Food and Beverage
Minimization of Costs of Meals and Refreshments
All OJP-funded contracts and grants must follow these guidelines for the costs of refreshments and meals provided at the conferences.
Refreshments
Refreshments include light food and/or drinks such as coffee, tea, milk, juice, soft drinks, donuts, bagels, fruit, vegetables, pretzels, cookies, chips, or other snack items.
- The cost of these items, plus any hotel service costs (e.g., labor cost for room setup), cannot exceed 23 percent of the locality M&IE rate per attendee per day.
- For example, if the M&IE rate for a particular location is $54 per person per day, then the total refreshment costs cannot exceed $12.42 ($54 x 23%) per attendee per day.
Meals
The cost of any meal provided, plus any hotel service costs, cannot exceed 150 percent of the locality M&IE rate per meal per attendee.
- For example, if lunch will be provided in a locality with a $49/day M&IE rate, and the lunch rate is $13, then the cost of the lunch provided at the conference cannot exceed $19.50 ($13 x 150%) per attendee per day.
- All conference attendees must ensure that the provided meal is deducted from their claimed M&IE; in this example, the recipient would deduct $13 from the amount of M&IE claimed for the lunch provided.