The procurement contact named on the official notice.

PME responses to be submitted via the secure messaging function in eTendersNI for this CfT https://etendersni.gov.uk/epps/home.do

The submission route named on the official notice.

***This is a Pre-Market Engagement Exercise*** The purpose of the preliminary market engagement exercise is to inform suppliers in the current market and gain information to inform a potential future procurement.

At this stage, any information gathered through this Exercise will inform internal business planning and any possible subsequent procurement process and will NOT be appraised in any future tender evaluation exercise.

For the avoidance of doubt, this is the scoping phase and is not part of a formal procurement process.

The EA’s Catering Service in Northern Ireland is responsible for producing approximately 155,000 - 160,000 meals per day to children within nursery, primary, special, and post-primary schools.

The cost of production versus the school meal charge is one of a number of challenges the service is experiencing within the current delivery model.

The EA Catering service wishes to look at possible other models which will address the risks and issues currently being experienced.

This exercise will not include Post Primary Schools (133 locations).

The EA is seeking to establish the costs of alternative catering model which will produce meals, package, deliver and serve in the school sectors detailed.