[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 13 (Friday, January 19, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3633-3635]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-00997]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Food and Nutrition Service


Request for Information: Food Price Data for State of Hawaii

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

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY:  The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food and 
Nutrition Service (FNS) requests comments from the public--including 
the food industry and research community--to help inform future policy 
and decisions about potentially updating Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) cost 
estimates for the State of Hawaii. Specifically, FNS invites comments 
and ideas about food price data for the State of Hawaii--including 
communities in the State outside of the County of Honolulu--that may be 
available, potentially accessible to FNS, and of sufficient quality, 
format, sample size, and recent period to be used potentially by FNS to 
make cost adjustments for the State of Hawaii to the TFP pursuant to 
section 3(u)(2) of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, as amended. 
Comments must be received on or before March 4, 2024.

DATES: Written comments must be received on or before March 4, 2024.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be sent to: Kevin Meyers Mathieu, Economic 
Advisor, Nutrition Guidance and Analysis Division, Center for Nutrition 
Policy and Promotion, Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Department of 
Agriculture, 1320 Braddock Place, Fourth Floor, Alexandria, VA 22314. 
Comments may also be submitted via email to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#04626a772a626b6b607468656a7744717760652a636b72"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="b1d7dfc29fd7deded5c1ddd0dfc2f1c4c2d5d09fd6dec7">[email protected]</span></a>. 
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 comments received in response 
to this notice 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 Kevin 
Meyers Mathieu, Economic Advisor, Nutrition Guidance and Analysis 
Division, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, Food and Nutrition 
Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, at 703-946-7619.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: FNS makes this request with the goal of 
maximizing the range of food price data specific to communities in the 
State of Hawaii outside of the County of Honolulu--that is, the 
Neighbor Islands--that may become accessible to the Agency and 
available for the Agency to assess in terms of feasibility to use for 
updating TFP cost estimates in Hawaii. Data should be of a similar 
quality, format, and sample size to data used for reevaluating the TFP 
for the mainland United States in August 2021 (Thrifty Food Plan, 2021, 
FNS-916) \1\ and making cost adjustments for Alaska and Hawaii in July 
2023 (Thrifty Food Plan Cost Estimates for Alaska and Hawaii, FNS-
989).\2\
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    \1\ The Thrifty Food Plan, 2021 report and supplemental 
materials are available at: https://www.fns.usda.gov/cnpp/thrifty-food-plan-2021.
    \2\ The Thrifty Food Plan Cost Estimates for Alaska and Hawaii 
report and supplemental materials are available at: https://www.fns.usda.gov/cnpp/tfp-akhi.
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    The TFP represents a healthy, practical, cost-conscious diet for a 
family of four, and its cost forms the basis for Supplemental Nutrition 
Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit levels. Through a rigorous and 
transparent process, USDA used updated food price data to recalculate 
the cost estimates of the TFP for Alaska and Hawaii. This update 
ensured SNAP participants in Alaska and Hawaii have a data-driven 
benefit amount that is equitable to the benefits provided to people 
living in the 48 contiguous States and DC so they can afford nutritious 
food essential for health and well-being.
    The updated cost estimates for Alaska and Hawaii were calculated in 
alignment with the existing statutory and regulatory framework. Namely, 
TFP costs for Alaska and Hawaii were calculated by comparing food 
prices in the 48 contiguous States and DC to those in Anchorage and 
Honolulu, respectively. The Anchorage TFP cost is further adjusted to 
reflect food prices throughout urban and rural areas of the State of 
Alaska, as per statute. In contrast, the Honolulu TFP cost, as per 
regulation, is used as the basis for SNAP benefits throughout the 
entire State of Hawaii. Evidence suggests that Honolulu was originally 
used because it was the only location in the State where the Bureau of 
Labor Statistics routinely collected food price information at the 
time. The availability of food price data in the State of Hawaii--
including communities in the State outside of the County of Honolulu--
of sufficient quality, format, sample size, and recent period may 
motivate a reexamination of the regulatory language that stipulates 
Honolulu as the basis for the Hawaii TFP cost estimate. The features of 
the data may also contribute to potential future decisions on a 
preferred methodology that could be used to calculate a Hawaii TFP cost 
using food price data from throughout the State of Hawaii.

List of Questions for Commenters

    The Agency requests responses to the following questions:
    Question 1: How does the cost of food differ between the Island of 
Oahu (i.e., the County of Honolulu) and the Neighbor Islands (i.e., all 
other areas of the State of Hawaii)? To what extent are any differences 
in the cost of food driven by differences in prices for identical foods 
and beverages versus differences in other factors (e.g., region-

[[Page 3634]]

specific food choices and/or availability)?
    Question 2: What benefits and/or consequences are experienced by 
SNAP participants residing on the Neighbor Islands as a result of the 
Agency's use of food prices in Honolulu as the basis for calculating 
the SNAP maximum benefit amounts in the State of Hawaii?
    Question 3: How would the benefits and/or consequences described in 
question 2 change if the Agency implemented an alternative approach for 
calculating the SNAP maximum benefit amount in Hawaii that uses food 
price data from all areas of the State of Hawaii?
    Question 4: What data are available for the Agency's use in 
calculating a Hawaii TFP cost that uses food prices from throughout the 
State of Hawaii?
    Question 5: For any data source(s) identified under question 4:
    (a) Can these data be used to quantify price differences for 
identical foods and beverages as described in question 1?
    (b) To what extent are the data representative of the State of 
Hawaii or any specific geographies, regions, and/or communities within 
the State? Are there any areas of the State of Hawaii that are not 
represented in the data?
    (c) Are these data also collected outside of the State of Hawaii? 
If so, where? To what extent are the data representative of the other 
locations in which they are collected?
    (d) At what level of geographic aggregation are the data available 
(e.g., State-level, County-level, store-level)?
    (e) At what unit of analysis are the data available? Specifically, 
do the data provide prices for individual Universal Product Codes 
(UPCs, also called barcodes) or for categories of foods and beverages? 
If the data are reported at the category-level, how were the categories 
constructed?
    (f) Do the data include prices for food items that do not have 
barcodes (e.g., fresh fruits, vegetables, bakery items, meat, or fish 
that are sold on a per pound, per ounce or per unit basis)?
    (g) What is the sample size of foods and beverages (measured using 
the unit of analysis described above) in the data?
    (h) To what extent do the foods and beverages included in the data 
reflect the foods and beverages in the TFP market basket? Are there any 
food and beverage categories that are excluded from or underrepresented 
in the data?
    (i) By whom are the data collected and reported? For example, the 
data might be comprised of households self-reporting food and beverage 
acquisitions, in-store price quotes collected by surveyors, or sales 
records maintained by retailers.
    (j) Do the data represent prices quoted by the retailer (i.e., 
sticker price in the store) or prices that the consumer actually paid 
(accounting for loyalty card discounts, coupons, etc.)?
    (k) What is the sample size of reporting units (e.g., number of 
households, number of stores)?
    (l) If the data are collected at the household-level (i.e., from a 
household survey) to what extent are the households that are included 
representative of the overall population in Hawaii? Are sampling 
weights available?
    (m) What store types are represented in the data (e.g., grocery 
stores, mass merchandisers, drug stores, club stores, convenience 
stores)?
    (n) When were the data collected? If the data are collected on a 
recurring basis, with what frequency are they collected? If the data 
are collected on a continuous basis, with what frequency are they 
reported?
    (o) Do the data also include information on factors other than food 
prices (e.g., dietary intakes)?
    (p) What quality assurance processes have the data undergone? To 
what extent can the Agency and the public trust that the data are 
accurate? For example, are units checked for accurate conversion to a 
common unit (e.g., packages to ounces) and are outlier prices checked 
for accuracy?
    (q) Have these data been analyzed in the past? If so, how?
    (r) Are there any known limitations or considerations when using 
the data?
    (s) Are the data publicly available or are they proprietary/
restricted access? If they are proprietary/restricted access, to what 
extent could the Agency release them to the public to enable 
reproduction of any related analyses?
    (t) What is the approximate cost of accessing the data? Does data 
access require a contractual agreement or access to a specialized data 
hosting platform?
    (u) In what format are the data available? Are the data machine 
readable?
    Disclaimers: This is a Request for Information (RFI). This is not a 
Request for Proposals or a Request for Applications and is not to be 
construed as a commitment by the U.S. Government to issue any 
solicitation or Notice of Funding Opportunity, or ultimately award a 
contract or assistance agreement based on this RFI, or to pay for any 
information voluntarily submitted as a result of this request. The U.S. 
Department of Agriculture (USDA) posts its competitive business 
opportunities on www.grants.gov. It is the potential offeror's/
applicant's responsibility to monitor these sites for announcements of 
new opportunities. Please note that responding to this RFI will not 
give any advantage to any organization or individual in any subsequent 
competition. Responses may be used by USDA without restriction or 
limitation, therefore proprietary information should not be sent.
    Furthermore, this RFI does not mean and should not be construed to 
suggest that FNS will update TFP cost estimates for the State of Hawaii 
in the future. The current TFP cost estimate for Hawaii was calculated 
in alignment with the existing statutory and regulatory framework. 
Namely, the TFP cost for Hawaii was calculated by comparing food prices 
in the 48 contiguous States and DC to those in Honolulu. FNS seeks 
information about potentially available food price data for the State 
of Hawaii outside of Honolulu to properly assess the feasibility of 
potentially pursuing an update to the TFP cost estimate for the State 
of Hawaii that could potentially incorporate such food price data 
should such an update be permissible in the future. If sufficient food 
price data sources are identified and such data were to become 
available to FNS, the Agency would take such information into account 
as it considers the range of factors relevant to potentially pursuing 
an update to the TFP cost estimates for the State of Hawaii, but 
identifying food price data alone, whether as a result of an RFI 
response or not, is not in and of itself determinative for future cost 
estimate updates.
    Collection of Information Requirements: This document does not 
impose information collection requirements, that is, reporting, 
recordkeeping or third-party disclosure requirements. However, this 
document does contain a general solicitation of comments in the form of 
a request for information. In accordance with implementing regulations 
of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), specifically 5 CFR 
1320.3(h)(4), this general solicitation is exempt from the PRA. Facts 
or opinions submitted in response to general solicitations of comments 
from the public, published in the Federal Register or other 
publications, regardless of the form or format thereof, provided that 
no person is required to supply specific information pertaining to the 
commenter other than that necessary for self-identification, as a 
condition of the agency's full consideration, are not generally 
considered information

[[Page 3635]]

collections and therefore not subject to the PRA.

Cynthia Long,
Administrator, Food and Nutrition Service.
[FR Doc. 2024-00997 Filed 1-18-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-30-P


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