RFA - SNAP (revised)

OMB Number: 0584-0512

Expiration Date: 09/30/2012

According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is 0584-0512. The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to average 150 hours per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information.

Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to the Food and Nutrition Service, Office of Research and Analysis, 3101 Park Center Drive, Room 1014, Alexandria, VA 22302.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

FOOD AND NUTRITION SERVICE

REQUEST FOR APPLICATION

SUMMER ELECTRONIC BENEFITS TRANSFER FOR CHILDREN (SEBTC)

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Model

MULTIPLE AWARDS ANTICIPATED

July 30, 2010

CFDA # 10.559

SIGNIFICANT DEMONSTRATION DATES
August 27, 2010	Letter of Intent (LOI) to Apply and Written Questions Due to FNS
September 2010	Conference Call with all States Submitting LOI
October 29, 2010	Application Due to FNS
November 2010	Awards Announced
December 2010	Award Funding in Place and Funds Available
December 2010	Orientation Conference Call for all Awardees
End of 2010/2011 School Year	Preparation Phase Complete
Start of Summer 2011	Benefit Delivery Phase of Demonstration Begins (3 months)
End of Summer 2011	Benefit Delivery Stops
November 2011	Lessons-Learned Conference for all Awardees at FNS Headquarters

SUMMER ELECTRONIC BENEFITS TRANSFER FOR CHILDREN (SEBTC) DEMONSTRATION - SNAP Model

REQUEST FOR APPLICATION (RFA)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

BACKGROUND……………………..……………………………………………………………….……….…………………….	3
SUMMER ELECTRONIC BENEFITS TRANSFER DEMONSTRATION CONCEPT……………………………	4
REQUEST FOR APPLICATION……………..………………………………………………………………………………….	5
DEMONSTRATION DETAILS…………………………………………………………………………………………………..	7
DEMONSTRATION DELIVERABLES……………..………………………………………………………………………….	14
USE OF DEMONSTRATION FUNDS………….…..………………………………………………………………………..	15
APPLICATION PROCESS…………………………………………………………………………………………………………	16
APPLICATION CHECKLIST………………………………………………………………………………………………	16
APPLICATION EVALUATION PROCESS…………………………………………………………………………………...	19
ATTACHMENT A—LETTER OF INTENT TO APPLY……………….……………………………….…………………	21
ATTACHMENT B—APPLICATION TEMPLATE………………………………..……………………………………….	22
ATTACHMENT C—EVALUATION COOPERATION AGREEMENT………………………………………………	28

SUMMER ELECTRONIC BENEFITS TRANSFER FOR CHILDREN (SEBTC) DEMONSTRATION, SNAP Model

REQUEST FOR APPLICATION (RFA)

BACKGROUND

USDA is committed to ending childhood hunger by 2015. A key challenge in meeting this commitment is the problem of summer hunger and food insecurity. During the school year, the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs provide free and reduced-price meals to low-income children, including many who would have inadequate access to food in the absence of school meals. But those programs end when school ends for the summer. Some studies show that food insecurity increases over the summer months, the period when school lunches and breakfasts are unavailable to most children.

While the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) enriches the lives of millions of low-income children during the summer, both by making nutritious food available and by providing resources that support summer education and recreation programs, it reaches only a small fraction of the children served during the school year. Nationally, peak SFSP participation rarely has exceeded 10-15 percent of average participation in free and reduced-price school lunches. It has fluctuated around 2 million children per summer for the last twenty years, even as participation in the school meal programs has increased steadily. The SFSP provides critical support for many children, but about 4 of every 5 potentially needy children appear to lack access to subsidized meals on an average day during the months when school is not in session.

The 2010 Agriculture Appropriations Act (P.L. 111-80) provided authority and funding for USDA to demonstrate and rigorously evaluate methods of reducing or preventing food insecurity and hunger among children in the summer months. The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) will conduct a range of demonstration projects that test enhancements to the existing SFSP, as well as ones that test household food benefits to reach food insecure school children and prevent hunger in the summer. The Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children (SEBTC) demonstration will test a household-based method of delivering nutrition assistance to low-income children during the summer. This solicitation is one part of this multi-part project. Under this solicitation:

• FNS seeks 2 to 4 States to demonstrate the provision of household-based summer food benefits using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) electronic benefit transfer (EBT) technology as the delivery mechanism for summers 2011 to 2013.

• The 2011 demonstrations will not be statewide, but will operate in one or more contiguous School Food Authorities (SFAs) within the State. The demonstration area must have approximately 10,000 school children certified for free or reduced-price meals under the National School Lunch Program. The proposed demonstration area can be urban (e.g., a small portion of an SFA in a large city) or rural (e.g., many contiguous SFAs in sparsely populated areas). Proposed demonstration areas must have approximately 10,000 children certified for free or reduced-price meals but may vary greatly in geographic size according to population density.

• In the first summer (2011) about one-fourth of the eligible children in the demonstration area will receive benefits; about one-half will receive benefits in the second summer (2012) if operations in the first summer prove feasible, while remaining participants will serve as controls. All grades (K-12) are included. Year round school will be excluded from the demonstration.

• Activity over the course of several summers is envisioned:

  • In 2011, proof-of-concept demonstrations will test the feasibility of delivering summer food benefits to school children via EBT technology. The families of approximately 2,500 children certified to receive free or reduced price school meals within the demonstration area will receive a benefit. For planning purposes FNS is using a tentative benefit level of $60/month per eligible child throughout the summer, which is comparable to the monthly value of school lunches. At this level, depending on the length of the summer in the demonstration area, about $375,000 to $450,000 in food benefits will be provided in the demonstration area.⁰

  • In 2012, demonstrations that successfully deliver benefits will continue and the number of children receiving benefits will double to about 5,000 children certified to receive free or reduced price school meals. At the tentative $60 level about $800,000 to $1,000,000 in food benefits would be provided over the summer in the demonstration area.

  • Also FNS intends to expand demonstrations to additional states for summer 2012. These additional demonstrations are intended to evaluate whether the impact on food security of household-based delivery of summer benefits differs in urban and rural areas or varies by specific community and/or demonstration characteristics (such as region of the country, characteristics of the local school system, or different levels of benefit amount). A second RFA will be issued to offer the opportunity to expand demonstrations to more states and geographic areas in summer 2012.

  • In 2013, subject to the availability of funds, successful demonstrations will continue to operate for another summer.

SUMMER EBT FOR CHILDREN CONCEPT

The vision for the demonstrations is the following:

• School Food Authorities (SFAs) and State EBT, SNAP and School Meal Program (SMP) officials will work together to arrange for the families of children certified to receive free or reduced price school meals to receive an electronic benefits card valid for use in the summer.

• If feasible, States may choose to integrate summer food benefits onto existing SNAP cards for those families participating in SNAP while providing non-SNAP families a separate SEBTC card. For households that participate in SNAP, this hybrid model would allow folding the summer benefit into the SNAP allotment and following all SNAP rules regarding issuance and expunging of benefits. Households that are not SNAP participants would receive a separate card which might have different expunging rules (see demonstration details section).

• If a State proposes to use a hybrid model, FNS will also entertain applications that propose to randomly assign SNAP families so that some receive summer benefits on their SNAP card and some receive summer benefits on an SEBTC card. This approach would potentially provide a strong basis for determining the impact of a single, integrated card on consumer acceptance, benefit usage, operational efficiency, and administrative costs. States that propose a hybrid model are encouraged to consider, but are not required to adopt, the random assignment variant.

• Parents use the card at SNAP-authorized food retailers to purchase SNAP-eligible food for their children to compensate for the loss of school meals during the summer. Ideally, benefits would be paid through the existing SNAP EBT redemption system.

• The ultimate objective is to reduce the level of summer food insecurity among children to a level at or below that of childhood food insecurity during the school year.

• A robust evaluation of the demonstrations is completed before the debate on the next Child Nutrition Reauthorization bill, to provide Congress with definitive data on the feasibility of the model and its impact on food security and nutrition.

While this RFA pertains to testing delivery of benefits through SNAP-based EBT technology, FNS also is planning to conduct demonstration projects testing a WIC-based EBT model. These will occur simultaneously under a separate RFA. The SNAP-based and WIC-based EBT demonstrations cannot both take place in the same demonstration area.

REQUEST FOR APPLICATION

Letters of Intent are due August 27, 2010.

Applications are due October 29, 2010.

Awards will be made in November 2010.

Preparation for the demonstration, including selection of children and distribution of cards to parents, must be complete before the end of the 2010/2011 School Year.

Benefits must be available to purchase food starting the 1^st day after the end of the 2010/2011 School Year.

Overview. FNS invites eligible State Agencies receiving Federal food assistance funds to apply for an opportunity to conduct demonstrations of using electronic benefits transfer (EBT) technology to deliver food benefits during the summer of 2011 through 2013 to families of children who are certified for free and reduced-price school meals. This demonstration will NOT replace any existing meal service subsidized under SFSP or through the Seamless Summer Option under the National School Lunch Program, but will be conducted concurrently with normal SFSP/Seamless operations where they are available. The purpose of these proof-of-concept demonstrations is to determine the feasibility of delivering summer food benefits to school children using existing SNAP EBT infrastructure as the delivery mechanism.

The 2011 demonstrations will take place in contiguous school food authorities (SFAs) that contain a total of 10,000 children certified for free and reduced-price schools meals. States may propose a demonstration area that consists of one large SFA with 10,000 children or a demonstration area comprised of several contiguous SFAs (for example, in rural areas) that collectively contain 10,000 children. The households of approximately one-fourth of the free and reduced-price certified children will be randomly selected to receive a demonstration benefit tentatively valued at $60 per eligible child per month (see “demonstration details” section below for discussion of how benefit level will be determined). All households receiving benefits and a sample of households not receiving benefits will be asked to participate in an evaluation which will be separately conducted by FNS, but facilitated by the awardee. If successful, in 2012 the number of households receiving benefits will expand: about half of the 10,000 children certified for free and reduced-price meals will be randomly selected to receive the demonstration benefit.

Eligible State Agencies. State agencies eligible to serve as lead agency for the demonstration are State agencies that have agreements with FNS to administer either the School Meal Programs, that is the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP), or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). FNS will accept applications from only one eligible State agency per State.

State Agency Coordination. These demonstrations will require considerable close coordination among State Agencies involved in delivery of Federal food benefits. This RFA is being sent to all eligible State Agencies. FNS expects that State Agencies responsible for overseeing School Meal Programs and SFAs delivering these programs, as well as SNAP State agencies and SNAP- EBT functions will be involved. States may wish to propose a role for their Governor’s office given the level of coordination needed. FNS is alerting Governors in eligible States of the opportunities offered by this RFA.

Potential applicants should note that under a separate RFA limited to States with operating WIC-EBT systems, WIC-based models are also eligible for funding. Overlap of WIC-based and SNAP-based models in a single demonstration area will not be allowed. Therefore, to avoid overlap with an application involving your State’s WIC State Agency, applicants in States with operating WIC-EBT systems also should coordinate with their WIC State Agency.

Recipients of this RFA must determine among themselves whether the State wishes to apply and, if it does wish to apply, which State Agency should be the lead for the project, and thus the official applicant. FNS will only accept one application per State for a summer benefit demonstration delivered through SNAP-EBT technology. Immediate coordination among relevant State Agencies is critical if your State wishes to apply.

Award. In November 2010, FNS will select 2 to 4 State Agencies to represent their State as lead agency for the demonstration.

• Families of children in the demonstration area of each selected State will receive a total of approximately $375,000 to $450,000 in food benefits in 2011 (depending upon the length of the summer recess in the demonstration area). Successful 2011 demonstrations will distribute about $800,000 to $1,000,000 per summer in food benefits to demonstration-area families in 2012 and 2013.

• State and Local Agencies will receive start-up and operational administrative costs, to be proposed by applicant. The administrative cost budget proposed by the lead agency should cover all participating government organizations (e.g., schools, non-lead State Agencies) and private partners (e.g., EBT processor).

• These awards will be governed by amendments to State Agency Plans of Operation or Federal/State Agreements.

• Because the treatment households must be able to begin purchasing food with the demonstration benefits as near as possible to the day after the last day of the 2010/2011 school year, work should begin immediately upon notification of award.

2012 Expansion. Should a 2011 proof-of-concept demonstration be successful, FNS will expand funding to the State to serve more families in the demonstration area for up to two more summers contingent upon continued success. Award under this RFA will commit awardees which conduct successful proof-of-concept demonstrations to continue operating the demonstration in the summers of 2012 and 2013. FNS also plans to issue a 2012 round of competitive RFAs to expand demonstrations to additional states in 2012. These additional demonstrations are intended to evaluate whether the impact on food security of household-based delivery of summer benefits differs in urban and rural areas or by specific community and/or demonstration characteristics (such as region of the country, characteristics of the local school system, or different levels of benefit amount). States operating successful 2011 projects do not have to apply under the 2012 competitive RFA. Successful proof-of-concept states are encouraged to discuss with FNS whether expansion to additional geographical areas within their State would advance the evaluation and meet the evaluation’s criteria for choosing additional demonstration sites. If FNS agrees that an evaluation-relevant expansion would be feasible, FNS may approve the state for additional demonstration areas without additional competition.

Evaluation. FNS will award and manage a contract for an independent evaluation of SEBTC. As a condition of award, the SEBTC awardee and its partner State- and local-level agencies will be required to cooperate fully with the evaluation contractor to randomly assign eligible households in the demonstration area to treatment and control groups (i.e., receive and not receive the benefit), ensure the integrity of the evaluation, the privacy of demonstration families, and the quality of the data provided to the contractor before, during, and after SEBTC operations.

What to Expect in this RFA. All of the information in this RFA should be carefully reviewed by applicants. While specific instructions about how to apply appear in the Application Instructions and the Application Template (Attachment B), information throughout this RFA should be carefully considered to make the application as responsive as possible to this RFA. The remainder of this RFA is divided into the following sections:

• Demonstration Details. Including details concerning timeline, benefits, site selection, administration, retailer involvement, EBT integration, household confidentiality, training, existing SFSP/Seamless Summer Option services, costs and evaluation.

• Demonstration Deliverables. Including activities, deliverables and instructions for use of grant funds.

• Application Process. Including a Pre-application Checklist and an Application Checklist.

• Application Evaluation Process

• Attachments

1. Letter of Intent to Apply

2. Application Template

3. Evaluation Cooperation Agreement

DEMONSTRATION DETAILS

Timeline and Activities. The applicant shall propose a schedule for all of the activities necessary to complete this demonstration. Activities should be scheduled so that food purchasing by households may begin as near as possible to the first day after the last day of the 2010/2011 school year. The applicant should plan for the following activities to occur before the end of the school year:

• design, acquisition and programming of the EBT-based summer benefit cards;

• reprogramming of relevant EBT-related code by EBT staff and/or contractors;

• working with local SFAs to initially contact potential demonstration households;

• working with FNS and/or the evaluation contractor to randomly select participating households into treatment and control groups;⁰

• working with local SFAs to notify and train households to receive the benefit;

• notification and training of retailers;⁰

• reprogramming of retailer register systems, if necessary;

• distribution of the cards to treatment households.

Benefits shall expire as near as possible to the day before the first day of the 2011/2012 school year. After benefits expire, the applicant should plan for the following activities to occur:

• Expunging and return of any unused funds on a schedule agreeable to FNS.

• Preparation of a Summer 2011 progress report, due November of 2011.

Throughout the operation of the demonstration, the awardee will collaborate with the evaluation contractor selected by FNS. At a minimum, the awardee will be responsible for providing contact information for the head of household of families with free and reduced-price certified children in the demonstration area, and facilitating access to these families for pre and post benefit data collection.

Benefit Levels. Each household selected to participate in the treatment group will receive benefits for all children in the household who are certified for free and reduced-priced school meals at the end of the 2010/2011 school year. For planning purposes, the benefit level is $60 per month per eligible child, including pro-rated benefits for partial months if necessary. This amount is comparable to the monthly benefit level of free subsidized lunches under the NSLP, or roughly comparable to the food cost portion of free lunches plus free breakfasts under the NSLP/SBP.

The benefit level has not been set definitively because FNS is aware of several questions surrounding the appropriate level and timing of the benefit and wants input from applicants in regard to the following:

• Economies of scale. FNS is open to ideas from applicants as to whether the benefit level per child should be adjusted for economies of scale in large households as well as to whether any benefit reduction factor should differ for free students vs. reduced-price students.

• Impact on food retailers. While b enefits should be made available as soon as possible after the last day of school (to minimize risk of hunger), food retailers may have difficulty knowing what foods and what quantities of foods should be stocked. FNS is open to ideas from applicants on how to address this issue (e.g., some form of staggered issuance, advance notice to retailers of when summer benefits will be available to customers, etc.).

For purposes of comparability and evaluation, the benefit level and structure must be the same for all 2011 proof-of-concept demonstrations. FNS will determine the actual benefit level/structure in consultation with all states awarded a demonstration. Awardees must agree to use the benefit level/structure agreed upon by FNS after these consultations.

If a treatment household contains more than one eligible child, that household will receive one summer EBT card loaded with the total benefits for all eligible children. Please note that SEBTC benefits will be exempt from State and local sales tax.

Benefit Delivery. The applicant shall propose which entity(ies) will be responsible for developing and distributing the summer EBT cards and how data from participating households necessary to create and track the cards shall be collected and maintained. The applicant shall propose the method of card distribution (e.g. home delivery by US mail or other means, pick-up at school or SNAP office) and the issuance cycle for benefits. The applicant should bear in mind the need to maintain confidentiality of students’ free or reduced-price status when considering how to deliver benefits. Households receiving summer EBT cards must be able to redeem them for SNAP approved foods at any SNAP authorized retailer. Benefits should be provided or loaded onto the EBT cards on a monthly or more frequent basis rather than in one lump sum at the beginning of the summer. Applicants should describe their proposed issue method and cycle, as well as how partial months’ benefits will be loaded.

Site and Sample Characteristics.

Sample size. The applicant shall propose a demonstration area consisting of one or more contiguous School Food Authorities (SFAs) containing approximately 10,000 children certified for free and reduced-price school meals at the end of the 2010/2011 school year. The demonstration area may be a portion of a large urban SFA or may consist of many rural SFAs that collectively have 10,000 eligible children.

Student selection. The law (P.L. 111-80) providing funding and authority for these demonstrations requires FNS to use the most rigorous evaluation design possible, specifically naming random assignment as the preferred design. Therefore, to ensure the highest possible standard of evaluation, awardees in cooperation with the evaluation contractor must randomly assign households in the demonstration to a treatment group or a control group. Awardees will be responsible for furnishing the contact information of every child (in both groups) participating in the demonstration, in order for the evaluator to create a sampling frame and conduct interviews.

Application requirements. In the process of developing the demonstration sample, the applicant shall:

• Identify and secure the cooperation of SFAs and specific schools under the jurisdiction of an SFA to be included in the demonstration area.

• Propose how the households in the demonstration area will be contacted initially.

• Propose how the applicant would request and obtain household participation and confidentiality waivers for use by demonstration partners (e.g., the EBT agency, the evaluation contractor) to contact participating households.

• Propose how contact data of those agreeing to participate will be transferred to partners, including the evaluation contractor.

Administrative Structure. These demonstrations will require close cooperation among local SFAs, schools, State Agencies overseeing School Meals Programs, SNAP, and EBT operations, and EBT processors. Applicants should propose and justify the most appropriate administrative structure for the demonstration, determining which division or agency should lead the project and how partners will communicate and coordinate. The applicant must identify and provide resumes for the project leader as well as lead personnel in each participating entity, including an evaluation liaison who is authorized to coordinate State agency activities with the evaluation contractor selected by FNS. Applicants shall provide letters of commitment from individuals authorized to commit the identified staff and/or agency resources within all of the partnering local and State agencies and EBT contractors expected to participate in this project.

Retailer Participation and Training. All SNAP authorized retailers must participate in SEBTC. Summer EBT cards will be valid for the same items as are SNAP cards. Proposals should take into account the need for interoperability of summer EBT cards should participants need to use their benefits outside of the demonstration area. Retailers throughout the State, not just in the demonstration area, must be able to redeem demonstration food benefits. Proposals should attempt to offer the simplest, most seamless process to food retailers as possible. Applicants shall propose adequate training to food retailers as required by their proposed system of using and processing summer EBT benefits. At a minimum, retailers in selected States must be informed of the demonstration project and provided information about the summer EBT cards that will be used.

Integration with Current EBT System. SEBTC will utilize the existing EBT system currently in place for SNAP. This does not mean that the State is required to treat summer demonstration cards exactly the same as regular SNAP cards. Rather, applicants should propose how the SNAP infrastructure will be used in the most efficient way to provide summer demonstration benefits, provide user support, and track the redemptions from individual households. Applicants should discuss whether, and if so how, they will establish new bank identification numbers (BINs) for this demonstration so that EBT processors can differentiate SEBTC transactions from SNAP transactions. Proposals also should discuss why the chosen design was selected. Applicants may wish to consider, as a template, their State’s plans for providing SNAP in the event of pandemic (P-SNAP) or disaster (D-SNAP).

When planning the EBT process for this demonstration, the applicant should consider the needs of the user and retailers. The system should be as simple as possible for retailers to manage and the cards should be intuitively easy to use by recipient households. The summer EBT process developed by the applicant should address concerns including, but not limited to:

• identification of benefits as “summer EBT for children” demonstration benefits;

• branding to encourage and emphasize their use for food for the household’s school age children;

• the potential impact on household acceptance and ease-of-use of integrating summer benefits onto SNAP cards, versus providing separate summer benefit cards for SNAP households;

• imprinting that alerts households about expiration of benefits at the end of the summer;

• interoperability of EBT cards among States;

• training and support of users;

• potential for stigma felt by treatment households resulting from the appearance of or wording on the card; and

• expunging of benefits and return of expunged funds to FNS.

The awardee, in collaboration with its State and local partners, may need to make adjustments to its SNAP EBT systems and procedures. In some States, such adjustments may call for EBT contract modifications. Applicants should think carefully about the time and effort needed to modify contracts. Proposals must discuss whether, why, when and how contract modifications will need to be made. If no contract modifications are necessary, the proposal should discuss why not. In order to alleviate potential time pressures inherent in the contract modification process, applicants are encouraged to begin developing contract modifications or to place options in new contracts that would cover the SEBTC demonstration as soon as awards under the RFA are made.

Use and Confidentiality of Household Information. Awardees will need to identify and ultimately contact households with children certified as eligible for free and reduced-price school meals in the SFAs and/or schools participating in the demonstration project. In addition, the evaluation contractor will need this information to collect data for evaluation purposes. The first priority of the awardee with respect to this information is protecting household confidentiality. The law governing the School Meal Programs, the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act, places limits on the disclosure of free and reduced-price information. While an individual child’s free or reduced-price status may be shared with other Federal nutrition program administrators (such as SNAP), the law does not authorize release of household contact information for these children without first obtaining the consent of the child’s parent or guardian. Therefore, for purposes of the SEBTC, the SFA or school(s) participating in the demonstration project must be the entity that makes the first contact about the demonstration project with the households of children certified for free and reduced-price meals. Once the SFA receives consent from the households to release information, the future involvement of the SFA in the demonstration project can vary.

Applicants should thoroughly describe the role of SFAs in the demonstration project, including safeguards to ensure that household confidentiality is protected. Proposals should discuss how household data is maintained at the school level, how accurate the parent/guardian contact data are, how the school will obtain the necessary confidentiality waivers, how they will provide translated materials and translation services for non-English speaking households and how they will attempt to locate families they may not have been able to locate with their existing data. FNS strongly encourages applicants to consider additional uses for initial household contacts such as explanation and promotion of the demonstration and collection of information needed later by the FNS evaluation contractor to identify and interview both treatment and control households in the demonstration area.

Household Support and Training. Nationally, 38% of free and reduced-price certified children also participate in SNAP. Therefore, while a considerable portion of the demonstration participants will be familiar with the use of an EBT card, many will not. In addition, problems, such as lost cards or forgotten PIN numbers, may arise over the course of the demonstration. Proposals should discuss how, when and by who (e.g. school staff, local SNAP staff, State staff, EBT contractors) they will train demonstration families on card use and what type of user support will be provided. Applicants should consider issues such as participant confidentiality and languages other than English spoken at home with respect to training as well.

Existing Summer Food Service Program. Awardees’ child nutrition agencies will continue to operate the SFSP or Seamless Summer Option under the National School Lunch Program as they would in the absence of the SEBTC demonstration. During the demonstration, children who receive the SEBTC benefit will continue to be eligible to attend meal delivery sites that serve SFSP or Seamless Summer-reimbursed meals. Because families in the demonstration area are to be randomly assigned to treatment and control groups, the evaluation will be able to measure the impact of the demonstration on food security even though some children receive benefits under both. In addition, the evaluation contractor will interview households in order to determine the extent of participation in both SFSP/Seamless and SEBTC and how participation overlap affects both nutrition status and food security. In order to support this goal, applicants must provide information on the status of the SFSP and Seamless Summer Option in their proposed demonstration area such as previous year participation, meals provided, sites, and location and concentration of sites within the demonstration area. In addition, awardees will be required to provide information about the operation of the SFSP and Seamless Summer Option in the demonstration areas at the end of each demonstration period.

Food Costs. Proposals should assume that food costs will be paid in the same way as SNAP benefits are paid, utilizing the SNAP redemption infrastructure. Awardees can expect that treatment group families in the demonstration area will receive a total of approximately $375,000 to $450,000 in 2011 and, if successful in 2011, around $800,000 to $1,000,000 in SEBTC benefits in each of the summers of 2012 and 2013.

Administrative Costs. For the purposes of the budget portion of this proposal, administrative costs will be considered in two parts, start-up and operating costs. The applicant must provide a budget proposal separately identifying start-up costs (e.g., EBT programming, card design and production) and on-going operating costs (e.g., user support, data management, benefit redemption, training). Proposals should justify why proposed costs are considered start-up or operational.

Evaluation. FNS will award and manage a contract for an independent evaluation of all summer demonstrations, including the SEBTC established under this RFA, the SEBTC-WIC to be established under a separate RFA, and those that test enhancements to the existing SFSP.

Primarily, the evaluation will examine how the SEBTC approach impacts the food security and nutritional status of participating children. Nutritional status likely will be examined with relatively simple measures of food choices, nutritional behaviors and Body Mass Index (BMI). Other effects, such as perceptions of parents and changes in household food supply, are of secondary importance, but may be considered if resources permit.

In addition to impact measures, the evaluation will document the process and challenges of implementing the SEBTC. The results will provide valuable information to States considering applying for expansion should the demonstration succeed.

To accomplish these objectives, we anticipate that the evaluation contractor will need to plan, design, and carry out a strategy to collect and analyze information on:

• The process of establishing, launching, and operating the SEBTC, including schedule, roles and responsibilities, and implementation issues;

• The food security status of participating children, as measured through USDA’s methodology used in Food Security Supplement of the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (or an alternative);

• Household benefit transaction data as provided by the Anti-Fraud Locator Using EBT Retailer Transactions (ALERT) system;

• Key food choices and nutrition status of participating children, as well as their BMI ;

• A range of participant characteristics and circumstances to assess the relationship between these factors and demonstration impacts; and

• The costs of start-up and on-going operations, benefits, and any other costs of the SEBTC that are incurred by Federal, State and local governments, providers, and retailers.

The evaluator must complete final evaluation reports for all demonstrations by Spring 2014, to support policy decisions for the next reauthorization cycle. Interim reports will be made available annually.

As a condition of award, the Awardee and its partners will be required to cooperate fully with the FNS evaluation contractor to ensure the integrity of the evaluation and quality of the data provided to the contractor before, during, and after demonstration operations. The evaluator shall be required to collect and handle all data in such a way as to protect the privacy of families. The evaluation contractor will work with the awardee to randomly select eligible children in the demonstration area to participate in the treatment or the control group. Food security data will be collected from treatment and control families, while only treatment families will be queried about the demonstration benefits and implementation.

To demonstrate readiness to facilitate the evaluation, applicants must:

• Identify SFSP and Seamless Summer Option site operators from the previous year, providing information on the schedule, scope and participation of operations in the demonstration area and adjoining areas.

• Identify who will work as a liaison with the evaluation contractor to randomly assign households and facilitate interviews with households at various points throughout the demonstration.

DEMONSTRATION DELIVERABLES

The SEBTC awardee shall submit certain deliverables to FNS. These deliverables include:

• Quarterly Progress Reports. Quarterly progress reports must provide a description of the activities conducted during all phases of the demonstration, major accomplishments with completion dates and budget deviations from the proposed plan, difficulties encountered, solutions developed to overcome difficulties, and major planned activities for the next quarter. The SEBTC awardee is responsible for obtaining the necessary information from its partners to complete this report. These reports are due 5 business days after the end of each quarter.

• Quarterly Financial Reports. Financial reports should provide information on demonstration expenditures for the quarter and totals to date, broken down into the same categories as the original budget using SF-425.

• EBT Transaction Data. The SEBTC awardee shall provide the evaluation contractor and FNS with transaction data equivalent to ALERT data. At a minimum, awardees must be able to provide data with household and store identifiers, date, time and amount of each purchase made with SEBTC cards. Reports should include daily and monthly data.

• Annual Financial Reports. A final financial report on form SF-425 will be due 90 days after the close of the demonstration (unless otherwise noted and justified in the application).

• Annual Progress Reports. A written progress report, no more than 20 pages in length, will be due 90 days after the close of the demonstration each summer. It must be composed of a short Executive Summary and the following:

  • A project description which includes a description of the demonstration site, the process of developing the EBT system, providing households with EBT cards, training households, redeeming benefits and how the State dealt with adverse events or circumstances during the demonstration operations;

  • A summary of major accomplishments, difficulties encountered and solutions developed to resolve the difficulties;

  • A discussion of lessons learned; and,

  • Recommendations for future operational and policy consideration.

• Final Presentation. Using PowerPoint or a similar software, each awardee shall present their findings to FNS and the other demonstration awardees at annual meetings which will take place within 90 days of the close of each demonstration summer.

USE OF DEMONSTRATION FUNDS

The SEBTC awardee must use demonstration funds solely for allowable, allocable, necessary and reasonable costs in accordance with OMB Circular A-87; and A-21, and A-122 where appropriate. Awardees must account for SEBTC funds separately from all other funds and establish financial and management reporting and controls, a separate and distinct audit trail, and a strict accounting system to ensure that SEBTC funds and other Federal funds are not comingled or used inappropriately. Allowable use of funds includes, but is not limited to, personnel costs; EBT programming; development and manufacture of EBT cards; training; translation services; printing, duplication, and dissemination of materials; and, technology (both hardware and software) necessary for operating the demonstration and/or participating in the evaluation of the demonstration. SNAP and other partner program funds may not be used for this demonstration. SEBTC funds may not be used for any non-SEBTC related SNAP or partner costs. Payment of administrative costs to partners will be handled by the awardee. State or local funds used to support the demonstration are not eligible for SNAP matching funds.

APPLICATION PROCESS

Pre-Application Checklist.

1. Letter of Intent to Apply (Attachment A), due August 27, 2010. Providing a Letter of Intent (LOI) to apply will help FNS prepare for the applications due to be submitted. Submitting an LOI does not commit the applicant to completing the application process. Not submitting an LOI does not disqualify an applicant from applying.

2. Written Clarification Questions, if necessary, due August 27, 2010. Applicants may append written clarification questions concerning the RFA to their LOI. A compilation of these questions and their answers will be addressed at a conference call. A compilation of the questions and answers will be made available on the FNS website.

3. Applicant Conference Call, on or about September 20, 2010. Applicants providing an LOI will be invited to attend an applicant conference call to review expectations of the RFA as an aid in developing applications. At this call, participants will hear the answers to the written clarification questions received.

Application Checklist. Applications are due October 29, 2010. To be considered for award, they must include:

1. Application in accordance with Application Template (Attachment B)

2. Letters of Commitment from persons authorized to commit staff and resources for each essential partner:

   1. State Agencies (SNAP, School Meals)

   2. Local Agency(ies)

   3. EBT Contractor(s)

   4. School Food Authorities and Schools in the demonstration area

3. Evaluation Cooperation Agreement (Attachment C)

4. Resumes for all key personnel

5. Mandatory Forms

   1. Application for federal assistance (SF-424)

   2. Budget information (SF-424A)

   3. Assurances – Non-construction programs (SF-424B)

   4. Disclosure of lobbying activities (SF-LLL)

   5. Certification Regarding Debarment, Suspension and Other Responsibility Matters (AD-1047)

   6. Certification Regarding Debarment, Suspension, Ineligibility and Voluntary Exclusion (AD-1048)

   7. Certification Regarding Drug-Free Workplace Requirements, State and State Agencies (AD-1052)

General Application Guidance. The application should strongly demonstrate that the applicant and its partners are capable of working together to successfully carry out the obligations of Award in a timely, efficient, and effective manner. In specific, the application should clearly demonstrate:

• commitment of the applicant and its partners to cooperate closely with one another to achieve demonstration objectives;

• commitment of the applicant and its partners to cooperate closely with an independent evaluation contractor selected by FNS to support study objectives and methods;

• sufficient technical expertise of the applicant and its partners, especially key personnel, to accomplish the goals and complete the activities described in the RFA;

• sufficient project management expertise of the applicant and its partners, especially key personnel, to oversee the demonstration operations;

• sufficient financial management expertise of the applicant and its partners, especially key personnel, to properly utilize and account for demonstration funds; and

• evidence that the demonstration site meets all specifications designated in this RFA.

Application Due Date. The complete application package must be received by FNS at the address listed below on or before 5:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on October 29, 2010. Applications received after the deadline will be deemed ineligible and will not be reviewed or considered.

Submission of Application. Applications may be submitted by hand delivery, mail, or electronically using the federal grants website: www.grants.gov . FNS WILL NOT ACCEPT FAXED OR E-MAILED APPLICATIONS.

Address. If choosing to submit the application by hand delivery or by mail, applications should be directed to the following address:

Lisa Johnson, Grants Officer

Grants & Fiscal Policy Division

Food and Nutrition Service, USDA
3101 Park Center Drive, Room 738
Alexandria, VA 22302

We advise applicants to meet the deadline by hand delivering or mailing the application sufficiently in advance of the deadline to ensure its timely receipt. If applicants opt to mail the application, a mail delivery service that guarantees delivery and allows delivery tracking to FNS is strongly advised.  

The government-wide website www.grants.gov is designed for electronic submission of applications. If submitting the application electronically, we advise that you allow ample time to familiarize yourself with the system's requirements.  You will need both a Data Universal Number (DUNS) and a Contract Registry Number (CCR) to access the system. You can contact Dun and Bradstreet at 1-800-234-3867 to obtain a DUNS number if you do not have one already.

All applicants that opt to submit their application via www.grants.gov must send an email to Lisa Johnson at [email protected] indicating that the application was submitted through the grants.gov portal. This e-mail must be received no later than 5:00 p.m. EDT on October 29, 2010. Please be aware that the grants.gov system provides several confirmation notices. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have confirmation that the application was accepted.

Late or incomplete applications will not be considered in this competition. The applicant must submit all required forms and documentation detailed in the Application Checklist. FNS WILL NOT consider any additions or revisions to applications once they are received.

Number of Copies and Format. One original and two hard copies must be submitted along with an electronic copy of the application. The original copy must be singled-spaced, single-sided, unstapled, unbound, with at least 1 inch margins on top and bottom, 12-point font size, pages numbered and on 8 ½ by 11 inch white paper for copying. The two copies may be submitted with back-to-back copying. The electronic copy must be submitted in portable document format (PDF) on a CD.

Mandatory Forms. The following mandatory forms must be completed, signed and submitted with the application package. Failure to submit all of these mandatory forms will cause an application to be deemed non-responsive and to be eliminated from consideration for award.

Application for federal assistance (SF-424)

Budget information (SF-424A)

Assurances – Non-construction programs (SF-424B)

Disclosure of lobbying activities (SF-LLL)

Certification Regarding Debarment, Suspension and Other Responsibility Matters (AD-1047)

Certification Regarding Debarment, Suspension, Ineligibility and Voluntary Exclusion (AD-1048)

Certification Regarding Drug-Free Workplace Requirements, State and State Agencies (AD-1052)

These federal forms and their instructions are in an electronic version at www.grants.gov

Copies of Request for Application. This RFA may be obtained electronically on the FNS website at www.fns.usda.gov/SummerDemo.htm and on www.grants.gov.

Questions. Questions regarding this RFA should be directed to Lisa Johnson, Grants Officer, Grants & Fiscal Policy Division, Food and Nutrition Service, USDA, at [email protected]. Questions that arise about the RFA and FNS’ responses will be posted on-line at www.fns.usda.gov/SummerDemo.htm.

APPLICATION EVALUATION PROCESS

Initial Screening Criteria. FNS will prescreen applications to ensure that all items on the Application Checklist have been submitted in or with the application. Failure to submit any of these required items will result in the application being considered non-responsive and eliminated from further evaluation and consideration.

Evaluation and Scoring of Applications. After the initial screening of applications, FNS will convene a technical review panel to determine the technical merits of responsive grant applications. The panel will rate each application according to how well it addresses each of the technical evaluation criteria. The selection official will consider the technical panel’s recommendations; however, he or she may consider other USDA or FNS priorities such as ensuring that both urban and rural demonstration areas are included, achieving demographic or socioeconomic diversity, inclusion of Indian Tribal Organizations, if proposing a hybrid model (i.e., providing summer benefits to SNAP participants on their SNAP card while providing summer benefits to non-SNAP participants on a separate card), the State’s willingness to randomly assign SNAP families to the SNAP card and to the separate summer card, and other agency priorities in addition to the scores assigned by the technical review panel. Awards will be made to applicants whose proposals have sufficient technical merit and best meet the needs and priorities of the Government. FNS reserves the right to make no award if there are no applications of sufficient technical merit.

Technical Evaluation Criteria and Weights.

Demonstration Design and Implementation (50 points)

• Demonstrates understanding of the goals and objectives of SEBTC.

• Thoroughly describes proposed demonstration area and demonstrates that it meets specifications outlined in RFA.

• Demonstrates the site’s potential for operating a successful demonstration, including providing relevant data on the local School, Seamless/SFSP and SNAP operations.

• Provides reasonable plans and schedules for recruiting participants and obtaining confidentiality waivers, properly handling privacy of household free and reduced-price certification status, and household data needed for participation. These plans discuss the role of partners (e.g. SFAs) and the use of translation services involved in these activities.

• Discusses scope of training planned for local office staff, retailers, participants and community partners, discusses provision of translation services and identifies which entity(ies) will be responsible for training.

• Demonstrates a full understanding of the SEBTC implementation and operational needs, concerns, and challenges and addresses these issues with a plan that is realistic and reasonable.

• Provides a reasonable plan and schedule for utilizing SNAP infrastructure to provide SEBTC benefits. Discusses level of programming and training necessary to create and operate an SEBTC process. Discusses important issues identified in the RFA such as interoperability, seamlessness to SNAP retailers and BINs. Discusses why chosen design was selected over other options.

• Provides a reasonable plan and schedule for development and delivery of summer EBT cards including how the awardee will collect data to enroll users, support card users, load and pro-rate benefits, and expunge unused benefits if necessary. Discusses important issues identified in the RFA such as branding, easy identification of cards, use of SNAP cards versus providing separate summer benefit cards, expiration data imprinting, and reducing stigma.

• Discusses whether EBT contract modifications are necessary and provides a plan for obtaining necessary modifications.

• Includes clear and realistic work plan for successfully implementing, operating, and closing the demonstration. The work plan includes schedule for achieving specific activities and who will be responsible for accomplishing those activities.

• Shows understanding of FNS’ demonstration evaluation requirements, along with capacity and commitment to fulfilling those requirements.

Staffing Plan (15 Points)

• Staffing Plan provides sufficient information to document that the time commitment of key personnel appears to be appropriate for their roles in the demonstration. Includes supporting documentation (i.e., letters of support from supervisors) for all key personnel.

• Describes roles and responsibilities of key personnel and partners involved in SEBTC within the work plan. Provides position descriptions for all key positions, including vacancies.

• Identifies individual key personnel and provides resumes for each one that document the necessary and relevant education, skills, and experience for their proposed roles.

• Includes a chart showing key personnel and partners and lines of authority.

• Staffing plan demonstrates that retailers, local agency(ies), EBT contractor, and community partners, if any, have appropriate experience and commitment to effectively fulfill their proposed demonstration roles within the time and financial constraints of the demonstration. Letters of commitment attached to the application serve as evidence of these commitments, but narrative supporting the State’s plan should also be included.

Management Plan (15 Points)

• Includes letters of support and commitment from all key State and local agencies and partners.

• Articulates how the State will provide oversight necessary to ensure high quality products, services, or outcomes and to keep the demonstration on time and within budget.

• Demonstrates effective internal controls of SEBTC funds that are provided to partners to ensure SEBTC funds are used only for SEBTC purposes, with an accounting record and audit trail for SEBTC that is separate and distinct from other Federal funding accounts.

• Provides a plan for managing personnel associated with the demonstration and for addressing any contingencies such as loss of key personnel.

• Shows potential for strong interrelationships, teamwork, and cooperation between the State agency and partners.

Budget (20 points)

• Budget presents and clearly separates all necessary demonstration start-up and ongoing administrative operating costs as outlined in the RFA. Costs are allowable and reasonable.

• Application includes a budget narrative describing how costs within the budget categories were derived and links between expenditures and specific activities/tasks.

ATTACHMENT A—Letter of Intent to Apply

State Agencies intending to submit an application for the SEBTC are requested to submit a Letter of Intent (LOI). This request may be made by submitting the form below to FNS by 5:00 pm EST August 27, 2010. Submitting an LOI does not obligate a State Agency in any way, but will provide useful information to FNS to prepare for staffing of the review and selection process. In turn, FNS will invite all State agencies that submit an LOI to participate in a conference call to review obligations and expectations of the RFA as an aid in developing applications.

The LOI may be mailed or e-mailed. FNS thanks State Agencies in advance for their cooperation with this request. The Letter of Intent should be submitted to:

Lisa Johnson, Grants Officer

Grants & Fiscal Policy Division

USDA Food and Nutrition Service

3101 Park Center Drive, Room 738

Alexandria, VA 22302

[email protected]

SUMMER ELECTRONIC BENEFITS TRANSFER FOR CHILDREN Letter of Intent to Submit an Application

State Agency Name and Address:

Demonstration Director:

Telephone: Email:

State SNAP Director:

Telephone: Email:

State EBT Coordinator:

Telephone: Email

State School Meals Program Director:

Telephone: Email

ATTACHMENT B—Application Template

Applicants must use the following format, including titling and numbering system presented below for the application. Use of the electronic version of this document to fill in the narrative under the headings and guidance provided is recommended. For an electronic copy of the RFA containing this attachment go to www.fns.usda.gov/SummerDemo.htm or www.grants.gov

1. Cover Sheet.

1. Demonstration title—Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer for Children Demonstration

2. State Agency name and address

3. State Agency contact person, job title, address, phone and fax number, email address

4. Level of funding support requested for Start-up and Operating Administrative Costs

5. CFDA# - 10.559

2. Table of Contents. Include a brief table of contents.

3. Proposal Summary. An executive summary that highlights the demonstration goals and site-specific features and provides a general timeline for the following key phases of the demonstration: planning, implementation and testing, operations, and close down

4. Demonstration Design and Implementation.

1. Goals and Objectives. Briefly outline your understanding of the goals and objectives of the demonstration.

2. Administrative Structure. Briefly describe how the demonstration will be managed, which agency will provide project direction, who are the demonstration partners, the roles of the partners, and the organizational structure. You will discuss your management plan in greater detail later in the application.

3. Demonstration Site. Describe the SFAs and schools within the demonstration area in detail, including:

   1. Community characteristics, including a detailed description of the locality for the project; its boundaries, whether it is rural or urban, and any other relevant characteristics.

   2. School meals participant characteristics at the proposed site, including demographics, free and reduced-price participation data.

   3. SFSP/Seamless meals participant characteristics at the proposed site, including demographics, free and reduced-price participation data and sites operating the program.

   4. Local agency characteristics, qualifications of key staff, staffing level, structure, office space, facilities and equipment that will be used in the demonstration.

5. Benefit Delivery Features and Operation.

1. Present a detailed description of proposed plans for producing, programming, delivering, redeeming and processing SEBTC cards and benefits. Discuss important issues identified in the RFA such as interoperability, seamlessness to SNAP retailers and BINs. Discuss why chosen design was selected over other options. Describe proposed method of collecting data to enroll users, supporting card users, loading and pro-rating benefits, and expunging unused benefits if necessary. Describe the issuance cycle. Discuss important issues identified in the RFA such as card branding, easy identification of cards, use of SNAP cards versus providing separate summer benefit cards, expiration data imprinting, and reducing stigma.

2. Describe whether EBT contract modifications are necessary, and, if so, how and when they will be accomplished.

3. Describe computer programming that will be necessary at the EBT processing and retailer (if necessary) level to support your plan for processing benefits.

4. Discuss the expected impact of benefit delivery and processing on EBT processors and retailers.

5. Provide a detailed description of how you will meet the requirements to provide data equivalent to ALERT data to FNS during the demonstration. At a minimum, awardees must be able to provide data with a household and store identifiers, date, time and amount of each purchase made with SEBTC cards. Discuss any additional information that you may consider reporting and how you would report it.

6. Describe how you will terminate and expunge unused SEBTC benefits when the demonstration ends.

6. Retailer Notification. Include a plan for ensuring that retailers recognize and accept SEBTC cards.

7. Participant Notification and Recruitment. Include a plan to:

1. Develop a database for contacting eligible households in the demonstration area.

2. Make initial contact with these households, obtain confidentiality waivers, and offer households a choice to opt into the demonstration for a chance to receive a benefit card for the summer.

3. Communicate with non-English speaking households.

4. Locate families your team may not be able to locate with existing data.

5. Collect information necessary to deliver summer EBT benefits.

6. Notify households whether they are to receive SEBTC benefits.

8. Training. Discuss plans to provide training to:

1. Participants receiving benefits

2. Staff involved in the demonstration

9. Evaluation Cooperation. Describe procedures and duties associated with evaluation, including how the State and its partners will work with the evaluation contractor to meet evaluation needs. Specifically:

1. Describe which State and/or local agency entity(ies) will work most closely with the evaluation contractor.

2. Identify an evaluation liaison.

3. Describe how you will provide data on SEBTC eligible households to the evaluator for random assignment of participants into subject and control groups;

4. Provide a process for working with the evaluator to troubleshoot and resolve issues and refine procedures as needed;

5. Discuss how access to participants for interviews will be facilitated;

6. Provide in an appendix to the application a signed Evaluation Cooperation Agreement (Attachment C).

10. Work Plan with Implementation Schedule. In a table, present specific activities and deliverables with a schedule and responsible partner and key staff member. The table should include the day, or range of days, the 2010/2011 school year ends and the 2011/2012 year begins in the proposed demonstration area. See example:

Activity/Deliverable	Beginning Date	Due Date	Responsible Partner	Key Staff
…	…	…	…	…
EBT contract modification	11/01/10	12/31/10	EBT State Agency, contracts division	Betty Harris
Notify Retailers	4/15/11	5/15/11	SNAP Vendor Division	Louis Johnson
…	…	…	…	…

11. Staffing Plan

1. Position Descriptions. Position Descriptions, appearing as Appendix C, should provide a position description for all key demonstration positions. For key positions currently vacant, provide position description and anticipated date of hire. Key positions may include, but are not limited to:

1. Demonstration director at State level

2. Demonstration assistant director or comparable backup position

3. Evaluation Liaison

4. EBT Contract Coordinator

5. Progress Reporting Manager (responsible for quarterly and final progress reports)

6. Demonstration Financial Manager / Accountant (responsible for quarterly and final financial reports)

7. SNAP Coordinator

8. School, school district and/or School Food Authority Coordinator(s)

9. State Education agency Coordinator (if applicable)

2. Organizational Structure. Provide an organization chart or a narrative that describes the management relationships and channels of communication that will be used between key personnel.

3. Key Personnel. Key Personnel includes people who fill one or more key positions and those who will spend 25 percent of more of their time on the demonstration. The Staffing Plan shall identify and describe the duties, experience, capabilities, of key personnel, including:

   1. Current positions and what their title on the demonstration will be

   2. Salary and percentage of time committed to SEBTC for each year of the demonstration

   3. Specific roles and duties

   4. Experience, skills and education and how they are relevant to specific demonstration duties

   5. In an appendix, attach current Resume or Vita for key personnel

   6. In the appendix attach letters of support from supervisors of key personnel

4. Key Partners. The Staffing Plan should also identify key partners outside of government (e.g., EBT contractor, large retailer group) and describe the expertise and time commitments they will dedicate to the demonstration. In the appendix to the application, provide copies of documentation in the form of letters, memoranda of understanding or agreement, resumes or other documentation that demonstrates each key partner’s understanding of its role and commitment to SEBTC and willingness to cooperate and actively participate in SEBTC.

12. Management Plan.

1. Quality Control. Discuss how the integrity of SEBTC will be protected and ensured, including management and oversight, monitoring, management and financial controls, corrective actions and adjustment to operations to correct deficiencies or improve on operations.

   1. Describe accountability plan, including internal controls to ensure the integrity of payments or reimbursements to EBT contractor, retailers, and local agencies.

   2. Describe how SEBTC and SNAP funds will be accounted for as distinct and separate accounts, and what audit trails and financial controls will be used to assure and demonstrate that SNAP funds are used only for SNAP purposes, and SEBTC funds will be used only for SEBTC-related activities.

2. External Management. Provide plans for management of outside personnel (those not in the direct line of supervision of the SEBTC awardee such as those persons identified in Section 11d. Key Partners.) Describe how strong interrelationships, communication and teamwork will be fostered among partners by the SEBTC awardee with:

   1. retailers

   2. EBT contractor

   3. local agency(ies)

   4. any other community partners

3. Contingency Plans. Describe contingency plans for ensuring that the demonstration is not unduly disrupted by any unforeseen changes in key personnel or disruption or failure of benefit issuance systems.

13. Budget.

1. Line-item Budget. This budget should include itemized estimates of SEBTC-related start-up and operating costs. Applicants may propose flat rates for operating costs for SFAs and/or School partners. Food benefits will be paid out by FNS as they are redeemed, similar to existing SNAP benefits; thus, food benefit costs of SEBTC should not be included in States’ budgets for this Request for Application. Likewise, any incentives paid to participants for participating in the evaluation will be paid from the evaluation contract.

2. Budget Forms. In addition to the detailed budget, applicants must use SF-424A to prepare a budget summary for the demonstration. Provide amounts for all major budget categories. Forms are available in electronic version at www.grants.gov.

3. Budget Narrative. Provide a detailed explanation for all funds requested in the line-item budget and describe how those costs were derived and how they relate to demonstration goals, objectives and each major proposed activity, and why they should be considered as start-up and not operational costs. Details must be provided for both Federal and non-Federal resources, including in-kind contributions. Costs for EBT system changes and retailer system programming must be detailed and supporting documentation (e.g., quotes from EBT vendor, third party processors) must be included.

4. Budget Assumptions. The budget should assume demonstration activities will take place from approximately December 2010 to December 2011 unless otherwise justified in the application.

5. Indirect Cost. Applicants claiming an indirect cost MUST attach a copy of the State Agency’s negotiated and approved rate.

14. Assurances and Disclosure Attachments. Attach the following mandatory forms, which with their instructions, can be found in an electronic version at www.grants.gov :

1. Application for federal assistance (SF-424)

2. Budget information (SF-424A)

3. Assurances – Non-construction programs (SF-424B)

4. Disclosure of lobbying activities (SF-LLL)

5. Certification Regarding Debarment, Suspension and Other Responsibility Matters (AD-1047)

6. Certification Regarding Debarment, Suspension, Ineligibility and Voluntary Exclusion (AD-1048)

7. Certification Regarding Drug-Free Workplace Requirements, State and State Agencies (AD-1052)

15. Appendices. Include each of the following as a separate appendix:

1. Resumes and vitas for key personnel

2. Letters of support from supervisors of key personnel

3. Job descriptions for key personnel, indicating those that must be hired

4. Copies of letters, agreements or memoranda of understanding with all partners including other State Agencies, local agencies, the EBT contractor, and key retailer groups.

5. Signed Evaluation Cooperation Agreement (Attachment C)

6. Any other supporting documentation referenced in the application

Attachment C—Evaluation Cooperation Agreement

Date_______________________

As an applicant for an SEBTC award, _____________________ __________agrees to foster and

(State Agency Name)

provide full cooperation with the evaluation contractor and its designated agents in all aspects of the evaluation of SEBTC, including but not limited to:

• Providing data or access to data on children certified for free and reduced-price school meals on a timely basis to the evaluation contractor selected by FNS to allow it to complete random assignment of eligible households into the various study groups deemed necessary by the contractor.

• Working in cooperation with the evaluator to trouble-shoot and resolve issues and refine procedures to the extent of the SEBTC awardee’s control.

• Making all efforts to maintain the integrity of the evaluation and ensure the quality of the data provided to the contractor.

• Facilitating access of the evaluation contractor to participants, SNAP agency staff, retailers, EBT contractor staff and other demonstration partners for interviews, providing address and contact information and updates to that information as necessary.

• Providing EBT redemption data as described in the RFA.

• Providing copies of demonstration documents, such as meeting notes, progress reports, and memoranda.

Signed

Authorized SEBTC Representative with authority to obligate the State Agency

0 The actual level may differ from this estimate in important ways – see section on benefit level under “demonstration details.”

0 The legislation authorizing and funding these demonstrations requires a robust and rigorous evaluation.

0 The goal is for the summer benefit to be transparent to retailers and require no or minimal effort on their part.

39