STUDY OF THE FOOD DISTRIBUTION PROGRAM ON INDIAN RESERVATIONS

Solicitation Number: AG-3198-S-11-0010 Notice Type: Sources Sought STUDY OF THE FOOD DISTRIBUTION PROGRAM ON INDIAN RESERVATIONS This is a Sources Sought Notice for market research purposes only and is not a Request for Proposal (RFP). A solicitation is not being issued at this time and this notice shall not be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation, nor does it restrict the Government to a particular acquisition approach. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service intends to issue a competitive small business set-aside procurement for advisory and assistance services to conduct the Study of the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations. Preference will be given to small businesses and small businesses owned by Native American Indians. The Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR) is administered at the Federal level by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) and administered locally by either Indian Tribal Organizations (ITOs) that are determined capable or an agency of a State government. FDPIR provides commodity foods to low-income American Indians living in designated areas. Many households participate in FDPIR as an alternative to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly named the Food Stamp Program (FSP). In fiscal year (FY) 2010, Federal program costs totaled $92 million, including $48 million for food commodities. In FY 2010, 5 States and 100 ITOs operated 112 programs on 276 Indian reservations, pueblos, Rancherias, and Alaska Native Villages across 25 States. Two-thirds of all participants resided in designated areas located in 4 States: Oklahoma, Arizona, South Dakota, and California. Another quarter was from areas in 8 other States. By FNS regions, half of the ITO's and two-thirds of FDPIR participants are in the Southwest and Western regions. About another quarter of the ITO's and 30 percent of participants are in the Mountain Plains. The remainder, almost a quarter of the ITOs and 10 percent of FDPIR participations are in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest regions. Income and resource standards for FDPIR eligibility are set by the Federal government and generally correspond to the requirements used in SNAP with a few exceptions. Households, however, may not participate in FDPIR and SNAP in the same month. A recent study (http://www.urban.org/uploadedpdf/412034_tribal_food_assistance.pdf) estimated that 85 percent of households that are eligible for either program are eligible for both. The study also identified a number of factors that influence the choice of either program by eligible American Indians. These include the size of the benefit for which the household would qualify for, the ease of enrollment (e.g., program requirements, office location), cultural compatibility issues, choice of selection of food, and access to grocery stores. USDA purchases and ships foods to the ITOs and State agencies in accordance with their periodic orders of available items. The standard food package must contain items from different food categories and comply with FNS guide rates which enables program managers to select products within the budget constraint. The administering agencies also determine applicants' eligibility, store and distribute the commodities, and provide nutrition education to recipients. The main delivery modes for food packages, in order of prevalence, are pickups at the main or satellite warehouses, tailgate pickups, and store pickups. USDA provides the administering agencies with funds for program administrative costs. Since its establishment in 1977, there have been numerous changes in FDPIR affecting eligibility, customer service, allocation of Federal funds among ITO's and State agencies, and improvements in the types and variety of products offered in the food packages. FDPIR participation data (available from FY 1999) indicate that a significant segment of low-income American Indians continue to rely on FDPIR benefits, but that participation has declined every year except for FY 2008 and 2009 when levels increased before decreasing again in FY 2010 (http://www.fns.usda.gov/pd/fdpmain.htm). Detailed information on FDPIR administration and participants is sparse. At the national level, data are available on the monthly counts of participants by ITOs and State agencies and the dollars spent on commodities issued and the related program administration. The primary source of detailed information has been special studies. The Evaluation of the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservation conducted by Research Triangle Institute and published by FNS in 1990 (http://www.fns.usda.gov/ora/menu/Published/FoodDistribution/FDStudies.htm is the only study to provide nationally representative profiles of FDPIR participants and programs characteristics. It was conducted when the program was just over 10 years old, served 138,000 persons through 105 local programs and offered a commodity package based on a limited list of canned and packaged foods. The evaluation study used a multi-stage sample design to select 31 programs across the country from three strata of program size. The final stage was a probability sample of households selected from lists of participants provided by these ITOs and States. Case record abstractions and household interviews (and a small number of focus groups) were conducted to obtain information on household size and composition, characteristics of individual participants, economic status, housing and transportation, dietary needs and adequacy of the household food supply, and food preferences. Essentially 31 case studies were performed to obtain program level data. Most staff and managers were interviewed on-site; the rest of the surveys were conducted over the telephone. Consistent information was collected on organization structure, financing, staffing, outreach activities, certification processes, and nutrition education. The study also documented the ordering process, storage by ITOs and State agencies, distribution methods and the range of items provided in the benefit package. Program integrity was examined in terms of household verification requirements, procedures to prevent dual participation, claims and disqualification procedures, inventory controls and Federal oversight by FNS regional staff. A third component of the RTI study provided comparisons between various aspects of FDPIR and FSP. . This procurement will provide current nationally representative information on the characteristics of FDPIR participants and local program administration. Information on perceptions about the program and potential access barriers will also be obtained in order to identify, if possible, the reasons for declining participation. The study objectives are: 1. Provide a demographic and socioeconomic profile of households and individuals that currently participate in FDPIR. 2. Evaluate the adequacy of the household food supply among FDPIR participants. 3. Provide information on American Indians who live on reservations and participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). 4. Quantify how American Indian households participate in FDPIR and SNAP over a year and determine the main reasons for movement between the two programs. 5. Explore the reasons why fewer American Indians are participating in FDPIR in recent years. 6. Provide descriptive information on FDPIR operations that address outreach, certification, and nutrition education. 7. Describe the resources devoted to nutrition education and the format of the information provided directly to FDPIR participants. 8. Identify the factors that determine which commodities are ordered from FNS. 9. Describe the approaches used for distributing food packages to participants and why they are selected. 10. Ascertain participant satisfaction with administrative practices and the food package. Information for this descriptive study should come from program records and interviews with program staff, program managers, participants and non-participants. The information must be nationally representative and take into consideration the large variation in the sizes of local FDPIR programs across the country. This study will be conducted in consultation with tribal leadership in accordance with the Executive Order 13175 Consultation and Coordination with Indian Tribal Governments. This order recognizes tribal rights of self-government and tribal sovereignty, and affirms and commits the federal government to work with American Indian tribal governments on a government-to-government basis. FNS is seeking firms with the capability of: • designing and conducting a nationally representative data collection, • conducting surveys, • managing and analyzing large data sets, • producing a high quality report, and • establishing successful relationships with Native American tribal governments . The firm must demonstrate the availability of adequate staff who are experienced in disciplines critical to the successful completion of the study objectives, including project management, evaluation design, survey methods, data collection techniques (including recruitment and training of field staff), descriptive and inferential statistics, and database management. Finally, the firm must demonstrate an understanding of the special requirements of working with Indian Tribal governments and of the culture and environment of the American Indians that would be asked to participate in this study. Interested parties may submit capability statements that demonstrate its ability to perform all elements of the requirements as described in this notice. In addition, your response must include a description of your past experience on at least three (3) similar projects consistent in scope, size and complexity with this requirement which you performed in the past three years; and description of staff experience and skills. Any information provided by industry to the Government as a result of this sources sought synopsis is strictly voluntary.. No entitlements to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges to the Government will arise as a result of offeror submission of responses, or the Government's use of such information. The information obtained from responses to this notice may be used in the development of an acquisition strategy and future RFP. No questions will be entertained or comment responded to by the Government. Offerors capable of providing these services should submit the information requested above via e-mail to [email protected] and no later than 2PM Eastern Standard Time, April, 20, 2011 Please limit the length of the packages to 20 pages. Packages over 20 pages will not be evaluated. Attachment Additional Information on Procurement Scope of Study This study will provide nationally representative information on FDPIR participants and local programs for a recent period. This study will also collect information on other factors, such as SNAP participation, that will be used to examine and attempt to explain observed declines in FDPIR participation in recent years. Demographic information on FDPIR households will be collected from a national probability sample of FDPIR case records that is large enough to detect differences in participation among major subgroups and across program characteristics that may affect FDPIR access. Additional information on these households will be collected from other State and local program records and interviews with household members. The latter will collect data that describes participation in SNAP and other nutrition programs, access to food stores, facilities for storing and preparing food, and perspectives on FDPIR customer service. Data on participants must be linked to nationally representative program data. For selected programs, descriptive information will be obtained from extant sources such as plans of operation, inventory records and ordering manifestos and from interviews with program managers and staff. Other potential sources are interviews with agencies and local service organizations that are knowledgeable about other nutrition programs accessed by American Indians in the reservation served by the sampled ITO. Among the risk factors that must be addressed in this study are: • obtaining consent and cooperation from tribes on the purpose and methods of the study, • taking cultural differences into consideration when conducting the study, including time commitments for tribal celebrations, hunting or fishing when scheduling interviews with staff or survey respondents, • identifying suitable sample frames for the household level sample for case record abstractions and surveys, • obtaining sufficient response rates in standardized surveys of FDPIR participants, former participants and potentially eligible nonparticipants, and • designing instruments that capture information on enrollment decisions that explain why participation in FDPIR has declined overtime. Directives for Offerors 1. Offerors shall provide a discussion of how they will consult with the tribes about the purpose and methods of this study and solicit ideas that would contribute to the success of the project (such as obtaining full cooperation from program staff and survey respondents). 2. Offerors shall provide a detailed discussion of their design of the nationally representative sample of FDPIR participant households for purposes of the case record abstraction, including a. Steps to include representation of different sized programs and programs in different FNS regions. b. Steps to identify a suitable sampling frame at FDPIR sites. c. The logistics and feasibility of obtaining case records for abstraction of demographic and program data. d. Target sample size, response rates, sampling weights and design effect. e. Description of the challenges posed by this research and how they will be addressed. f. The number of households studied must be large enough to produce precise and reliable statistics for the full FDPIR sample and major subgroups such as households of different sizes and households with elderly members. 3. Offerors shall provide a detailed discussion of their sampling and data collection plans for surveys of FDPIR participants, former participants and nonparticipant, including a. A critique the merits of interviewing participants, former participants and nonparticipants for their perceptions about FDPIR benefits and service. b. Methods of contacting and obtaining information from respondents. c. Expected response rates and strategies for maximizing completion rates. d. Plans for capturing information from designated respondents who do not have telephones, live in remote areas, or have limited reading ability. e. Description of the information that will be collected. f. The pros and cons of offering incentive payments to survey subjects. g. Description of the challenges posed by this research and how they will be addressed. 4. Offerors shall provide a detailed discussion of their data collection plans for obtaining descriptive information about FDPIR programs, including a. The identity of likely subjects for in-depth interviews b. Plans for on-site visits and/or telephone interviewing. c. Identification of other likely sources of data d. Methods for ensuring accurate and verifiable information from interviewees. e. The challenges of the data collection. 5. Offerors shall provide a detailed discussion of their data analysis and reporting plans, including: a. Description of how analysis plans will address each study objective. b. Methods for analyzing case record data and survey data with participants and other households c. Methods for summarizing descriptions of FDPIR operations and assessing effects of variations in operations on participants/enrollees. d. The use of and process for developing sample weights. e. Description of how the data from in-depth interviews and, if proposed, focus groups will be integrated into the overall analysis. f. Table shells for key results. 6. Offerors shall provide a discussion on hypotheses why FDPIR participation has declined, the types of data that are needed to assess these hypotheses, the likelihood of collecting this data, and the potential success of their proposed analysis.