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Tennessee agency brings national procurement training to state, links to national bid-template project
Summary
The Tennessee Department of Education said it partnered with TSNA, Urban School Food Alliance and USDA to bring an all-day procurement training to Tennessee as part of a national effort to develop a standard bid template and improve procurement guidance for school food service.
The Tennessee Department of Education on an April update call said it has partnered with the Tennessee School Nutrition Association (TSNA), the Urban School Food Alliance and USDA to bring a full-day, eight‑hour procurement training to the state this year.
The training, described by Josh Nunnally, state director of school nutrition, will feature local and national procurement experts and is meant to help local school food authorities (SFAs) improve solicitation development and procurement processes. Nunnally said procurement has been a top request in surveys of SFAs and that the training is intended as a kickoff for additional state resources next year.
Nunnally said the training ties to a national procurement advisory group that is developing a national bid template. He said the work with the Urban School Food Alliance and Harvard Business School — which surveyed SFAs and state agency websites — will provide data to inform future guidance and training. “Many of you on this call have asked for more training around procurement,” Nunnally said.
The state agency said it will continue creating procurement resources after the training, using the national template and survey findings to inform materials and technical assistance. The department asked attendees to watch for additional trainings and resources at future regional meetings and at the S&P (School Nutrition Program) Academy.
The training is scheduled as a full-day event in Tennessee; organizers described it as one step in a multistate effort to standardize procurement templates and improve SFA guidance. The agency also announced hiring a school nutrition attorney, Savannah Reynolds, who it said will help speed policy guidance and procurement prototype documents.
The department invited SFAs to use the training as an early resource while the agency develops further state-specific procurement templates, prototype documents and on‑the‑ground support.
The department plans more procurement-related sessions at upcoming conferences and regional meetings and encouraged SFAs to raise procurement questions with regional consultants so the state can tailor future resources.
