We are pleased to announce that DIR was recently awarded two major contracting vehicles – the Farm to School Research Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) and the Procurement of Research Evaluation and Statistics Task Orders (PRESTO) contract.

Farm to School (FtS) Research is a single-award BPA developed to provide research services to better understand participation in farm-to-school activities by school food authorities (SFAs) and other stakeholders on behalf of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food and Nutrition Services (FNS). DIR is conducting the first task order under this BPA, The  2023 Farm to School Census (Census), a web-based survey that will be sent to all SFAs in public or charter schools nationwide in fall 2023 and collect information about school year 2022–2023.

PRESTO is a multiple-award, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contract with five scope categories in the U.S. Department of Education. The goal of this 2 billion dollar contract vehicle is to provide a diversified pool of vendors to meet the additional requirements and mission critical needs of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). DIR was awarded the PRESTO IDIQ contract in three of the five categories – (1) education sciences support activities, (2) assessment development support, and (3) recruitment and diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives.