[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 161 (Tuesday, August 22, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39750-39757]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-17643]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Food and Nutrition Service


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request--Summer Meals Study

AGENCY: Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), USDA.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this 
notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment 
on this proposed information collection. This collection is a new 
collection. The purpose of the Summer Meals Study is for the Food and 
Nutrition Service to understand the facilitators and barriers to 
program implementation, perceived benefits and challenges for sponsor 
and site participation, nutritional quality of meals served, parental 
awareness, factors influencing child participation, and experience with 
the Summer Food Service Program and the National School Lunch Program's 
Seamless Summer Option.

DATES: Written comments must be received on or before October 23, 2017.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be sent to: Alice Ann Gola, Office of Policy 
Support, Food and Nutrition Service, USDA, 3101 Park Center Drive, Room 
1014, Alexandria, VA 22302. Comments may also be submitted via fax to 
the attention of Alice Ann Gola at 703-305-2576 or via email to 
[email protected]. Comments will also be accepted through the 
Federal eRulemaking Portal. Go to http://www.regulations.gov and follow 
the online instructions for submitting comments electronically.
    All written comments will be open for public inspection at the 
office of the Food and Nutrition Service during regular business hours 
(8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday) at 3101 Park Center Drive, 
Alexandria, Virginia 22302.
    All responses to this notice will be summarized and included in the 
request for Office of Management and Budget approval. All comments will 
be a matter of public record.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
copies of this information collected should be directed to Alice Ann 
Gola at 703-305-4347 or [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title: Summer Meals Study.
    Form Number: Not applicable.
    OMB Number: 0584-NEW.
    Expiration Date: Not Yet Determined.
    Type of Request: New collection.
    Abstract: The Federally-funded Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) 
and the National School Lunch Program's Seamless Summer Option (SSO) 
provide healthy meals and snacks to children through 18 years of age, 
in low-income areas during summer months when school is not in session. 
Open summer sites provide free meals to children in geographical areas 
where at least 50 percent of children are eligible for free or reduced 
price school meals (i.e., at or below 185 percent of the Federal 
poverty level). Closed enrolled summer sites provide free meals to 
children enrolled in an activity program where at least half of the 
children are individually determined eligible for free or reduced price 
meals. Open and enrolled sites, as well as sites that predominantly 
serve children of migrant workers, receive reimbursement from the 
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the meals they serve 
to all children in attendance. The reimbursement rates vary depending 
on the type of meal served (i.e., breakfast, lunch, supper, or snack) 
and whether the site is operating SFSP or SSO. The SFSP and SSO sites 
operate at State, Local or Tribal locations such as public and private 
nonprofit schools, local government agencies, business organizations 
such as youth sports programs, churches, and food pantries. In July 
2016, 5,525 sponsors managed 48,618 sites and served 3.85 million 
summer meals to participating children.\1\ However, summer meals reach 
only a small percent of the children receiving free or reduced price 
meals during the school year. This study will help identify strategies 
to increase participation in summer meals as well as assess the 
nutritional quality of the meals served to children. Legislation 
requires those programs participating in the SFSP or SSO to cooperate 
with program research and evaluation (Section 305 of the Healthy Hunger 
Free Kids Act).
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    \1\ The USDA FNS National Data Bank provides a single official 
repository to support the analysis and public release of FNS program 
information through the Food Programs Reporting System (FPRS) OMB 
Control No. 0584-0594 Expiration 6/2019, data from various FNS 
programs are extracted and imported into the NDB database. This 
number includes meals served through both SFSP and SSO.
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    The six study objectives are: (1) Identify reasons children and 
their caregivers participate in summer meals and their satisfaction 
levels with the program; (2) Assess how characteristics differ between 
participants and eligible nonparticipants of SFSP and SSO; (3) 
Determine the reasons eligible families do not participate in SFSP and 
SSO; (4) Determine the food service characteristics of SFSP and SSO 
sites; (5) Describe the characteristics and content of SFSP and SSO 
meals and snacks; and (6) Assess facilitators and barriers to preparing 
and serving SFSP and SSO meals and snacks.
    A nationally representative study with a mixed-methods research 
design will be used to address the six study objectives. States will be 
selected for the study using FNS administrative data on SFSP and SSO 
program size. In the selected States, State agencies administering SFSP 
and SSO will provide lists of participating sites and sponsors from 
which the sample of sites will be drawn. State agencies administering 
the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in these States 
will provide SNAP caseload data. These data will be used in conjunction 
with postal data to identify children in the catchment areas of sampled 
sites. Quantitative and qualitative data will be collected from SFSP 
and SSO sponsors and sites, former sponsors, and participants and 
eligible nonparticipants.
    Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the agency, including whether the information shall have practical 
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden on the 
proposed collection of information,

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including the validity of the methodology and assumptions that were 
used; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the 
collection of information on those who are to respond, including use of 
appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological 
collection techniques or other forms of information technology.
    Affected Public: Respondent groups identified include: (1) 
Individuals/Households (preschool- and school-aged children and teens 
eligible for participation in summer meals and their caregivers); (2) 
State/Local Government (SFSP and SSO State agencies, SNAP State 
agencies, and SFSP and SSO sponsors, former sponsors, and sites); and 
(3) Businesses-for-not-for-Profit (SFSP sponsors, former sponsors, and 
sites).
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 88, 222.48. Out of the 88,222 
sample size initially contacted, FNS anticipates approximately 
44,340.59 will respond and 43,881 will not respond during the initial 
contact. FNS will continue to re-contact non-respondents to reach the 
desired participation rates. This includes: 85,575 individuals and 
households, 59 State, Local or Tribal agencies; 1,108 sponsors (665 in 
the State/Local Government category and 443 in the Business category); 
and1,480 site supervisors (888 in the State/Local Government category 
and 592 in the Business category).
    Estimated Number of Responses per Respondent: 3.67. SFSP and SSO 
State agencies will be asked to provide lists of participating sites/
sponsors twice: Once to draw the initial sample (based on sites and 
sponsors participating in the Summer of 2017), and then again to 
finalize the sample to include sites and sponsors participating in the 
Summer of 2018. SNAP State agencies will be asked to provide caseload 
data once. Caregivers and their children will be asked to respond to 
one survey, and a subset of caregivers will be invited to participate 
in a follow-up key informant interview. Sponsors and site supervisors 
will respond to one survey, and a subset will be invited to participate 
in a follow-up telephone interview. Those sponsors and site supervisors 
responsible for menu planning for the sampled site will also be asked 
to respond to a menu planning survey, and to provide details on the 
meals from one week of menus. Some of these sponsors and sites will 
receive a follow-up menu report to fill in details missing from their 
original submission of menu information. Former sponsors will be asked 
to respond to one telephone interview.
    Estimated Total Annual Responses: 323,788. There are approximately 
169.470.33 total annual responses from participants and approximately 
154,307.74 non-responses for those we contacted. Some non-participants 
were re-contacted more than once.
    Estimated Average Time per Response: 0.6875. The estimated time of 
response varies from 1 minute to 60 minutes depending on the respondent 
group, as shown in the table below; the average estimated response is 
0.13 hours.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden on Respondents: 22,262. The total 
public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated 
at 22,261.68 rounded up to 22,262 burden hours and 323,778 total annual 
responses. Out of the 22,262 burden hours 18,924 are for respondents 
and 3337.67 burden hours are for non-respondents. See the table below 
for estimated total annual burden for each type of respondent.
BILLING CODE 3410-30-P

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    Dated: August 10, 2017.
Brandon Lipps,
Administrator, Food and Nutrition Service.
[FR Doc. 2017-17643 Filed 8-21-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3410-30-C