[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 79 (Tuesday, April 27, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 22132-22134]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-08707]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Food and Nutrition Service


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request--Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education 
(SNAP-Ed) Toolkit Intervention Submission Form and Scoring Tool

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

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the 
Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) is publishing for public comment a 
summary of a proposed information collection. This is a revision of a 
currently approved collection.

DATES: Written comments must be received on or before June 28, 2021.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be sent to: Adron Mason, Food and Nutrition 
Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Supplemental Nutrition 
Assistance Program, 1320 Braddock Place, 5th Floor, Alexandria, VA 
22314. Comments may also be submitted via fax to the attention of Adron 
Mason at 703-305-0429 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 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 collection should be directed to Adron Mason 
at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The purpose of the SNAP-Ed Toolkit 
Intervention Submission Form and Scoring Tool are to provide a uniform 
and transparent method for submission, review, and scoring of nutrition 
education, physical activity promotion, and obesity prevention 
interventions into the SNAP-Ed Strategies and Interventions: An Obesity 
Prevention Toolkit for States (Toolkit). The Toolkit was developed to 
assist State agencies in locating evidence-based interventions for 
their implementation of SNAP-Ed programming. The Food and Nutrition Act 
of 2008, as amended (The Act) requires that States use evidence-based 
interventions. These forms allow FNS to increase the selection of 
interventions available in the Toolkit, increase innovation in service 
delivery using interventions which reflect up-to-date research, and 
respond to intervention developer requests to be included in the 
Toolkit. FNS plans to update form FNS-885 by rephrasing, modifying, or 
combining certain criteria where doing so will improve user experience, 
as well as by including updated scoring criteria that reflect the 
current body of interventions in the SNAP-Ed Toolkit. FNS plans to 
update form FNS-886 by combining, removing, and resequencing questions 
based on user feedback to improve user experience and reduce burden. 
FNS also plans to encourage high quality submissions by inserting more 
explicit prompts to include supplementary documentation, adding more 
check-box lists for submitters to use to identify the strategies they 
employed, increasing character limits on short-answer questions, and 
inserting a question on evaluation tools used by the submitter. In sum, 
the changes in this proposed revision are intended to streamline the 
forms and improve the end user experience.
    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 of the 
proposed collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions that were used; (c) ways to enhance the 
quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be 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.
    Title: SNAP-Ed Toolkit Submission Form and Scoring Tool.
    Form Number: FNS-885, FNS-886.

[[Page 22133]]

    OMB Number: 0584-0639.
    Expiration Date: 6/30/2021.
    Type of Request: Revision of a currently approved collection.
    Abstract: SNAP-Ed State and Implementing agencies are able to 
identify and choose evidence-based interventions using the Toolkit. The 
Toolkit was developed collaboratively by FNS National and Regional 
Office SNAP-Ed staff, the National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity 
Reduction (NCCOR), and the Association of SNAP Nutrition Education 
Administrators (ASNNA). Currently, more than 150 interventions are 
available in the Toolkit (https://snapedtoolkit.org/). This data 
collection for additional interventions to be reviewed for inclusion in 
the Toolkit is necessary for the following reasons:
     Increase the selection available to agencies to allow them 
to find interventions that fit their specific needs.
     Increase innovation in service delivery by encouraging 
adoption of interventions which reflect the most up-to-date research of 
nutrition education, physical activity, and obesity prevention behavior 
change.
     Allow FNS to respond to requests by intervention 
developers to be included in the Toolkit with a clear and transparent 
review process and criteria for inclusion.
    The Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, as amended (The Act) Sec.  
28(c)(3)(A) states that State agencies ``may use funds provided under 
this section for any evidence-based allowable use of funds'' including 
``(i) individual and group-based nutrition education, health promotion, 
and intervention strategies''. 7 CFR 272.2(2)(d) also states ``SNAP-Ed 
activities must include evidence-based activities using one or more of 
these approaches: Individual or group-based nutrition education, health 
promotion, and intervention strategies; comprehensive, multi-level 
interventions at multiple complementary organizational and 
institutional levels; community and public health approaches to improve 
nutrition''. The Intervention Submission Form and Scoring Tool allows 
for interventions to be assessed to determine if they are both 
evidence-based and use one of the approaches described.
    The Intervention Submission Form is be used by intervention 
developers (submitters) to provide information about the intervention 
they are submitting for inclusion in the Toolkit. Information requested 
includes intervention materials, how they have been and will be used, 
and the evidence base which illustrates their effectiveness. 
Information is collected through a combination of multiple-choice boxes 
and text response areas.
    Submitters are members of State or Implementing agencies, 
researchers from academic institutions and Federal agencies, such as 
the Economic Research Service (ERS), and non-profit or private sector 
nutrition education and physical activity intervention developers.
    Submitters are able to download, complete and submit the form at 
any time, although there is an annual deadline for submission for the 
associated year's review. Download and submission will be through the 
SNAP-Ed Connection website (https://snaped.fns.usda.gov/). Completion 
is voluntary.
    Submission Forms and attachments are collected by FNS National 
Office SNAP-Ed staff and distributed to intervention reviewers 
(reviewers), who use the Scoring Tool to help them determine if the 
intervention should be included in the Toolkit. The Scoring Tool rates 
the intervention according to the quality of materials, usefulness for 
SNAP-Ed, and effectiveness as demonstrated by the evidence base 
provided. Reviewers are directly emailed the Intervention Scoring Tool. 
Numerical scores are entered by reviewers as well as qualitative 
responses which clarify why an intervention was or was not included in 
the Toolkit. Information is collected through a combination of 
numerical and text entry fields.
    Reviewers are FNS National and Regional Office SNAP-Ed staff, 
nutrition program staff from other Federal agencies, such as Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), researchers from academic 
institutions, and SNAP-Ed State and Implementing agency staff.
    The review period occurs annually, with reviewers completing the 
Scoring Tool and discussing inclusion in the Toolkit. Participation as 
a reviewer is voluntary, with completion of the Scoring Tool a 
mandatory component of review participation.
    As this collection is nearing its expiration date, FNS it using the 
Revision process to implement a number of improvements aimed primarily 
at improving the user experience. For the FNS-885, these changes are 
anticipated to include:
     In Section I, the addition of one scoring factor prompt 
and the modification of another to encourage reviewers to reflect on 
aspects of equity.
     In Section II, the removal of two scoring factor prompts 
to reduce burden and the modification or insertion of eight existing or 
new prompts for clarity and to give reviewers the opportunity to 
reflect more fully on the effectiveness of the submitted intervention.
     In Section III, the removal of one question to reduce 
burden, and minor edits throughout to streamline and improve 
readability.
     In Section IV, the removal of one question to reduce 
burden, the modification of one prompt to explicitly reference 
intervention cost, and minor edits for readability.
     In Section V, the removal of a scoring factor not 
requested in FNS-886 (Submission Form), the inclusion of cost as a 
factor in keeping with Section IV, and the removal of a reviewer 
comments section to reduce burden.
     In the Bonus Questions, an updated list of 
underrepresented settings, reflecting the current body of SNAP-Ed 
Toolkit resources, for which interventions can be awarded bonus points, 
and the insertion of a new question to allow reviewers to reflect on 
the quality of materials submitted throughout the review process.
    For the FNS-886, the following updates are projected:
     In Section I, the replacement of a fill-in-the blank space 
with ``Yes or No'', and an additional sentence encouraging submitters 
to reference the materials they attach in the appendices.
     In Section II, new questions containing prompts for the 
submitter to list the approaches used in their intervention, and 
definitions to accompany a question requiring submitters to identify 
their intervention from a series of approaches listed in checkboxes.
     In Section III, a renumbering of questions due to the 
insertion of new questions in Section II.
     In Section IV, a new question asking submitters to 
identify tools they used to evaluate their intervention, a simplified 
question on which outcomes the intervention achieved, and an increased 
character limit on a question on evidence findings included in the 
submission. This section also includes minor updates for readability, 
and renumbering to reflect the newly inserted questions.
     In Section V, renumbering to reflect newly inserted 
questions.
     In Section VI, a clarification of what training is 
required to implement the intervention, as well as renumbering to 
reflect newly inserted questions.
     In Section VII, new instructions clarifying that 
submitters should describe how evaluation and modification addressed 
intervention sustainability concerns, and

[[Page 22134]]

renumbering to reflect newly inserted questions.
     In Section VIII, additional instructions to help 
developers name and reference their attachments throughout the 
submission form.
     In Section IX, additional instructions to help developers 
name and reference their attachments throughout the submission form.
    These updates were made based on FNS' own findings and feedback 
from users since the forms' introduction in 2018. FNS has refined and 
streamlined where real-world use has indicated this is possible, and 
included additional instructions, questions, or opportunities for 
response where users, trainers, and FNS partners indicated areas for 
improvement. FNS has also made small wording changes to fix typos and 
improve readability. Overall, the changes to the form are focused on 
quality-of-life improvements and burden reductions for the end user. In 
small-scale pilot testing, users completed the revised FNS-885 
approximately one hour sooner and the revised FNS-886 approximately 
took one hour longer. As indicated in the table below, these proposed 
revisions reduce Annual Burden on the public from 668 hours to 523 
hours.
    Affected Public: SNAP-Ed State and Implementing agencies, such as 
extension universities, non-profit organizations, and local program 
operators. Intervention developers may be members of these 
organizations, academic institutions not associated with SNAP-Ed, non-
profit organizations, and private organizations who voluntarily 
complete the Intervention Submission Form. Members of FNS SNAP-Ed 
staff, NCCOR and ASNNA members can voluntarily review interventions 
using the Intervention Scoring Tool.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: We estimate 127 respondents.
    Estimated Number of Responses per Respondent: 1 (Intervention 
Submission form), 2 (Intervention Scoring Tool).
    Estimated Total Annual Responses: 160.
    Estimated Time per Response: 120 Minutes (Intervention Submission 
Form), 360 Minutes (Intervention Scoring Tool).
    Estimated Total Annual Burden on Respondents: 31,380 minutes (523 
hours). See the table below for estimated total annual burden for each 
type of respondent.

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                                                                                                                      Total                     Annual
      Respondent category              Type of           Instruments          Form        Number of    Frequency      annual     Hours per      burden
                                     respondents                                         respondents  of response   responses     response     (hours)
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State/Local/Tribal Government..  SNAP-Ed State and   Intervention        FNS-886.......           39            1           39            6        234.0
                                  Implementing        Submission Form.
                                  Agency Dietitians
                                  & Nutritionists.
                                                     Scoring Tool......  FNS-885.......           22            2           44            2         88.0
                                                     Scoring Tool        FNS-885.......           22            1           22            1         22.0
                                                      (Training).
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    Subtotal: State/Local/       ..................  ..................  ..............           83       1.2651          105       3.2762        344.0
     Tribal Government.
Business, Non-Profit...........  Biological          Intervention        FNS-886.......           15            1           15            6         90.0
                                  Sciences            Submission Form.
                                  Teachers,
                                  Postsecondary.
                                                     Intervention        FNS-886.......            2            1            2            6         12.0
                                                      Submission Form
                                                      (Pretesting).
                                                     Scoring Tool......  FNS-885.......            7            2           14            2         28.0
                                                     Scoring Tool        FNS-885.......            2            1            2            2          4.0
                                                      (Pretesting).
                                                     Scoring Tool        FNS-885.......            7            1            7            1          7.0
                                                      (Training).
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    Subtotal: Business, Non-     ..................  ..................  ..............           33       1.2121           40       3.5250        141.0
     Profit.
Business, Profit...............  Dietitians and      Intervention        FNS-886.......            3            1            3            6         18.0
                                  Nutritionists.      Submission Form.
                                                     Scoring Tool......  FNS-885.......            4            2            8            2         16.0
                                                     Scoring Tool        FNS-885.......            4            1            4            1          4.0
                                                      (Training).
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    Subtotal: Business, Profit.  ..................  ..................  ..............           11       1.3636           15       2.5333         38.0
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        Total..................  ..................  ..................  ..............          127       1.2598          160       3.2688        523.0
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Cynthia Long,
Acting Administrator, Food and Nutrition Service.
[FR Doc. 2021-08707 Filed 4-26-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-30-P