, logistical and financial resources. A third-party logistics (3PL) company that subcontracts most ordering, warehousing and distribution does not qualify.
- Provide a third-party warehouse audit (such as an Interstate Milk Shippers sanitation rating or state or federal sanitation certificate) with a passing score for each place of performance
- Be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) and have a Unique Entity ID
Show all 6Show fewer
- Have a computer system able to take delivery orders and exchange electronic data interchange (EDI) transactions, including 810 invoices and 820 payment vouchers, with STORES
- Hold a Department of War public key infrastructure (PKI) certificate, which can be bought from an outside certificate authority for about $99 to $179 per year
- Offer only food items produced and manufactured in the United States (Buy American Act)
How to submit: Email to Amy Paradis (Amy.Paradis@dla.mil) and Stacy Carcel (Stacy.Carcel@dla.mil), or upload through the DLA Internet Bid Board System (DIBBS). Fax is not authorized.. What to include is under Full summary below. Check the solicitation's instructions on SAM.gov.
Things to watch (11)
From the version posted Oct 20, 2026.
- Serious: Must be a real milk and dairy distributor, not a middleman. A company that plans to subcontract most ordering, warehousing and delivery (a third-party logistics (3PL) firm) is called unacceptable, so a small reseller without its own distribution resources can't bid.
- Serious: Passing third-party warehouse audit required for each warehouse. The Contracting Officer will ask for audit reports with passing scores to confirm you are a working distributor; no audit means no technically acceptable offer.
- Serious: Must price every item. Leaving out any item can get the offer thrown out as technically unacceptable, so you need a source for the whole item list.
Show all 11Show fewer
- Worth checking: Lowest price wins, one award only. Award goes to the lowest price among technically acceptable offers, and only one contract is planned, so thin margins matter.
- Worth checking: HUBZone evaluation preference on an unrestricted buy. SAM.gov shows no set-aside, but the solicitation gives HUBZone firms an evaluation preference; how it works is in parts not read, so non-HUBZone bidders may face a price disadvantage.
- Worth checking: Amendment 0001 replaced the pricing spreadsheet. Use the revised Attachment 1 and its new column and row instructions, and acknowledge the amendment; the amendment says the closing date stays the same.
- Worth checking: Base access enrollment at your cost. Drivers may need RapidGate or DBIDS enrollment (about $250 per company and $200 per enrolled employee for one year) and it can take several weeks.
- Worth checking: Electronic ordering, EDI invoicing and PKI certificate required. Orders and invoices run through the STORES system by EDI, so you need EDI capability and a PKI certificate before you can deliver or get paid.
- Worth checking: 97 percent fill rate with no substitutions. Missing the fill rate target or failing to fill a line can hurt your standing, and monthly fill-rate reports are required.
- Minor: Two-day order lead time and a free emergency order each month. Orders need only a two-day lead time and you must supply one emergency same-day or next-day order per month per customer at no extra charge.
- Minor: Price increases capped at 30 percent. The economic price adjustment can raise unit prices by no more than 30 percent of the original price, so a milk price spike could squeeze margins.
Read from the notice and 4 attachments. 2 of 6 not read. Show which files.
- SF30 - SPE300260049 0001.pdf (read)
- SPE30026R0049.pdf (read)
- Attachment 4 - STORES EDI manual.pdf (read)
- Attachment 2 - Request for New Item Form.pdf (read)
- Attachment 1- SOI - revised.xlsx: not read (the AI doesn't read this file type yet): open it on SAM.gov
- Attachment 3 - Delivery Schedule.xlsx: not read (the AI doesn't read this file type yet): open it on SAM.gov
Full summary
What they want
- Source, store and deliver fresh milk and dairy items to the customers at Fort Jackson and Coast Guard Station Charleston on an ongoing basis
- Deliver FOB destination (you pay shipping until the order is unloaded at the customer's dock), usually one to three deliveries per week per customer, with orders placed at least two days ahead
- Take orders and send invoices electronically through the government's Subsistence Total Order and Receipt Electronic System (STORES), using electronic data interchange (EDI) invoices
- Keep an electronic item catalog with stock numbers, item descriptions and unit prices; new items are added through the mandatory Request for New Item form (Attachment 2)
- Keep at least a 97 percent order fill rate, report it monthly, and make no substitutions (a line you can't fill is dropped)
- Provide up to one same-day or next-day emergency order per month per customer at no extra cost
- Supply only food items produced and manufactured in the United States (Buy American Act)
- Price fluid milk items with an economic price adjustment (EPA) tied to the USDA Class I milk price, adjusted monthly, with price increases capped at 30 percent of the original unit price
- Contract type
- Firm-fixed-price indefinite quantity contract (IQC) with two pricing tiers; fixed price with economic price adjustment (EPA) for fluid milk
- Period of performance
- Expected February 7, 2027 through February 2, 2030 (36 months). Tier 1: February 7, 2027 to February 3, 2029. Tier 2: February 4, 2029 to February 2, 2030. A start-up period after award is not counted in Tier 1.
- Place of performance
- South Carolina, USA. Customers are at Fort Jackson and Coast Guard Station Charleston.
- Estimated value
- Not stated
- How they'll choose
- Lowest price technically acceptable (LPTA). One contract is planned for the single group.
- Offers due
- November 6, 2026, 3:00 PM Eastern
- How to submit
- Email to Amy Paradis (Amy.Paradis@dla.mil) and Stacy Carcel (Stacy.Carcel@dla.mil), or upload through the DLA Internet Bid Board System (DIBBS). Fax is not authorized.
What they'll judge offers on
- Price: lowest price among technically acceptable offers; the proposal spreadsheet totals an aggregate price
- Technical acceptability: every item proposed as Attachment 1 specifies, and proof of being a current commercial milk and dairy distributor, backed by passing third-party warehouse audits
What to include when you submit
- Use the revised Attachment 1 (Schedule of Items) from Amendment 0001. Fill in only the white boxes: columns I, J, K for contract line item numbers (CLINs: priced lines of the order) 1 to 11, and columns I, J, L, M for CLINs 12 to 16
- Round all prices to two decimal places; put totals in row 28, columns N, O, P, and the Total Aggregate in cell 30 O
- Price every item in the Schedule of Items; an offer that skips items may be rejected as technically unacceptable
- Enter vendor name, CAGE code (a company ID code) and Unique Entity ID (UEI) in cell B5 of Attachment 1
- Fill in and sign the Standard Form 1449 (SF 1449: the form you sign and return as your offer), including blocks 17a, 17B continued, and 30a to 30c, and return one complete signed copy of the solicitation
- Sign and return the amendment(s)
- Complete all certifications and representations in the solicitation, or submit a copy of your SAM.gov registration
- Check the box saying whether you will use one or more facilities as a place of performance (FAR 52.215-6), and send a separate list of places of performance (distribution centers or warehouses), marking backup warehouses as backups
- Send a copy of a third-party warehouse audit for each place of performance, showing a passing score (for example Sanitation Compliance and Enforcement Ratings of Interstate Milk Shippers, or a state or federal sanitation inspection certificate)
- Send a current wholesale price list, catalog price schedule or other commercial pricing document
- List your authorized negotiators with names, titles, email addresses and phone numbers
- If emailing, keep each attachment under 5MB and each email under 10 MB, number multiple emails (for example 1 of 8), and confirm receipt of all of them
After award, you must have
- Enroll drivers in base access systems (RapidGate, Defense Biometric Identification System (DBIDS) or similar) at each customer location that requires it, at your own cost, starting no later than award notification From SPE30026R0049.pdf:
Failure to have clearance may result in a vendor being turned away from the base…
Current contractor
No incumbent is named in the text that was read.
Not in the notice text
- Key details are in files that were not fully read: the revised Schedule of Items spreadsheet (Attachment 1 - SOI - revised.xlsx) and the Delivery Schedule spreadsheet (Attachment 3) are attached but not read, and the middle of the solicitation PDF (SPE30026R0049.pdf) is missing from the text. Check them on SAM.gov or DIBBS.
- The item list, units of issue and quantities for the 16 CLINs are in the unread Schedule of Items
- The estimated dollar values, guaranteed minimum and contract maximum amounts (stated only as 10 percent and 250 percent of estimates) are not in the text read
- Delivery days and times for Fort Jackson and Coast Guard Station Charleston are in the unread Delivery Schedule
- How the HUBZone evaluation preference is applied and any further evaluation details beyond lowest price technically acceptable
- No question deadline or site visit is given; questions go by email to the contract specialist and Contracting Officer
- The solicitation and its documents are posted on DIBBS (www.dibbs.bsm.dla.mil) as well as SAM.gov; registration on DIBBS is needed to download them
Eligibility and how to respond
- No set-aside: any business, large or small, can bid unless the notice says otherwise.
- How to submit, from the AI summary: Email to Amy Paradis (Amy.Paradis@dla.mil) and Stacy Carcel (Stacy.Carcel@dla.mil), or upload through the DLA Internet Bid Board System (DIBBS). Fax is not authorized. Check it in the notice before you send anything.
Notice details
- Posted
- Oct 20, 2026
- Notice type
- Combined Synopsis/Solicitation
- Office
- DLA Troop Support, Philadelphia, PA
- Product/service code
- 8910 · Dairy Foods and Eggs
- Business type
- Food & food service (FedReady's grouping, from NAICS 311511)
- Versions
2 versions have been posted, newest first.
- Oct 20, 2026 · Amendment 0001 (this version)Due Nov 6, 2026
- Oct 19, 2026 · Combined Synopsis/SolicitationDue Nov 6, 2026
- Attachments
Past awards and competition
Who has won work like this before, the likely incumbent, and what similar contracts paid, from USAspending.gov.
Before you respond
- How to respond to a solicitation (8 steps)
- How to read a government solicitation
- How to price a government contract
Terms on this notice: Solicitation
Full notice text from SAM.gov
****** Amendment 0001 has been posted****** This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Subpart 12, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation. Offers are being requested and a separate written solicitation will not be issued. Solicitation SPE300-26-R-0049 is issued as a request for proposals for Fresh Milk and Dairy items, all fully competitive, on contract for various Department of War (“DoW”) customers in the South Carolina Zone. The resultant contract will be issued as a firm-fixed price Indefinite Quantity Contract (IQC) with two pricing tiers for all items for the entire term of the contract. The contract period is expected to be from February 7, 2027, through February 2, 2030, and will include two pricing tiers. Tier 1 will be from February 7, 2027, to February 3, 2029. Tier 2 will be from February 4, 2029, to February 2, 2030. The acquisition will be issued on an unrestricted basis. The total length of the contract is 36 months (3 years) including all tiers. The solicitation contains one group: Group 1: South Carolina DoW Troops Offers are due No Later Than 3PM Eastern Standard Time, November 6, 2026. All responsible sources may submit proposals that will be considered by DLA Troop Support. Copies of the solicitation will be found on the DLA Internet Bid Board Systems (DIBBS) at https://www.dibbs.bsm.dla.mil and https://www.sam.gov. If not registered on DIBBS; prospective offerors will be required to do so prior to reviewing and downloading a copy of the solicitation. Requests for Proposals (RFP’s) are in the Portable Document Format (PDF). In order to download and view these documents, prospective offerors will need the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader. The software is available for free at http://adobe.com. The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular August 26, 2025. The Government intends to evaluate offers and award a contract without discussions with offerors. Therefore, the offeror’s initial offer should contain the offeror’s best terms from a price and technical standpoint. However, the Government reserves the right to conduct discussions if later determined by the Contracting Officer to be necessary. The Government may reject any or all offers if such action is in the public interest; accept other than the lowest offer; and waive informalities and minor irregularities in offers received. If you have any questions regarding this notice then please send any questions via e-mail to the following address: Stacy Carcel, Contract Specialist, stacy.carcel@dla.mil and Amy Paradis, Contracting Officer, amy.paradis@dla.mil