NUTRITION ASSISTANCE STUDY AND EVALUATION PLAN 

FOOD AND NUTRITION SERVICE 

FISCAL YEAR 2004 

April 20, 2004 

America’s food and nutrition assistance programs form a nationwide nutrition safety net to help 

low-income families and individuals escape hunger and improve nutrition. Together, these 

programs touch the lives of one in five Americans over the course of a year and, with an 

expected investment of $50 billion in fiscal year 2004, account for about 60 percent of USDA’s 

annual budget. Operational assessments that respond directly to the needs of program policy 

makers and managers help ensure that these programs achieve their mission effectively. 

The study and evaluation agenda addresses four key program priorities: 

• Improve program access so that all those eligible for nutrition assistance are able to 

participate, especially in Food Stamps, School Breakfast, and Summer Food Service. 

• Improve program integrity to strengthen operations and safeguard taxpayer investments. 

• Build a HealthierUS and address obesity by better integrating nutrition education and 

promoting healthy eating and physical activity among those eligible for nutrition assistance. 

• Strengthen performance measurement to improve the capacity to link program 

performance and desired outcomes.

Improve Program Access

Measuring Program Access, Trends, and Impacts – This project supports several key analytic 

tools (including microsimulation) to address program participation trends and impacts. It 

provides annual estimates of the percentage of eligible individuals who receive food stamps, for 

the nation as a whole and for individual states, providing a key measure of the program’s 

effectiveness in reaching its target population. The project also generates annual reports on the 

characteristics of food stamp participants. In addition, the project provides the primary 

mechanism through which FNS estimates the caseload and budgetary impact of actual and 

proposed policy changes. [Option under existing contract.]

National Work Advancement and Support Center Demonstration – Many low-wage workers 

do not receive the full package of financial work supports available to them even though it can 

fundamentally change the return on low-wage work, raising a family well above the poverty 

level. This project will continue support for a multi-year demonstration of new systems and 

procedures that make it easier for low-wage workers to access the full range of financial work 

supports – including food stamps. Funds would be provided to the U.S. Department of Labor, 

which serves as the lead federal agency in a consortium of public and private funders. Initial 

funding supports the development and implementation of an integrated work support 

demonstration in selected sites in 2003 and 2004; future year funding will support a rigorous 
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independent evaluation. The evaluation will include an assessment of the added value provided 

by faith- and community-based organizations in recruiting and sustaining participation among 

the hard-to-reach. [Interagency transfer to Department of Labor.]

Customer Feedback on Food Stamp Outreach Materials – FNS has developed a variety of 

materials designed for program partners, advocates, and the public to distribute to consumers 

who may be eligible to participate in the Food Stamp Program. These materials include posters, 

brochures, and fliers. All materials have been produced for each of four main audiences – the 

general public, the working poor, seniors and immigrants – and some materials targeted to 

disabled persons and veterans are also available. Some of the materials are available in Spanish. 

This project will create, implement, and analyze a web-based survey to obtain feedback from 

users on the usefulness of the materials made available to date and suggestions for improvements 

or additions. [Small business or 8(a) set aside.]

Improve Program Integrity

WIC Vendor Practices – This Congressionally-mandated study will examine the extent to 

which vendors comply with program rules and ensure that proper foods are purchased from retail 

stores. This would be the first study of WIC vendor management practices since new vendor 

management regulations were issued. It will also build on State high-risk vendor identification 

systems to identify and evaluate the efficacy of high-risk indicators that would allow States to 

target their limited investigation resources toward vendors that are most likely to be 

overcharging on food instruments. [Contract awarded on February 20, 2004.]

Measures of Erroneous Payments in School Meal Programs – In accordance with the 

Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-300), USDA is required to identify and 

reduce erroneous payments in various programs including the National School Lunch Program 

(NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP). This large-scale study would collect 

nationally representative data (certification, meal claiming, participation) to reliably estimate 

erroneous under and over payments. A secondary analysis may examine the extent to which the 

underlying eligibility of enrolled households change during the three years after applications are 

obtained during the base year for Provision 2/3 schools. In addition, this study would develop 

simulation models for generating annual national estimates of erroneous payments in NSLP and 

SBP from existing administrative records. [Full and open competition; request for proposals 

scheduled for April 26, 2004 release.]

Feasibility of Data Matching in School Meal Programs – This project is assessing current 

State infrastructure and capability to conduct data matching as an additional source of eligibility 

information in the school meals certification process. An initial census of all States will be 

followed by in-depth data collection in seven States. The results will be used to improve the 

process for determination and verification of student eligibility for school meals. Funding was 

provided in fiscal year 2003 for the initial census and in-depth data collection. Fiscal year 2004 

funds will support additional analysis and final report writing. [Modification to existing 

contract.]
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Validation of Socio-Economic Survey Data – The School District of Philadelphia has been 

using a combination of direct certification data and data from a socio-economic survey to 

develop estimates of the percentage of children who are eligible for free or reduced-price meal 

benefits. This data is used in lieu of collecting income eligibility applications from families each 

year. Because the verification process was eliminated, the statistical validity of these estimates 

has been questioned. This research activity requests the Bureau of Census to produce special 

tabulations to obtain estimates of the percentages of children attending public schools who are 

eligible for free, reduced and paid meal benefits under the National School Lunch Program in 

specifically defined census blocks. These estimates will then be compared to those estimates 

produced by the School District of Philadelphia. [Interagency transfer to Bureau of the Census.]

Build a HealthierUS/Obesity Prevention

School Nutrition Dietary Assessment III – The school meals programs have changed 

considerably since the last national studies of student diets and meal costs were completed in the 

1990’s. As part of the Agency’s periodic assessment of the nutritional effects of school meals, 

this study would update information on five domains of great interest to policy makers: (1) 

characteristics of the school environment and school food service operations; (2) nutritional 

quality of meals offered and served in the school meal programs; (3) student participation, 

participant characteristics, satisfaction, and related attitudes toward the school lunch and 

breakfast program; and (4) student dietary intakes and the contribution of school meals to these 

dietary intakes. Funding was provided in fiscal year 2003 to develop a sampling frame for 

national studies of the school meals programs. Fiscal year 2004 funds will support the selection 

and recruitment of school districts, study design and instrument development, and initial data 

collection activities. [GSA/FSS competition; request for proposals released February 28, 2004.]

Effects of Program Participation on Food Consumption and Diet Quality – All of the major 

Federal nutrition assistance programs include improved nutrition among their goals. A critical 

research question when studying the effectiveness of these programs, therefore, is the 

relationship between program participation and dietary outcomes. This project will address what 

low-income Americans eat, compare their diets to accepted standards for healthy eating, and 

examine the relationship between program participation and dietary intake. It will build on the 

existing research by using the most current information from the National Health and Nutrition 

Examination Survey. It will also measure these relationships for each of the nutrition assistance 

programs addressed in NHANES and explore the relationship between participation in multiple 

food assistance programs and participants’ dietary status. [Competitive task order award under 

existing IDIQ contract. Not available for open competition.]

USDA Research Conference on Obesity Prevention – The problem of obesity in America has 

reached epidemic proportions. Over 60 percent of adults and over 15 percent of children are 

either overweight or obese. This multi-agency conference will identify an obesity prevention 

research agenda that reflects the unique perspective and capacities of USDA. The conference 

will focus on nutrition and diet, behavioral science, physical activity, and integrated program 

approaches. The conference is planned for early fall of 2004. [Interagency transfer to USDA 

Research, Education, and Economics.]
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Analysis of EBT Benefit Redemption Patterns – The Food Stamp Program is designed to help 

low-income households obtain a more nutritious diet through normal channels of trade. Prior to 

implementation of EBT, information about where recipients redeem their benefits could only be 

tracked by aggregate statistics showing the volume of redemptions at each type of authorized 

retailer. EBT transaction data offer detailed information about food stamp benefit redemptions. 

The only systematic analysis of these data occurred in the context of the expanded EBT 

demonstration in Maryland, using transactions for August-October 1993. This project will 

assemble a more broadly representative set of EBT transaction data and examine patterns of food 

stamp benefit redemption, including the types of stores used, the frequency of shopping trips, 

and the timing of benefit exhaustion. [Competitive task order award under existing IDIQ 

contract. Not available for open competition.] 

Food and Nutrition Information Center – These funds will support the Food and Nutrition 

Information Center (FNIC) within the National Agriculture Library to systematically store and 

disseminate information on USDA’s food assistance programs, nutrition education, and related 

nutrition topics. [Interagency transfer to Food and Nutrition Information Center.]

Strengthen Performance Measurement

National Survey of Nutrition Assistance Program Participants – A comprehensive survey of 

program participants and eligible non-participants is needed to update previous work measuring 

the level of customer satisfaction, assessing participants’ access to food retailers, and identifying 

barriers to participation (especially among working eligible non-participants). At the same time, 

a participant survey can potentially resolve a variety of issues for which there are no sufficient 

data. These include measuring the degree to which nutrition assistance programs reduce hunger, 

resolving paradoxical relationships among program participation and food security, and 

determining the use and added value of nutrition education and information among program 

participants. There are significant design challenges involved in determining whether to 

embrace a longitudinal or cross-sectional design. Fiscal year 2004 funding will be used to 

identify the gaps in knowledge that a survey can address and determine an appropriate design. 

[Competitive task order award under existing IDIQ contract. Not available for open 

competition.]

Enhanced Measurement of Program Performance (Concept Papers) – The program faces a 

number of recurrent and difficult issues: e.g., how to measure the effectiveness of outreach, 

determining whether program participation encourages obesity, evaluating the effectiveness of 

error reduction efforts. This project will commission several independent papers to bring new 

perspectives to these issues and to build capacity among researchers to address the issues. 

[Competitive task order award under existing IDIQ contract. Not available for open 

competition.]

Review of the USDA Food Security Measure – USDA’s measure of household food security 

and hunger has come to play a central role in gauging the performance of the Federal nutrition 

assistance programs. The key decisions that shaped this measure were made nearly 10 years ago. 

To ensure that the measure continues to reflect the current state-of-the art, the Economic 

Research Service has entered into an agreement with the Committee on National Statistics to 
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convene an expert panel to consider whether the conceptualization of and methods for measuring 

food insecurity and hunger are appropriate for the policy purposes for which they are intended. 

The expert panel will also make recommendations to enhance these methods for monitoring, 

evaluation, and related research purposes. These funds would be provided to the Economic 

Research Service to enable completion of the panel’s work. [Interagency transfer to Economic 

Research Service.]