[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 88 (Monday, May 8, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 29625-29627]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-09706]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Food and Nutrition Service


Agency Information Collection Activities: Operational Challenges 
in Child Nutrition Programs (OCCNP) Surveys

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 is a new collection focusing on Operational Challenges in 
Child Nutrition Programs and will utilize survey instruments for school 
years (SY) 2023-2024, SY 2024-2025, and SY 2025-2026. The studies 
encompassed under this information collection will collect data from 
institutions administering and operating Child Nutrition Programs such 
as State agencies, School Food Authorities (SFAs) and Child and Adult 
Care Food Program (CACFP) and Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) 
Sponsors, including information on emerging and ongoing operational 
challenges facing Child Nutrition Program operators.

DATES: Written comments must be received on or before July 7, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be sent to: Sarah Reinhardt, Food and Nutrition 
Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1320 Braddock Pl., 5th floor, 
Alexandria, VA 22314. Comments may also be submitted 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 Sarah 
Reinhardt at [email protected], 703-305-2532.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 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: Operational Challenges in Child Nutrition Programs (OCCNP) 
Surveys.
    Form Number: N/A.
    OMB Number: 0584-NEW.
    Expiration Date: Not yet determined.
    Type of Request: New collection.
    Abstract: FNS administers the Child Nutrition (CN) Programs in 
partnership with States, local SFAs, other program sponsors, and local 
program operators. Section 28(a) of the Richard B. Russell National 
School Lunch Act authorizes the U.S. Department of Agriculture 
Secretary to conduct annual national performance assessments of the 
school meal programs and requires States and local entities 
participating in the programs to cooperate with program research and 
evaluations. FNS plans to collect periodic data to obtain information 
on operational challenges facing institutions who operate or administer 
child nutrition programs, including State agencies, SFAs and Summer 
Food Service Program (SFSP) Sponsors. The Operational Challenges in 
Child Nutrition Programs (OCCNP) Surveys, are designed to collect 
timely data on emerging school food service operational challenges, 
including but not limited to supply chain disruptions, food costs, and 
labor shortages, and/or related issues in SY 2023-2024, 2024-2025, and 
SY 2025-2026. Access to a timely and reliable source of data on these 
topics has become particularly important following the COVID-19 
pandemic. In addition to changing the ways that school meal programs 
operated, the pandemic has contributed to lasting supply chain issues 
and substantial changes in the cost and availability of food and labor. 
The ability to collect this data will allow FNS to provide the best 
possible support to States and program sponsors and operators facing 
continued food service operations challenges and enable FNS to respond 
more quickly and effectively to potential disruptions in the future.

[[Page 29626]]

    To administer the survey(s), FNS may first contact State agencies 
administering child nutrition programs to obtain current lists of the 
respondent population(s) of interest (e.g., SFAs, SFSP Sponsors, or 
CACFP Sponsors). In the case of SFAs and SFSP Sponsors, the list will 
be used to conduct a census; in the case of CACFP Sponsors, the list 
will be used to generate a representative sample of respondents. After 
identifying the appropriate respondent population(s), FNS with provide 
State agencies with a template survey support email to be distributed 
to the respondent population(s) in their respective States to provide 
information regarding the survey and express support for the data 
collection. If State agencies administering child nutrition programs 
and/or food distribution for these programs will also be considered 
survey respondents, these agencies will receive additional 
communications from FNS regarding their participation in the survey. 
FNS will then email the survey to respondent population(s) via the 
Qualtrics Survey Software platform or a similar software. The survey 
instrument will include content tailored to each respondent population, 
and will take approximately 20 minutes to complete.
    Survey administration will be similar to the methods used for the 
SFA Survey II on School Food Supply Chain Disruption and Student 
Participation, which obtained emergency clearance for data collection 
in SY 2022-2023 and was cleared by the Office of Management and Budget 
on November 15, 2022 (SFA Survey II on School Food Supply Chain 
Disruption and Student Participation, OMB control number 0584-0677, 
expiration date 05/31/2023); however, this proposed data collection is 
different in that it is broader in scope than the previous emergency 
clearance, encompasses a broader potential audience, and focuses on 
different timeframes for collection in the future. Under the emergency 
information collection, data collection methods consisted of a web 
survey of all SFAs nationwide operating child nutrition programs in 
schools during SY 2022-2023, and was distributed to 18,843 SFAs based 
on contact information collected from the 56 CN agencies that 
administer CN Programs at the state level in the 50 States, District of 
Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
    Affected Public: State, Local, and Tribal Governments: Respondent 
groups identified may include: (1) State agencies administering child 
nutrition programs or food distribution for these programs, (2) SFA 
Directors, (3) SFSP Sponsors (government and private, not-for-profit), 
and (4) CACFP Sponsors (private, not-for-profit) from all 50 States, 5 
territories and the District of Columbia.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: The total estimated number of 
respondents per year is 21,511. This includes (1) 70 State Agency 
Directors (56 administering programs and 14 food distribution only); 
(2) 18,843 SFA Directors; (3) 1,663 SFSP Sponsors (government and non-
profit private Sponsors, not including SFAs); and (4) 935 CACFP 
Sponsors (based on a representative sample of Sponsors, not including 
SFAs). Consistent with past approaches, each survey will engage nine 
pretest participants representative of the respondent population(s). 
For the purpose of estimating respondent burden, it is assumed that the 
pretest reflects participation on behalf of State Child Nutrition 
Directors; SFA Directors (government and private, not-for-profit 
business); SFSP Sponsors (government and private, not-for-profit 
business); and CACFP Sponsors (private, not-for-profit business). 
Pretest participants will be adjusted accordingly based on the needs 
and content of each survey and SFAs operating multiple child nutrition 
programs may be prioritized.
    Estimated Number of Responses per Respondent: State Agency Director 
respondents will be asked to provide a current list of SFAs and/or 
Sponsors operating child nutrition programs, as needed, and distribute 
a survey support email to these respondent groups annually (three times 
total, in SY 2023-2024, SY 2024-2025, and SY 2024-2025). The selected 
respondent group(s) will be asked to complete the web survey once per 
year, though respondents operating more than one child nutrition 
program (e.g., SFAs that also serve as SFSP Sponsors) will be required 
to respond to survey questions for each program. To estimate the 
associated burden, we included separate lines in the burden estimate 
table to account for additional time SFAs may spend on surveys for SFSP 
or CACFP programs, respectively. There are 2,851 SFAs that also act as 
SFSP Sponsors; in the case of CACFP Sponsors, it is assumed that half 
of the representative sample of CACFP Sponsors (935 of 1,869 total) are 
also SFAs.
    In the event of non-response, survey respondents will receive 
follow-up email correspondence and will be provided contact information 
for FNS survey support as needed. Similarly, State Agencies who do not 
provide contact information for SFAs/Sponsors upon request may receive 
email reminders until current lists have been obtained from all 
regions. FNS estimates that respondents will average 5.17 responses 
(111,123 responses/21,497 respondents) annually, for a total of 15.51 
responses per respondent over the three year period.
    Estimated Total Annual Responses: 111,123.
    Estimated Time per Response: The estimated time per response ranges 
from 2 minutes (0.03 hours) to 20 minutes (.33 hours) depending on the 
instrument, as shown in the table below, with an average estimated time 
for all participants of 6 minutes (0.10 hours) per response.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden on Respondents: 11,220.39 hours. See 
the table below for estimated total annual burden for each type of 
respondent.

                                                                                 Table 1--Annual Burden Estimate
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                                              Type of respondents                                    Number of     Frequency of    Total annual      Hours per     Annual burden   3 Year burden
           Respondent category                    (optional)                  Instruments           respondents      response        responses       response         (hours)         (hours)
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State Government........................  State Child Nutrition       OCCNP Survey Support Email              56               1              56            0.17            9.34           28.01
                                           Directors.
                                                                      Pretest...................               1               1               1            0.83            0.83            2.50
                                                                      OCCNP Survey..............              56               1              56            0.33           18.48           55.44
                                          State Food Distribution     OCCNP Survey..............              14               1              14            0.33            4.62           13.86
                                           Agency.
Local Government........................  SFA Directors.............  Pretest...................               4               1               4            0.83            3.33           10.00
                                                                      OCCNP Survey Support Email          15,260               1          15,260            0.03          508.16        1,524.47
                                                                      OCCNP Survey (SFAs).......          15,260               1          15,260            0.33        5,035.80       15,107.40

[[Page 29627]]

 
                                                                      OCCNP Survey (SFSP).......           2,851               1           2,851            0.33          940.83        2,822.49
                                                                      OCCNP Survey (CACFP)......             935               1             935            0.33          308.39          925.16
                                                                      Reminder Email............          15,260               2          30,520            0.03        1,016.32        3,048.95
                                                                      Thank You Email...........          15,260               1          15,260            0.03          508.16        1,524.47
Government..............................  SFSP Sponsors.............  Pretest...................               1               1               1            0.83            0.83            2.50
                                                                      OCCNP Survey Support Email             255               1             255            0.03            8.49           25.47
                                                                      OCCNP Survey..............             255               1             255            0.33           84.15          252.45
                                                                      Reminder Email............             255               2             510            0.03           16.98           50.95
                                                                      Thank You Email...........             255               1             255            0.03            8.49           25.47
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State and Local Government Subtotal.....                                                                  15,571            5.23          81,493            0.10        8,473.20       25,419.59
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Private, Not-For-Profit Businesses......  SFA Directors.............  Pretest...................               1               1               1            0.83            0.83            2.50
                                                                      OCCNP Survey Support Email           3,583               1           3,583            0.03          119.31          357.94
                                                                      OCCNP Survey..............           3,583               1           3,583            0.33        1,182.39        3,547.17
                                                                      Reminder Email............           3,583               2           7,166            0.03          238.63          715.88
                                                                      Thank You Email...........           3,583               1           3,583            0.03          119.31          357.94
Private, Not-For-Profit Businesses......  SFSP Sponsors.............  Pretest...................               1               1               1            0.83            0.83            2.50
                                                                      OCCNP Survey Support Email           1,408               1           1,408            0.03           46.89          140.66
                                                                      OCCNP Survey..............           1,408               1           1,408            0.33          464.64        1,393.92
                                                                      Reminder Email............           1,408               2           2,816            0.03           93.77          281.32
                                                                      Thank You Email...........           1,408               1           1,408            0.03           46.89          140.66
Private, Not-For-Profit Businesses......  CACFP Sponsors............  Pretest...................               1               1               1            0.83            0.83            2.50
                                                                      OCCNP Survey Support Email             935               1             935            0.03           31.12           93.36
                                                                      OCCNP Survey..............             935               1             935            0.33          308.39          925.16
                                                                      Reminder Email............             935               2           1,869            0.03           62.24          186.71
                                                                      Thank You Email...........             935               1             935            0.03           31.12           93.36
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Private, not-for-profit businesses subtotal.........................  ..........................           5,926            5.00          29,631            0.09        2,747.19        8,241.57
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    Total...........................................................  ..........................          21,497          5.1694         111,123            0.10       11,220.39       33,661.17
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Tameka Owens,
Assistant Administrator, Food and Nutrition Service.
[FR Doc. 2023-09706 Filed 5-5-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-30-P