Catered Meals - Bridgeton, MO - Unusual and Compelling Urgency

The military unit requiring catering services experienced a last-minute change to its annual training plan, ultimately opting for Home Station Training. Commanders are required to provide meals for M-Day Service Members; however, no military culinary/cooking unit was available on such short notice. Furthermore, Command Policy strongly discourages the use of Meals, Ready-to-Eat (MREs) outside of tactical emergencies, as their procurement and distribution costs exceed those of a hot, catered meal. In an effort to compete this requirement under FAR Part 12, market research was conducted to identify three local vendors registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) and eligible for award. Two of the identified vendors were unavailable to meet the short-notice timeline. Only one vendor, "Let's Do Lunch," confirmed availability. Their proposed pricing is consistent with the public menu pricing published on their website, and the vendor has no adverse past performance history. Ultimately, because training is scheduled to commence in three business days and the Government has already obtained fair and reasonable pricing for this requirement, the Contracting Officer has determined that utilizing the authority of RFO FAR 6.103-2 for unusual and compelling urgency is necessary to make an immediate, sole-source award.