USDA commodity procurement awards, explained
USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) buys US-produced food for school meals and other food programs, and has it delivered. Each purchase leaves a trail of public files: the solicitation, the award notice and, for most awards, a Bid Array. Here is how to read them, and what the 265 domestic awards from Nov 7, 2025 to Nov 7, 2026 look like.[1]
USDA food-award lanes in your state
862 USDA food-award lanes touch Texas as of Nov 7, 2026. 228 of them opened their delivery window this week (Nov 1–7, 2026).
What AMS buys
AMS's master solicitation for domestic purchases says the contracts are
"for various commodities for use in domestic food distribution programs, such as the National School Lunch Program, Commodity Supplemental Food Program, Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations, and The Emergency Food Assistance programs." It adds: "USDA Foods under this contract must be a product of the United States".[2]
The award notice names each vendor, its contract number and the plant it ships from. As of Nov 7, 2026, 209 vendors have lanes with deliveries still due, from 94 award notices.[1]
From solicitation to award: three files
- Solicitation (the bid invitation). "The IFB will specify the commodity; delivery periods; destinations; quantities; the closing time for receipt of bids; acceptance date".[2] Each line carries a "date range product required by" and a postal ZIP code.[3]
- Bids. Vendors bid electronically in WBSCM, USDA's Web Based Supply Chain Management system.[4] Prices are offered "f.o.b. (or f.a.s. vessel) at the destinations listed in the applicable IFB or on a shipping point basis".[2]
- Award. AMS posts the Purchase Award notice (PCA, a PDF) on the procurement portal, and for most awards a Bid Array spreadsheet next to it.[5][1]
| File | What it gives you | What it doesn't |
|---|---|---|
| Award notice (PCA) | Award date, vendor, contract number, plant location, destination, quantity, unit price; sometimes "f.o.b. destination" | A carrier, what the haul pays, a pickup date |
| Bid Array | A second USDA record per line: plant, destination, quantity awarded and every bid received | The legal award: when it disagrees with the PCA, the PCA is the award |
| Solicitation | Each line's "Required by" delivery period, and multi-stop LOTs | An appointment, or whether a delivery already happened |
How many awards, and when
265 domestic food-purchase awards (PCAs) had award dates from Nov 7, 2025 to Nov 7, 2026, with 70,307 award lines between them.[1] They come in bursts: the busiest award months were Dec 2025 (44), Aug 2026 (41) and May 2026 (39), and Oct 2026 had 1.
Show the numbers as a table
| Award month | Awards |
|---|---|
| Dec 2025 | 44 |
| Jan 2026 | 14 |
| Feb 2026 | 35 |
| Mar 2026 | 8 |
| Apr 2026 | 15 |
| May 2026 | 39 |
| Jun 2026 | 22 |
| Jul 2026 | 16 |
| Aug 2026 | 41 |
| Sep 2026 | 30 |
| Oct 2026 | 1 |
By week of first posting on the portal, 43 of the last 52 weeks had at least one new award and 33 had three or more; the median was 3 a week. The four weeks before this one had 1 in total, and this week (Nov 1–7, 2026) has 0 so far.[1] That is why the awardlanes feed also lists lanes whose delivery window opens that week, not only new awards.
How to read a PCA line
Under "PURCHASE DETAILS", each awarded line sits under its vendor and contract. The columns, with the values from one real lane (contract 12-3J14-26-C-1989):
| Column on the PCA | What it means | In this lane |
|---|---|---|
| Contractor / Contract Number | The vendor USDA bought from, and its contract | NEBRASKA BEAN, INC., 12-3J14-26-C-1989 |
| Plant Location | Where the vendor says the food ships from, spelled as printed | CLEARWATER, NE |
| Destination | The city and state the line is delivered to. The record names a city, not the receiver | HOUSTON, TX |
| Quantity, UOM | How much on the line, and the unit: CS cases, LB pounds, GAL gallons, EA each | 1,680 CS (cases) per line, 18 deliveries |
| Price | The delivered price of the food per unit, not the cost of freight | On the PCA page; our lane cards don't repeat it |
Above its PURCHASE DETAILS table, a PCA can say how the food was bought. This one says: "The materials were purchased on an f.o.b. destination basis." (USDA award notice (PCA), page 44). Under FAR 52.247-34, "f.o.b. destination" means delivered "Free of expense to the Government"[6], and the vendor must "Pay and bear all charges to the specified point of delivery."[7] When a notice says nothing, that doesn't make it f.o.b. origin; we just don't say who pays.
Here is the same lane as an awardlanes card. Every card links to the USDA page it came from; a separate check on Nov 6, 2026, with code that shares nothing with our engine, rebuilt 30 of 30 random lanes from USDA's files.[8]
Window opened this week NE → TX · contract 12-3J14-26-C-1989
USDA awarded NEBRASKA BEAN, INC. 18 deliveries of LENTILS DRY PKG 12/2 LB (1,680 CS each) from the CLEARWATER, NE plant to HOUSTON, TX, delivering Nov 1, 2026 – Apr 15, 2027 (contract 12-3J14-26-C-1989, award Sep 24, 2026). The award notice says it was purchased f.o.b. destination (the vendor pays the freight).
NEBRASKA BEAN, INC.: 7 awards posted on USDA's procurement portal in 12 months.
- Quantities are as awarded; USAspending shows the contract was modified later.
Open USDA page Bid Array Solicitation (Required by), page 129 USDA portal listing USAspending award
USDA award notice (PCA), page 44 · data as of Nov 7, 2026
The "Required by" period sets the window
Every line in a solicitation carries a "Required by" range: the dates the food is due at the destination.[3] awardlanes takes each lane's window from those periods for the lines still due, so the window covers the deliveries still to come, not the award-wide dates on the PCA. For the lane above that is Nov 1, 2026 – Apr 15, 2027. (Solicitation (Required by), page 129)
Two rules from the same master solicitation shape the delivery: an unloading appointment "not less than 72 hours prior to delivery", and early delivery only "if the recipient agency agrees to accept early delivery", at no extra cost to the government and with AMS staff on hand for any required checks.[9]
Texas, as of Nov 7, 2026: 862 lanes. 228 opened their window this week (Nov 1–7, 2026), 577 open it later and 57 were already inside their window before this week.[1]
Search your states
Pick a state to see its count and top lanes. Each one links to the USDA page it came from.
862 USDA food-award lanes touch Texas as of Nov 7, 2026. 228 of them opened their delivery window this week (Nov 1–7, 2026).
Brokers: for how this turns into freight work, see Government freight contracts for brokers. For each source and what it does and doesn't prove, see Where the data comes from.
Questions
What is a USDA PCA?
The PCA is the Purchase Award notice: the PDF that USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service posts when it awards a commodity solicitation. It gives the award date, each vendor and contract number, the plant location, and every awarded line with its destination, quantity, unit and price.
Where are USDA commodity procurement awards posted?
On USDA's WBSCM public procurement portal, portal.wbscm.usda.gov/ppp. Each solicitation there links its award notice (PCA) and, for most awards, a Bid Array spreadsheet. The solicitation itself gives each line's "Required by" delivery period. [5][3]
How many USDA food purchase awards are made in a year?
265 domestic awards (PCAs) had award dates from Nov 7, 2025 to Nov 7, 2026, with 70,307 award lines between them. They come in bursts: Dec 2025 had 44 and Oct 2026 had 1. [1]
Does the price on a USDA award tell me what the freight pays?
No. The PCA price is the delivered price of the food per unit, such as per case or per pound. When the award is f.o.b. destination, the vendor delivers free of expense to the government and pays all charges to the delivery point, so the freight is the vendor's cost and the award doesn't say what it is. [6][7]
Does awardlanes list every award?
No. We list domestic food purchases with plants and destinations in the 48 contiguous states and DC. We leave a lane out when USDA's two files disagree, when the contract value moved by more than 10%, when plant and destination are the same city, or when the destination is an ocean shipment code. Where the data comes from has the details. [10]
Get these lanes for your states every week
Data as of Nov 7, 2026. Every lane links to the USDA page it came from.