Edible Food Recovery Service Provider Pilot

The County is seeking proposals from qualified vendors to implement a fee-for-service edible food recovery pilot program in San Mateo County. The goal of this pilot is for a technology-enabled food recovery service to implem ent a fee-for-service food recovery program that incorporates work and revenue-sharing partnerships with nonprofit FROs serving the County of San Mateo.

The selected contractor (“Contractor”) will:

• Onboard approximately ten Generators into their food recovery service including establishing a written agreement with the Generators.
• Provide Generators with an easy-to-use platform to schedule surplus edible food pickups, track surplus edible food volume in accordance with SB 1383’s recordkeeping requirements, and analyze diversion impacts.
• Identify a fee-for service schedule that outlines the fees that Generators will pay for services provided by FROs and accordingly charge and collect payments from Generators for food recovery services they receive (technology access and cost associated with surplus edible food pickups).
• Onboard approximately four FROs to perform surplus edible food pickups and distributions including establishing written agreements with FROs to act as subcontractors for this pilot project.
• Identify a fee-for-service payment schedule for FROs and accordingly distribute payments from the earned revenue from Generators to the FROs for the services they provide.
  
  

The FROs the Contractor partner’s with will:

• Establish agreements with the Contractor to provide edible food pickup services to Generators in San Mateo County.
• Demonstrate that food recovery program leads hold valid food handler cards. The County can provide access to food handler card training to any food recovery program lead that does not currently hold this certification.
• Conduct surplus edible food pickups from generators identified by the Contractor in coordination with Contractor.
• Distribute surplus edible food to community members in need.
• Share food pickup and distribution related data with the Contractor, as needed for tracking, reporting and payment purposes.
• Comply with local and State law governing food safety and edible food recovery.

The pilot will run from mid-October, early November, 2025 through June 30, 2028. The initial total available budget for the pilot will be $15,000. The initial $15,000 will need to be spent by November 2, 2026 unless otherwise approved by the County. This pilot is a proof-of-concept project and the budget , term, and number of Generators serviced may be expanded and/or extended depending on the success of the pilot and availability of funds.

The services, terms and conditions of any Agreement that is entered into by the County as a result of this RFP may be used by other public entities as a piggyback agreement in accordance with the rules and requirements of such public entities. This clause in no way commits any other public entities to procure services from the selected proposer.

The County of San Mateo (“County” or “SMC”) is located on the San Francisco Peninsula and includes 20 incorporated cities and nearly 800,000 residents. The County of San Mateo Sustainability Department manages programs related to waste prevention, climate action planning, energy and water conservation, and resource efficiency. Through its Edible Food Recovery Program, the Department supports cities, businesses, and nonprofits in implementing the edible food recovery requirements of California Senate Bill 1383. Under SB 1383, certain large food-generating businesses (“Generators”) must arrange for the maximum amount of their surplus edible food to be donated or otherwise recovered for human consumption. This act of diverting surplus edible food from waste streams and to community members is referred to as edible food recovery. Edible food recovery is often facilitated by nonprofit hunger relief organizations (food recovery organizations, or “FROs”). FROs pick up surplus edible food from Generators and then distribute that food to the community members they serve. Businesses that arrange for their surplus edible food to be recovered by nonprofit FROs qualify for food donation tax incentives while also reducing their curbside waste management costs.

Over the past several years, the Sustainability Department has worked closely with a range of FROs to explore establishing fee-for-service edible food recovery models in which FROs charge Generators for the surplus edible food pickup and distribution services they provide. Fee-for-service models are intended to build and secure food recovery capacity by creating sustainable funding streams for FROs without public funding. However, while many nonprofits have deep community trust and effective food distribution programs, most lack the operational infrastructure including data tracking, reporting, and billing infrastructure necessary to transition to fee-for-service models. Many also lack the staff capacity to negotiate fair compensation for their services with Generators.

This pilot aims to address the hurdles FROs face in setting up fee-for-service programs through a partnership with a technology-enabled food recovery service that can provide the administrative functions (contracting, data tracking, reporting, and billing) currently preventing FROs from implementing fee-for-service models.