51110 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 175 / Tuesday, September 14, 2021 / Notices 

[FR Doc. 2021–19722 Filed 9–13–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–30–C 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Food and Nutrition Service 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities: Proposed Collection; 

Comment Request: Additional 

Information To Be Collected Under the 

Uniform Grant Application Package for 

Discretionary Grant Programs for the 

Emergency Food Assistance Program 

Reach and Resiliency Grants 

AGENCY: Food and Nutrition Service 

(FNS), USDA. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: This Notice announces that 

the United States Department of 

Agriculture’s (USDA) Food and 

Nutrition Service (FNS) plans to add 

The Emergency Food Assistance 

Program (TEFAP) Reach and Resiliency 

Grants, as authorized by the American 

Rescue Plan Act, to its list of approved 

programs under the Uniform Grant 

Application for Non-Entitlement 

Discretionary Grants, as approved under 

OMB Control Number: 0584–0512 

(Expiration Date: July 31, 2022); and 

that FNS intends to collect additional 

information for the TEFAP Reach and 

Resiliency Grants outside of what is 

currently in the uniform package. This 

Notice solicits public comments on the 

additional information to be collected 

for the TEFAP Reach and Resiliency 

Grants. 

DATES: To be assured of consideration, 

written comments must be submitted or 

postmarked on or before September 14, 

2021. 

ADDRESSES: 

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. 

Comments must be submitted through 

one of the following methods: 

• Preferred method: Submit 

information through the Federal 

eRulemaking Portal at http://

www.regulations.gov. Follow the online 

instructions for submissions. 

• Email: Send comments to 

rachel.schoenian@usda.gov with a 

subject line ‘‘TEFAP Reach and 

Resiliency Grant Information 

Collection.’’ 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Rachel Schoenian, Food Distribution 

Division, Food and Nutrition Service, 

U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1320 

Braddock Place, Alexandria, Virginia 

22314, 703–305–2937, or email 

rachel.schoenian@usda.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Utilizing 

funding and authority provided by 

Section 1001(b)(4) of the American 

Rescue Plan Act (ARPA, P.L. 117–2), 

USDA is establishing a new grant 

program for State agencies that 

administer The Emergency Food 

Assistance Program (TEFAP), aimed at 

helping strengthen TEFAP 

infrastructure and expand TEFAP’s 

reach into rural, remote, and/or lowincome communities that are 

underserved by TEFAP. 

TEFAP Reach and Resiliency Grants 

will be offered in two rounds. As 

planned, half of the funds ($50 million) 

will be offered to States in Fall 2021. 

Each TEFAP State agency will be able 

to apply for a fair share portion of the 

initial funding according to the TEFAP 

funding formula at 7 CFR 251.3(h). FNS 

will use lessons learned from the first 

round of Reach and Resiliency Grants to 

determine the best method for offering 

the second round. 

For the first round of grant funding, 

eligible entities will submit an 

application using FNS’ Uniform Grant 

Application for Discretionary Grant 

Programs (OMB Control Number: 0584– 

0512, Expiration Date: July 31, 2022), 

which will include up to ten additional 

questions related to the goals of the 

Reach and Resiliency grants. These 

questions will be outlined in the 

Request for Applications for the TEFAP 

Reach and Resiliency Grant and be 

incorporated into the grant application 

template. State agencies will have the 

option to use the optional template or 

any other format to answer the 

questions. The additional questions 

included will relate to how TEFAP State 

agencies will utilize TEFAP Reach and 

Resiliency grant funding and how the 

State’s project will: (1) Strengthen 

infrastructure; and (2) expand reach into 

rural, remote, and/or low-income 

communities currently underserved by 

TEFAP in the State. This will include 

submission of data that identifies those 

underserved areas. Additional 

information that State agencies will also 

need to provide includes the names of 

anticipated partners, the percentage of 

funds that will be kept at the State-level, 

and other information that ensures the 

proposed use of the grant complies with 

current program regulations. 

To measure impact of the grants and 

to determine whether the grants achieve 

their intended purposes, grantees will 

be required to provide narrative, 

biannual progress reports using the 

FNS–908 Performance Progress Report 

form, as a condition to accepting grant 

funding. In addition to this standard 

form, grantees will be asked to respond 

to two more questions related to 

progress made toward achieving the 

goals of the grant program, on a 

biannual basis. These questions may 

include updates to any data submitted 

in the grant application. The two 

additional questions will be outlined in 

the Request for Applications for the 

TEFAP Reach and Resiliency grant. A 

template submission form will be 

provided to grantees to report this 

information, but they will have the 

option of reporting the information in 

any format they choose. 

With the additional information that 

will be requested, FNS estimates that 

each State agency will spend a total of 

approximately 53.58 hours completing 

the full grant application package. 

Under 0584–0512, FNS has 114,431 

remaining burden hours and 23,293 

remaining responses available for use. 

Under the TEFAP Reach and Resiliency 

Grants, State agencies are expected to 

use 4,763.99 burden hours and 1,458 

responses for the pre-award, post-award 

and recordkeeping burden, including 

the additional information to be 

collected. All three items make up the 

burden for the competitive grants that 

are submitted under 0584–0512. 

This purpose of this Notice is to 

solicit public comments on the 

additional information to be collected 

for the TEFAP Reach and Resiliency 

Grants through the ten question 

application questionnaire and through 

the two question biannual progress 

reports for the grant program. 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. 


tkelley on DSK125TN23PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 175 / Tuesday, September 14, 2021 / Notices 51111 

FNS will utilize these comments to 

adjust the information collection as 

necessary. 

Cynthia Long, 

Acting Administrator, Food and Nutrition 

Service. 

[FR Doc. 2021–19764 Filed 9–13–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–30–P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Forest Service 

Information Collection: Urban Forest 

Engagement in Atlanta, GA 

AGENCY: Forest Service, Agriculture 

(USDA). 

ACTION: Notice; request for comment. 

SUMMARY: In accordance with the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the 

USDA Forest Service is seeking 

comments from all interested 

individuals and organizations on the 

extension with revisions of a currently 

approved information collection, Urban 

Forest Engagement in Atlanta, Georgia. 

DATES: Comments must be received in 

writing on or before November 15, 2021 

to be assured of consideration. 

Comments received after that date will 

be considered to the extent practicable. 

ADDRESSES: Commenters are encouraged 

to submit comments by email, if 

possible. You may submit comments by 

any of the following methods: 

• Email: cassandra.johnson@

usda.gov. 

• Mail: Cassandra Johnson Gaither, 

Forestry Sciences Lab, 320 Green Street, 

Athens, GA 30602. 

• Hand Delivery/Courier: Cassandra 

Johnson Gaither, Forestry Sciences Lab, 

320 Green Street, Athens, GA 30602. 

• Facsimile: (706) 559–4266. 

The public may inspect comments 

received at Forestry Sciences Lab, 320 

Green Street, Athens, GA 30602, during 

normal business hours. Visitors are 

encouraged to call ahead to (706) 559– 

4270 to facilitate entry to the building. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Cassandra Johnson Gaither, USDA 

Forest Service, Southern Research 

Station, by phone at (706) 559–4270 or 

email at cassandra.johnson@usda.gov. 

Individuals who use telecommunication 

devices for the hearing-impaired (TDD) 

may call the Federal Relay Service (FRS) 

at 1–800–877–8339 twenty-four hours a 

day, every day of the year, including 

holidays. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Title: Urban Forest Engagement in 

Atlanta, GA. 

OMB Number: 0596–0237. 

Expiration Date of Approval: February 

28, 2022. 

Type of Request: Extension with 

revisions of a currently approved 

information collection. 

Abstract: This information collection 

will continue to gather data on City of 

Atlanta residents’ interest in and 

engagement with the urban forest in the 

city. This information collection focuses 

more narrowly on urban forest patches, 

a collection or stand of trees, in public 

spaces. Engagement is defined as 

residents’ interest in and awareness of 

urban forest patches and resident 

participation in decisions about how the 

patches should be maintained or 

repurposed. The information collection 

also gathers data on social factors such 

as neighborhood transiency and 

perception of neighborhood conditions, 

conceptualized as collective efficacy 

and social cohesion. The neighborhood 

conditions data provides information on 

the broader context from which people 

make decisions about engaging with 

urban forest patches. If neighborhood 

transiency (i.e., frequent involuntary 

moving of people in and out of 

neighborhoods) is problematic in 

communities or people lack basic needs 

such as access to healthy foods or safe 

neighborhoods, it is unlikely that they 

would demonstrate a high degree of 

engagement with the city’s urban forest. 

This collection extends the existing 

information collection effort by 

examining the environmental justice 

implications of neighborhood-level 

decision making about the forest 

patches. Prior door-to-door data 

collection in south Atlanta 

neighborhoods revealed the presence of 

forest patches on vacant properties. 

However, there is little to no data on 

how residents perceive of these spaces 

or how residents might contribute to 

decision processes about the outcome of 

these spaces. This is an important 

question given the sites are providing 

ecological benefits such as stormwater 

mitigation. 

For the proposed data collection, 

survey questions were included on 

people’s awareness of forest patches on 

vacant properties near their 

neighborhoods and on potential barriers 

residents might face in contributing to 

decision making processes about the 

patches. Many contextual factors 

constrain people’s ability to engage in 

local-level environmental decision 

making, the procedural component of 

environmental justice. The data 

collected via this effort will provide 

important input on factors that might 

facilitate or constrain engagement and 

will inform the USDA Forest Service’s 

efforts to address Executive Order 

14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at 

Home and Abroad, and Executive Order 

12898, Federal Actions to Address 

Environmental Justice in Minority 

Populations and Low Income 

Populations. 

Data collection will center on south 

Atlanta neighborhoods adjacent to 

vacant land with forest patches. These 

neighborhoods are overwhelmingly 

African American, with poverty rates 

ranging from roughly 30 percent to 64 

percent. The neighborhoods are also 

near multiple transportation companies, 

the activities of which compromise air 

quality. 

The survey will be conducted at the 

household, using proportionate-guided 

random sampling where the survey is 

left for the appropriate respondent to 

complete and is picked up later by a 

survey administrator. This methodology 

limits contact between the surveyor and 

the household but provides the inperson contact that is helpful for 

increasing response rates which are 

considerably lower in minority 

communities. Survey administrators 

will include USDA Forest Service social 

scientists, neighborhood residents 

trained in door-to-door data collection 

methods, and university college 

students. Researchers with USDA Forest 

Service Research & Development staff 

will analyze the data. 

If the information proposed herein is 

not collected, the opportunity to address 

environmental justice from a procedural 

perspective will be missed. The 

information collection also will assist 

the Agency in better understanding how 

urban green spaces in southern cities 

impact residents’ quality of life. 

Comparatively fewer Forest Service led 

studies have examined this topic for 

these populations. 

Type of Respondents: City of Atlanta 

residents. 

Estimated Annual Number of 

Respondents: 600. 

Estimated Annual Number of 

Responses per Respondent: 1. 

Estimated Total Annual Burden on 

Respondents: 120 hours. 

Comment Is Invited: Comment is 

invited on: (1) Whether this collection 

of information is necessary for the stated 

purposes and the proper performance of 

the functions of the Agency, including 

whether the information will have 

practical or scientific utility; (2) the 

accuracy of the Agency’s estimate of the 

burden of the collection of information, 

including the validity of the 

methodology and assumptions used; (3) 

ways to enhance the quality, utility, and 

clarity of the information to be 

collected; and (4) ways to minimize the 

burden of the collection of information 


tkelley on DSK125TN23PROD with NOTICES