S--Nutrition and Food Services Temporary Staffing

Added:
Jan 09, 2019 6:12 pm THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT ANNOUNCEMENT ONLY.
No Solicitation is currently available.
All information contained in this Sources Sought Announcement is preliminary, as well as subject to modification, and is in no way binding on the Government. The Government will not pay for any information submitted in response to this request. The information requested will be used solely within the Department of Veterans Affairs to facilitate decision making and will not be disclosed outside of the Government. The determination of a procurement strategy, based upon the comments submitted in response to this Sources Sought Announcement, is solely within the discretion of the Government.
The applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code is 561320, Temporary Help Services, and the small business size standard is $27.5M.
Potential Offerors must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) to be eligible for an award

(See Internet Site https://www.sam.gov/portal/public/SAM/). Potential Offerors must also have a current Online Representations and Certification Application on file with SAM. Service Disabled Veteran Owned and Veteran Owned Small Businesses must be registered and verified in the Department of Veterans Affairs Vendor Information Pages (VIP) (See Internet Site https://www.vip.vetbiz.gov/).
Brief Description of Services

VA Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPAHCS) primary objective is to obtain qualified and competent temporary personnel on a timely basis. The scope of services set forth represents an outline of the services which VAPAHCS anticipates the successful agency or agencies will perform.
Workers to be Provided
Selected agency(ies) shall provide VAPAHCS, on request by the facility, with qualified temporary staffing services for the specifications listed below. The agency will carefully pre-screen all temporary personnel prior to referral to the facility to assure that the possess all of the required skills and abilities to perform the assigned tasks. The temporary personnel provided shall meet the minimum qualifications, minimum education and experience required by the classification specification for the job to be performed. The agency will be informed of the specific duties or class title, length of assignment, and any specific skills or abilities required.

Services required: The agency will provide staff that are able to perform tasks that include food assembly, tray delivery, and dishwashing. Staff should be able to assemble items such as entrees, meats, potatoes, vegetables, salads, desserts, beverages, condiments, tray ware, and serving utensils. Place specified items on trays as listed on patient tray tickets and menus according to established portions. Deliver meal trays to patient wards and dining rooms on campus. Break down and clean tray line after tray service. Perform variety of tasks in the dishroom, such as, scrapping trays, sorting, stacking and racking tray ware for loading into the dishmachine, and pulling clean tray ware from the dishmachine. Place cleaned pots and pans in designated areas. Also, store food deliveries and supplies in walk-in refrigerators/freezers.

Hours of Operation: Nutrition and Food Services (NFS) operates various work shifts from 5:00am to 7:30pm, seven days a week, 365 days per year.

NFS Duty Locations:
Palo Alto Division: 3801 Miranda Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304 (Building 100)

Menlo Park Division: 795 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025 (Building 329)

Livermore Division: 4951 Arroyo Road, Livermore, CA 94550 (Building 64)

Each agency shall conduct fingerprint-based background checks and employment reference checks for selected temporary personnel within a reasonable time frame prior to start date of assignment. All agencies shall adhere to federal, state and privacy protection laws when conducting background checks and provide the required waivers, authorizations, notices, disclosures and releases. If the agency uses an outside company to conduct background checks, the agency shall only use registered, licensed investigators.

All agencies shall strictly adhere to all state and federal laws with respect to discrimination in employment and shall not discriminate against any individual on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, age or disability.
Procedure for Requesting Temporary Personnel
A designated VAPAHCS representative thereof, hereinafter referred to as Appointing Authority , may contact the agency to request temporary staffing services. The appointing Authority shall be responsible for providing the agency with all necessary job information in order for the agency to place the most qualified competent temporary personnel with the Appointing Authority.

Depending upon the category and skill level required of the temporary personnel, the facility may (1) ask the agency to provide resumes and other related information from with the facility will select the appropriate individual(s) possibly after interviewing one or more candidates, or (2) ask the agency to select an individual with the appropriate skills and experience and arrange for that person to report to a designated work site on a specified date. Ideally, the agency will designate a qualified employee acceptable to the facility at least two (2) working days prior to the date the temporary personnel is required to report to work. Occasionally, however, the facility may have an urgent need due to some unforeseen emergency. Should such emergency occur, the agency shall designate a qualified person acceptable to the facility within two (2) working hours prior to the time the temporary personnel is required to report to work. Should the primary agency be unable to provide acceptable temporary personnel in a timely manner, the facility may cancel its request with the agency.

Placement of Temporary Personnel with Appointing Authority
The agency shall make all necessary arrangements with the Appointing Authority for the agency s employees to report and commence work for the facility as temporary personnel. Should the Appointing Authority find that within the first four (4) hours of employment, the assigned temporary personnel fails to meet the minimum qualifications for the position of the work performance of the temporary personnel is unsatisfactory, the agency shall not charge the facility for that person s time. Upon notification, the agency shall then remove the temporary personnel from the facility work site and, if requested by the facility provides a qualified replacement worker within 24 hours of removal.

Time Sheets and Invoices
Selected agency(ies) shall be responsible for communicating the facilities safety practices, benefits, timecards, and safety practices to the facility and to its employees. Agency(ies) shall provide weekly time sheets to the Appointing Authority that shall be designed to accurately reflect actual hours worked per week by each temporary personnel. Agency(ies) shall submit itemized invoices for payment directly to the Appointing Authority. The invoice shall indicate the full name of the temporary personnel, hourly rate of pay received by the temporary personnel for each assignment (as indicated in the agency s original proposal), the agreed-upon hourly rate paid to the agency, including markup percentage (as indicated in the agency s original proposal), and the subsequent total bill hourly rate for each assignment. The agency shall be responsible for all payroll withholding requirements and shall provide any and all benefits required by law to each temporary personnel. Temporary personnel shall remain the employee of the agency(ies) and shall not receive facility benefits.

The agency shall provide the Appointing Authority with detailed temporary personnel reports that include data such as: name of employee, classification specification title, start and end dates (or anticipated end date), etc., and ad hoc reports, as requested.
End of Scope description
Capability Statement
The Government requests that interested parties provide the following capability information to the Contract Specialist, Parvinder Brar by email at: Parvinder.brar@va.gov by 2PM PST January 16, 2019:
(a)Â Business Size (Large/Small)
(b)Â Business Socio-Economic Status (SDVOSB, WOSB, 8(a), HUBZone, etc.)
(c) SAM record (www.sam.gov)
(d) VIP record (SDVOSB/VOSB firms only) (https://www.vip.vetbiz.gov/)
(e)Â DUNS number
(f) Ability and experience in managing similar projects. Include general information and technical background describing your firm's experience on contracts requiring similar efforts to meet the program objectives.
(g) List of Projects (Government and Commercial) that are similar in scope and size.
(h) Anticipated Teaming Arrangements (if any)
(i) GSA Contract Number if applicable.
(j) Copies of any applicable licenses, registration, and/or permits required to perform services in the State of California and as identified above in the brief description of services.
Interested parties shall not submit more than 10 single-sided, type-written pages using 12-point font or larger. Published literature may be any number of pages.
The Government will use this information when determining its business type decision.
This synopsis is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government and no contract will be awarded as a direct result of this Sources Sought announcement.    Â
*Failure to provide the information requested above (items (a) (j)) will be considered non-responsive and will not be considered a viable source.