Justification Memo

United States

Department of

Agriculture

Food and

Nutrition

Service

3101 Park

Center Drive

Alexandria, VA

22302-1500

TO: Julie Wise

OMB Desk Office

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs

Office of Management and Budget

THROUGH: Rachelle Ragland-Greene

Planning and Regulatory Affairs Branch

Food and Nutrition Service

FROM: Sarah Zapolsky

Project Officer

Office of Research and Analysis

Food and Nutrition Service

DATE: December 16, 20110

SUBJECT: Justification for Change re: number of reminder notes sent to telephone survey participants in Study approved under OMB# 0584-0563

The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) in the US Department of Agriculture is

Seeking OMB’s approval to increase the number of reminder notes sent to participants in the telephone survey portion of The Study to Assess the Effect of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) Participation on Food Security in the Post-ARRA (American Reinvestment and Recovery Act) Environment. The purpose of this change is to maintain response rates and to deal with potential nonresponse bias.

A variety of efforts are being undertaken to maximize response and minimize nonresponse bias, especially during the baseline interview, as described in the original section B3, pg. 39 of approved OMB package #AG-3198-D-10-0051: Part B.

In addition to those efforts, which include a pre-notification letter and completion incentives, given the short time the survey is in the field, FNS would like to add to these efforts the sending of one reminder postcard and a reminder letter to both baseline households who have not followed up and send the same to the follow-up samples six months later. This is because FNS expects response rates to increase more if reminders are sent to both baseline and follow up households. As sample frame data has been received from the SNAP State offices, more cases than anticipated do not have telephone numbers in the data, so more time than expected has been required to obtain phone numbers for use in the CATI survey. In some States as many as 30 percent of the State-provided cases do not include telephone numbers. In order to assure contact with the newly certified SNAP households within the first 30 days of certification SNAP benefits it is imperative to increase the number of contacts with the potential respondents once they are located.

AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER