Child Nutrition recommends Quality Refrigeration Concepts for repair services; board asks how district preserves food during outages

Child Nutrition staff recommended awarding the 2025–26 contract for refrigeration equipment repair services to Quality Refrigeration Concepts after a competitive solicitation that produced two responders. The contract is intended as a backup for larger repairs — for example, replacing a walk-in evaporator or condenser — that district in-house refrigeration technicians cannot complete.

Staff said the district has an in-house maintenance team with refrigeration technicians that handle most routine needs but that contracting is necessary for substantial repairs. The district received responses from Quality Refrigeration Concepts (Winston-Salem) and McCloskey’s Mechanical (Raleigh) and recommended Quality Refrigeration Concepts based on the evaluation.

Board members asked how the district protects food supplies during refrigerator or freezer failures. Child Nutrition staff said the department can temporarily relocate food to two large walk-in units at the central warehouse behind Prime Time and move day-to-day needs back to schools in reach-in refrigerators when repaired. Staff also noted they provide after-hours and weekend response and that their monitoring app tracks temperatures in reach-ins and walk-ins and generates alerts when temperatures reach danger zones.

The committee moved the contract approval forward. Child Nutrition emphasized the department’s capacity to relocate food and the advantage of rapid after-hours response and remote temperature monitoring to limit losses.