Revised 8_1 Appendix D2 FNS Pre-Notification for Store Managers

Appendix D2: FNS Survey Pre-notification for OMB Control Number 0584-XXXX

Store Manager Expires Month/Day/Year

[Name]

[Address 1]

[Address 2]

Dear [Mr./Ms. Name]:

We are writing to ask for your help with an important research project for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service’s (FNS) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps).

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) is responsible for ensuring that SNAP program funds are used to help only those individuals who are entitled to this benefit. FNS research, however, has found that smaller retailers are responsible for a disproportionate amount of fraud in the SNAP program, while large retailers are responsible for relatively little SNAP fraud.

Therefore, we are asking stores in the largest national and regional retail chains that participate in SNAP to share information about their loss prevention systems and other methods used to protect against fraud and theft. We plan to use the information obtained from this research to get a better understanding of why SNAP fraud is lower among large retailers, and how to make improvements.

Your responses are not considered a legal representation of your store’s and practices. Your responses are voluntary and your SNAP authorization will not be affected by your answers to the survey.

FNS contracted with Economic Systems, Inc., a research firm in Falls Church, Virginia, and the Florida Survey Research Center (FSRC) at the University of Florida to conduct the study. The FSRC will send you an email that contains a link to the online survey. Researchers at Economic Systems and the University of Florida are contractually required to protect the confidentiality of all responses. The results of the surveys will be used by FNS to improve the integrity of SNAP among all retailers.

If you have any questions about this research, please contact Dr. Eric Sean Williams at FNS Headquarters at [email protected].

We appreciate your support of the integrity of SNAP, and encourage your participation in this research.

Thank you and best regards,

Kathryn Law, Director Andrea Gold, Director Neva Terry, Director

SNAP Research SNAP Retailer Policy and Retail Operations

and Analysis Division and Management Division Division

Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 4 minutes 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.  An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.  Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Services, Office of Policy Support, 3101 Park Center Drive, Room 1014, Alexandria, VA 22302

(0584-xxxx*).