Appendix J.3 Template for email from Mathematica to newly assigned respondents about the survey

J.3 Template for email from Mathematica to newly assigned respondents about the survey

This page has been left blank for double-sided copying.

OMB Control No: 0584-XXXX

Expiration date: XX/XX/20XX

To: New respondents assigned to modules

When: Once respondents are assigned

Subject: SNAP COVID-19 Survey - Section Assignment

Dear [RESPONDENT assigned to modules],

[SNAP State Administrator FN LN] has designated you to complete part of the SNAP COVID-19 Survey for the How Have SNAP State Agencies Shifted Operations in the Aftermath of COVID-19? (SNAP COVID) study. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) contracted with Mathematica to survey all 53 State SNAP agencies to develop a deeper understanding of how SNAP agencies have adapted their operations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Please see the study overview linked here for more details. Your responses will inform best practices to support preparedness for disruptions in the future.

You have been assigned to complete the following section(s) of the survey:

• [FILL SURVEY SECTIONS]

Complete the survey

To complete your section(s), please visit [fill unique State web survey URL].

Please complete your sections(s) by [DATE].

A PDF version of the full survey is also available here, which you may review to get an idea of the questions in your assigned section(s).

If you are unable to complete the survey online, please call us at 1-800-XXX-XXXX between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday, to take the survey over the phone. If you are unable to complete the survey online or over the phone, you may complete it as a fillable PDF and return it to [emailinbox]@mathematica-mpr.com.

Public Burden Statement

This information is being collected to assist the Food and Nutrition Service in examining how State SNAP agencies shifted operations since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a voluntary data collection and FNS will use the information to describe how State agencies shifted operations during and after the public health emergency and identify best practices and lessons learned. This collection does not request any personally identifiable information under the Privacy Act of 1974. According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is 0584-XXXX and Expiration Date XX-XX-20XX. The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to take 0.0333 hours per response. 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 Service, Office of Policy Support, 1320 Braddock Place, 5th Floor, Alexandria, VA 22306 ATTN: PRA (0584-XXXX).

Within the survey, there are requests for your State agency to submit relevant documents. After you submit your survey, we will send you an email summarizing the documents to submit to Mathematica and instructions for doing so. The documents will provide us important context about COVID-19 related policies and operations in your State. We estimate that this task should take about 30 minutes. However, if it is very challenging for you to provide us with all requested documents, then we will work with you to make this process as easy as possible.

FNS strongly encourages all SNAP agencies to participate in this important study. The information you provide will be kept private, and no one outside the study team will be able to access it in a form that allows them to identify you, except as otherwise required by law

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Mathematica study team at [emailinbox]@mathematica-mpr.com. Thank you for your time and participation in this important study!

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Brown

Project director, SNAP COVID study