Regional Meetings
Winter 2014
USDA Foods
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The HPS Commodity Portal
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HPS staff
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Fee structure and Billing
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Volume Discounts
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HPS experience
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http://epcmec.hpsusdafoods.org
Browsers that work the best
 Mozilla Firefox
 Google Chrome
President & CEO
Tom LaPres
Senior Director of Finance
& Administration
Rick Jones
VP of Member
Development and
Customer Relations
Michelle Pleiness
VP of Contracting and New
Business Development
Kevin Crampton
Contracting
National Contracts
MedAssets-Healthcare
Administration
Furniture, Finishes, &
Equipment
Member Relations
Healthcare Members
Support Services
Interior Design
Member Relations
Associate Members
Technology
Contracting
Regional Contracts
All Segments
Member Relations
Education Members
Business Development
USDA Foods Administration
Corporate
Communications
Member Development
All Segments
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Dedicated Point Person
 Tami Kruger
 epcmec@hpsnet.com
 800-632-4572
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Customer Service hours 8a.m.-5p.m. (est)
Established Vendor/Broker relationships
Backup staff at office
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Transparent
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One bill a year, billed by Awarded Distributor
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In Conjunction with Volume Discount
Annual
Entitlement
Level
HPS
Administrator
Fee
EPC/MEC
Council
Fee
Annual
Member
Fees
0 - 10K
$150
$25
$175
100,001 - 25K
25,001 - 50K
>50K
$300
$475
$675
$50
$75
$100
$350
$550
$775

All discounts given will be passed on to
districts

The awarded distributor (GFS) will distribute
the Volume Discounts in Conjunction with the
EPC/MEC Commodity Administration Bill

Report available on Portal

**May be in year two**
You will be receiving the Volume Discount for School Year (SY) 2013-2014. Disbursement of these
rebates is in conjunction with your one-time annual fee for your Commodity Administration Service
(CAS) for SY 2014-15. The Volume Discount for SY 2013-2014 will be in one of two forms:
GFS Credit Memo:
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The amount shown on the credit memo is the net effect of the credit less the annual fee for
Commodity Administration Services due to EPC/MEC.
This rebate has covered your fee to EPC/MEC and your district is paid in full for CAS for SY
2012-13.
Please process as a typical credit memo with GFS.
GFS Invoice:

The amount shown on the invoice means either:
 The credit earned covered a portion of the CAS fee
OR
 Your district did not accrue any Volume Discounts in SY 2011-12 (there were no
purchases from the manufacturers offering Volume Discounts).

Please submit payment to GFS, which in turn will remit payment for your EPC/MEC CAS fee.
This process eliminates the need for you to cut an additional check for your CAS fee.

If your district does not receive either form of this communication from GFS, your district will
receive a CAS fee bill directly from HPS.
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Transparency
Expertise (USDA Relationships)
A presence at ACDA
Branded Portal website
Excellent Customer Service for your members
 Same Time Zone
 Dedicated point person
 Back-up personnel
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What do commodities mean to customers

Importance of customers staying on track

Concept of Single Bank

Schools earn @$0.27 per meal served
 Do not lose track of this Fact:
Your schools earned this amount by serving meals
▪
▪
▪
▪
This is not “Free Money”
It is not just given to the school
Schools can make a difference based on performance
Schools need to earn and utilize these funds to have a
successful program.
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Average commercial cost of a meal:
Average price of a meal:
Food cost with no commodity: ($1.50/$2.25)
 Food cost with commodity: ($1.50-$0.27)/$2.25)

$1.50
$2.25
66%
54%

Customers must effectively utilize their USDA Foods
to realize this 12% in lower food costs.

Job one is to Spend Your Money
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District decides how many pounds to go to
the processors of their choice.

This decision is made in January/February
timeframe of the prior school year
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Cannot spend any more or less than pounds
allocated
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Lower flexibility in the menu offering
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Allocating dollars to product and unable to
utilize in the current school year
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Low commodity utilization
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High carryover balances
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High level of frustration
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What will it mean for me?????
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Michigan piloted SY 2011-2012
HPS and GLC implemented SY 2013-2014
Ohio and California will start SY 2014-2015
HPS has been successfully managing this
system in the 2013-2014 school year
 Great results
 High member satisfaction
 State Dept. pleased with results
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The system is becoming inefficient
Members do not have sufficient data to
make the decisions they need to make
Converting Commercial Sales to
Commodity Sales
USDA Utilization Directives
 Use it or Lose it.
 What does that mean?

Membership dues are paid once per year

Volume Rebate
 (Members receive 100% of rebates earned)
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Emphasis on Customer Service
 Customer Service hours 8am-5pm EST.
 What does that mean?
 Timeline
 Processed Items
 Volume Discounts
 Brown Box
 DoD Produce

Time saved on Survey Process
 No need to calculate pounds

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Ability to change processors when menu
dictates
Allows members to focus on what they do
best:
 Feed Kids

Do I need to do a survey for Brown Box and DoD if
my district does not want those items?
 No. If you feel it is best for your district to use all
of your entitlement on Processed, do not
complete the survey and all of your entitlement
will go into the Single Bank System

What if I forget to order Brown Box and DoD during
the survey period?

Processed
 Will be included in the Single Bank
 The Councils will have access to those pounds
 They do not go back to Processor, get donated, or
vanish

Non Processed
 Will Carryover and you will see value of that
carryover because you have already landed it
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How much Entitlement can I spend in the
Single Bank System?
What Processors will be available to order
from?
Can I spend too much at a Processor?
What about “Fair Share”?
 Depends on how much you divert to Non-Processed and DoD Produce.
 All remaining entitlement will be available in the Single Bank System.
 As an example if your district has $50,000 in entitlement and you
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divert $5,000 to Non-Processed and an additional $5,000 to DoD
your district would be able to spend $40,000 on in the Single Bank
System on Processed vendors.
 Example
Total Entitlement – Non-Processed Allocated – DoD Allocated = Single Bank Entitlement
($50,000)
($5,000)
($5,000)
($40,000)
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You can order from ANY approved EPC/MEC Processor.
How will I know what items to order?
 GFS Experience and the Green Shield Icon.
 Approved Product List on the Portal
C
C
 HPS has a system in place because per USDA a Fair Share
must be ensured
 Each member has a target of pounds at each Processor
 We will determine targets from purchasing history
 Once the target is reached, you will not be able to order
from that Processor
 If that happens you will call HPS to see if the overall
Councils balance at that Processor would allow you to be
loaded with additional pounds
 HPS will review your purchasing history and then:
▪ Determine a minimum # of pounds that all members
will have
▪ Establish a buffer
▪ This establishes your target
▪ Place order with USDA
 This will ensure Fair Share for all Members
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Every member will start with a “Minimum
Target” from every processor
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HPS will reduce the balances by 10% of
pounds from those members that had zero
usage in any given month

Then HPS will re-distribute those pounds to
members who are utilizing that processor
 A notification will be sent to GFS and you. You will no
longer get the Commodity discount for those vendor’s
products.
 At this point you can email HPS to determine if there are
enough pounds available to be loaded with some more
target pounds.
 If that is not available you can continue to purchase NOI
items from GFS at the Commercial price.
 No. These products are ordered exactly as they are
today
▪
Complete the Survey
▪
Products are assigned to your district
▪
Place order through GFS
▪
Storage Fees for Brown Box still apply
▪
Survey dates for Brown Box Feb. 1st thru 21st
 You can monitor progress on your
Home Page of
http://epcmec.hpsusdafoods.org
 You will be sent a notification
from HPS when your Single Bank
is 95% depleted
 PAL Report
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Yes, these companies are still very important
in your managing of the USDA Foods
program.

They are still your primary source for sales
verification and have many resources that can
help you utilize the program better.
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You Will Always be at 100% - Don’t Worry!
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Email Notifications
 Brown Box Delivery
 EPC Specific Messages
 Thresholds Notifications/Entitlement Notifications
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Reports
 Product List by DC
 Broker Contact Information
 Multiple thermometers for easy monitoring of progress
 Detailed Brown Box order- With estimated delivery dates
 Pie Chart of Manufacturers
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Please do not hesitate to call or email us!!
• By Phone 1-800-632-4572
• By Email epcmec@hpsnet.com
Regional Meetings
Winter 2014
Kevin Crampton | HPS, LLC
Vice President of Contracting and Business Development
kcrampton@hpsnet.com|269-795-3308
USDA Foods
USDA Foods
Monitoring Dollars – districts will no longer
monitor pounds. Instead, they will monitor
their dollars, much like a checkbook, on the
hpsusdafoods.org website.
Spending - a district can make commodity
purchases until 100% of their Total Entitlement
is spend. This data is updated daily on the
hpsusdafoods.org site.
USDA Foods
Diverted to Processors
Tyson
$20,000
JTM
$20,000
Schwan's $20,000
$19,500
Jennie O $20,000
$17,000
Pilgrims Pride
$20,000
$100,000
Carry Over = $12,000 (under spent)
Actual Spend
$18,000
$17,500
$16,000
$88,000
USDA Foods
Diverted to Processors
Tyson
$20,000
JTM
$20,000
Schwan's $20,000
$19,500
Jennie O $20,000
$17,000
Pilgrims Pride
$20,000
$100,000
Single Bank
Allowance
$ 20,000
McCain
Gold Kist
Land O Lakes
Actual Spend
$18,000
$17,500
$16,000
$88,000
$10,000
$ 5,000
$ 7,000
$22,000
Additional $22,000 of commodity items to bring down the overall
balance.
USDA Foods
Per USDA directive the commodity fair market
value will not come off of your PAL report until
it is delivered to your facility. Thus a district will
no longer have a balance at the processor or
processor.
Member Order Summary Report
USDA Foods
Member Diversion
USDA Foods
Truck Assignment – Brown Box
USDA Foods
Product List
USDA Foods