Appendix L-Tribal Letter to Washington

Appendix L

Tribal Leader Letter to Washington

L

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aura Castner

Senior Researcher

[TITLE] [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME] [SUFFIX]

[TRIBE NAME]

[ADDRESS]

[CITY], [STATE] [ZIPCODE]

DATE

Dear TITLE LAST NAME:

I am writing to inform you about a pilot project in Washington that may affect members of your tribe. Over a year ago the Washington Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) began a two-year pilot project to test strategies geared toward improving access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) among people enrolled in the Medicare Savings Program (MSP). This project is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). DSHS selected two counties to include in the pilot, Pierce and Yakima, and also selected contractors to conduct outreach in each county. South Sound Outreach is the contractor in Pierce County, and People for People is the contractor in Yakima County.

The USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) selected Mathematica Policy Research to conduct a mandatory evaluation of the pilot program. The purpose of the evaluation is to better understand how MSP applicants age 65 and older are served by SNAP and to provide feedback to FNS about the successes and challenges of the pilot project. Mathematica has selected comparison counties for each pilot county: the comparison for Pierce is Snohomish County, and the comparisons for Yakima are Franklin and Grays Harbor counties. We have also been calling DSHS and contractor staff to gather preliminary information for our evaluation.

As part of this evaluation, we may request information from members of the Nisqually Nation who participate in SNAP or MSP. We plan to obtain this information via brief telephone interviews with selected MSP and SNAP participants in the pilot and comparison counties. We will ask the participants about their experiences applying for SNAP and MSP under the pilot and comparison conditions.

If you have questions or need more information, please contact me at (202) 484-3282. Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to working with members of the Nisqually Nation to help make this important evaluation a success.

Sincerely,

Laura Castner

Project Director