Lauren Heer

Lauren Heer serves as a key procurement professional within the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), supporting the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s mission to secure safe, shelf-stable, and nutritionally adequate food commodities for federal nutrition assistance programs. She manages the acquisition of processed and preserved agricultural products, primarily focusing on canned, frozen, and dried meats and meat byproducts sourced from federally inspected facilities. Her work directly enables the distribution of high-quality protein sources to schools, food banks, and other federal feeding programs, ensuring compliance with USDA food safety and nutritional standards. Heer handles full-cycle contracting actions, including solicitation development, source selection, and contract administration under FAR and USDA-specific guidelines. Her primary contractor relationship is with Navcor Logistics LLC, a trusted vendor with proven capability in the handling, packaging, and distribution of perishable and frozen meat products under strict federal food safety protocols. Heer maintains a consistent, long-term contracting pattern with this entity, reflecting a preference for vendors with established infrastructure in USDA-compliant processing, cold chain logistics, and HACCP-certified operations. Her engagements emphasize reliability, regulatory adherence, and supply chain resilience over competitive bidding, indicating a strategic reliance on proven performers with specialized expertise in animal protein procurement. Heer’s contracting activity shows no use of socioeconomic set-asides, with 100% of awards issued under full and open competition. This reflects a procurement strategy prioritizing technical capability and operational scale over socioeconomic preferences, consistent with the agency’s need for high-volume, consistent delivery of regulated food commodities. While small business participation is not formally incentivized in her portfolio, all awards remain fully compliant with federal transparency and competition requirements. Her procurement focus is exclusively centered on NAICS 311611 — Animal (except Poultry) Slaughtering — underscoring deep specialization in the sourcing of beef, pork, lamb, and other red meat products from federally inspected slaughter and processing facilities. She possesses technical expertise in meat grading, inspection compliance, and frozen food preservation standards, ensuring all acquisitions meet USDA’s stringent nutritional and safety benchmarks for federal nutrition programs.