A Brief Introduction About the Food Service Contract
The food service contract is the agreement between the meal providers and their clients. The clients are in the form of public entities, like schools or individuals. For instance, the food service agreements are between the food or meal provider and the school. The food service provider may be a private entity or even an NGO or government service.
The meal provider can be a catering company or a management firm (Kim et al., 2005). After the contract is prepared, it’s the responsibility of the vendor to prepare the food with all the guidelines and safety measures. In most cases, the public and private schools, the Federal and state laws may be regular food service contracts. Some of the foodservice contracts are designed to help the public in emergencies or in case of crisis.
Other contractors provide catering for certain events like conferences or weddings. Another type is the emergency food service contract, which is between the government and a food company. The aim is to provide food in case of natural disasters and other emergencies. The type of contract includes the rules and regulations on what types of equipment will be used to make sure that the food is safe to consume. According to U.S forest services, the agreement may either be federal or local government. Similarly, there is a catering food service, vending meals, etc.
Who Takes the Food Service Contract?
The people involved in this contract are meal providers. In the case of school food service contracts, the people involved are the school management and the food company (Yang et al., 2003). On the other hand, in case of an emergency foodservice contract, the people involved are the government and the food company.
Purpose of the Food Service Contract
The purpose of the Food supply agreement is to make sure that the parties involved abide by the rules and regulations mentioned in the contract. The two parties involved are the meal giver and the meal taker. It’s the responsibility of the meal giver to provide the food to the other party as per the contract details and regulations.
The meal provider should follow the safety measures to make sure that the right kind and safe food is provided to the meal taker. On the other hand, the meal taker should pay the meal giver for the food provided by them and the services.
Contents of Food Service Contract
The contents of the agreement include: –
- Description of services – this part includes the details of the services provided by the meal giver to the meal taker.
- Term of the contract – The start and end date of the contract are mentioned in this part.
- Warranties – In this section, the supplier warranties to provide quality service (Choi et al., 2006).
- Termination – The contract will be terminated in case of a breach by the other party.
- Patent, copyrights – Patent and copyright will be maintained by both the parties.
- Authorization – This section includes the rights of the country under this agreement (Han & Hong, 2002)
- Signature – The signature of both the parties involved should be at the end of the agreement.
- Insurance: The service provider should provide a general insurance and liability policy according to the state laws for as long as the contract is valid
- Cleanliness: The service provider should keep the work area clean of any waste, trash, paper, disposables, combustibles, and other hazardous materials. He should also make sure that any odors or noise that could cause any nuisance to the surroundings should be contained within the work area.
- Payment: Payment process, cycles, modes and quantum should be mentioned clearly. Whether the work is per hour, or on the basis of some units of work done should be clarified. The billable hours and the productive time spent should be written clearly in the contract.
How to Draft the Food Service Contract?
To draft the agreement correctly, the following steps will be taken: –
- Firstly, the name of the parties involved will be mentioned along with the contract term period, that is the start and end date.
- Secondly, the purpose of the contract with details related to termination and the type of contract will be included.
- Thirdly details like services in emergencies, independent contractors, hours of operation, etc. will be mentioned clearly.
- Followed by that are Health and safety requirements, equipment required to complete the contract successfully, maintenance, utilities all be included (Choi et al., 2006).
- Lastly, once all these steps are included, then other things like profit loss, net sales, operating costs will be mentioned along with the signature of both the parties involved in this contract.
Benefits & Drawbacks of the Food Service Contract
Benefits
- The agreements provide a realistic salary for the managers
- There is proper maintenance of hygiene and other safety regulations.
- There is an appreciation of professional management (Choi et al., 2006).
- There is the availability of good training and development programs for management.
- Various methods and procedures are adopted to complete the job efficiently.
- The foodservice contract provided various benefits to the employees when it comes to the compensation plan and other benefits. The reason is that everything is written and signed, so there are fewer chances of fraudulent.
Drawbacks
- There are higher chances of loss in the personal relationship between the student and the outside vendors due to non-maintenance of hygiene standards or not being able to provide good quality food.
- The cost of maintaining the contract and another standard that is mentioned in the contract is, which ultimately increases the cost of food sold to the other party.
What Happens In Case Of Violation?
Either of the parties is allowed to terminate this agreement upon the breach by the other party as per the provision of the agreement. After the written notice attained by the breaching party from the non-breaching party, the cure period will start, and till then, the agreement will still continue in full force and impact (Choi et al., 2006). A breach can be in the case of the meal giver not being able to maintain the food standard, or the other party fails to provide the sum of money as per the contract(1).
To conclude, a foodservice contract is important in various cases like in schools, in emergencies, wedding catering, office, etc. so that the right kind of food is provided to the party in exchange for money or other services.