Aug. 3—Fairly soon, about 2,000 construction workers are expected to descend on Howard County to help build the multimillion square foot electrical vehicle battery manufacturing plant on the Kokomo's far northeast side.

Those workers will need something to eat for lunch.

That's why the Greater Kokomo Economic Development Alliance and Yates Construction are partnering to encourage local food truck vendors and local restaurant owners to respond to a Request for Proposals (RFP) seeking food vendors for the work site.

Construction on the Stellantis and Samsung SDI EV battery plant is now expected to begin in September and take two years to complete. At peak construction — January 2023 through January 2024 — the project will employ 2,000 workers.

According to the RFP, food vendors are needed from September to December 2024. Food vendors will deliver and serve lunches from one of several climate-controlled food tents on the worksite, with lunch being served from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. each day, seven days a week.

Vendors must have the ability to serve large quantities of food quickly and efficiently and must submit weekly menus in advance to Yates Construction. According to the RFP, prepared box meals with a drink will "work best." No alcohol or energy drinks will be allowed to be served.

Yates Construction will select which food vendors will be able to serve on the construction site; candidates will be evaluated on their food service experience, financial, technical and other resources. The construction company is not charging any service fee.

RFP submissions can be mailed to Christy Wallis, Yates Construction, 2813 N. 500 East, Kokomo, IN 46901 or emailed to cwallis@wgyates.com. They must be received by Aug. 15.

For a copy of the RFP form, visit the online version of this article or greaterkokomo.com/rfp.