Rural Child Poverty Nutrition Center
Accredited University or Research Center) to establish the USDA Rural Child Poverty Nutrition Center.
The role of this Center will be to develop and administer a series of sub-grants pertinent to the purposes of this grant, coordinate
The goal of the Center will be to reduce child food insecurity by improving Child Nutrition Assistance program coordination with other nutrition assistance programs or services in persistently poor rural counties.
Established in 1862, the Department of Agriculture serves all Americans through anti-hunger efforts, stewardship of nearly 200 million acres of national forest and rangelands, and through product safety and conservation efforts. The USDA opens markets for American farmers and ranchers and provides food for needy people around the world.
Program Accomplishments
Not Applicable.
Uses and Use Restrictions
Eligible Entities include governmental or non-governmental entities:
This Request for Application (RFA) is open to all Accredited Colleges/Universities, and Private or Public Research Institutions.
These are requirements for the selected recipient of the Cooperative Agreement, not any potential sub-grantees.
The grantee will be responsible for awarding sub-grants to either States or persistently poor counties for the purposes of increasing cross-program coordination efforts among Child nutrition and other food assistance programs.
Each sub-grantee will be expected to utilize their grant funds to conduct: 1) a needs assessment in their community and 2) implement a coordinated strategy based on findings from the needs assessment to facilitate improvements in nutrition program coordination.
Each sub-grantee must also agree to provide the Grantee and FNS with program participation data and other data specified by the Grantee as necessary for the Grantee to evaluate the overall effectiveness of funded nutrition program coordination efforts while taking into account potentially influential external factors.
Funds must be used to support projects in the persistently poor counties in the 15 States with the highest number of persistently poor counties (see list in Appendix A of RFA).
Eligibility Requirements
Applicant Eligibility
The grant is to be used to establish grants and cooperative agreements to identify, develop and undertake projects to meet Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) program needs and the food, nutrition, and health needs of program eligible participants.
Beneficiary Eligibility
Cooperative agreements are awarded to State and local governments, hospitals, non-profit organizations and accredited colleges/universities. This is a requirement for the selected recipient of the grants and cooperative agreements, not the sub-grantees. Cooperative agreement recipients are to award sub-grants to researchers to identify, develop, and evaluate interventions and innovative approaches to strengthen the impact of Food and Nutrition Service programs, such as WIC, on the food, nutrition, and health of program eligible participants.
Credentials/Documentation
No Credentials or documentation are required. This program is excluded from coverage under OMB Circular No. A-87.
Aplication and Award Process
Preapplication Coordination
Preapplication coordination is not applicable.
Environmental impact information is not required for this program.
This program is excluded from coverage under E.O.
12372.
Application Procedures
OMB Circular No. A-102 applies to this program. OMB Circular No. A-110 applies to this program. All applications had to be submitted electronically through www.grants.gov. Applicants were only allowed to submit paper-copy applications under extenuating circumstances, such as outages of the Grants.gov website that can be substantiated by a valid case number with the Grants.gov support center.
Award Procedures
FNS will pre-screen all applications to ensure that they contain the required documents and information, including but not limited to: all supporting documentation, the narrative proposal, Letters of Commitment, and Agreement to Cooperate with FNS. Complete applications will need to be submitted by eligible applicants, meet all other eligibility requirements stated in this RFA, submitted on or before the required deadlines, and be in the required format. If an application does not include all appropriate information, FNS will consider the application to be non-responsive and will eliminate it from further evaluation.
Following the initial screening process, FNS will assemble an evaluation panel to review and determine the technical merits of each application. The evaluation criteria discussed below will be reviewed by a panel of evaluators and used to score proposals. The proposals will be ranked by score starting with the highest score. The panel will present their recommendation to the selecting official based on this ranking. Awards will be considered based on rank order, however, the selection official reserves the right to make an award out of rank order to meet agency priorities, program balance, geographical representation, or project diversity. FNS reserves the right to use this solicitation and competition to award additional grants in the next fiscal year should additional funds be made available through future appropriations.
Deadlines
Contact the headquarters or regional office, as appropriate, for application deadlines.
Authorization
The legislative authority for this grant announcement is Section 6(a)(3) of the National School Lunch Act.
Range of Approval/Disapproval Time
Not Applicable.
Appeals
Not Applicable.
Renewals
Not Applicable.
Assistance Considerations
Formula and Matching Requirements
This program has no statutory formula.
This program has no matching requirements.
This program does not have MOE requirements.
Length and Time Phasing of Assistance
The total time period for which a grant or cooperative agreement is awarded may not exceed 60 months. See the following for information on how assistance is awarded/released: Funding will be made to successful recipients as specified in the terms of the grant or cooperative agreement with Food and Nutrition Service or as applicable under federal regulation requirements. The total funds will be released incrementally over the award years. Method of awarding/releasing assistance: quarterly.
Post Assistance Requirements
Reports
Program reports are required according to the terms of the grant or cooperative agreement with Food and Nutrition Service or as applicable under federal regulation requirements.
Report SF-PPR is to be filed by the recipient according to the terms of the grant or cooperative agreement.
Annual Reports are required as specified in the RFA and a draft version of a journal article ready to be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal is required by project completion.
No cash reports are required.
Quarterly Progress Reports are required as specified in the RFA.
Financial progress reports are submitted as specified in the RFA.
Performance monitoring is not applicable.
Audits
In accordance with the provisions of OMB Circular No. A-133 (Revised, June 27, 2003), "Audits of States, Local Governments, and Non-Profit Organizations," nonfederal entities that expend financial assistance of $500,000 or more in Federal awards will have a single or a program-specific audit conducted for that year. Nonfederal entities that expend less than $500,000 a year in Federal awards are exempt from Federal audit requirements for that year, except as noted in Circular No. A-133. None
Records
Records (financial/administrative/grant) are to be maintained according to the time requirements specified in the terms of the grant, or cooperative agreement with Food and Nutrition Service or as applicable under federal regulation requirements.
Financial Information
Account Identification
12-3539-0-1-605.
Obigations
(Salaries) FY 13 Not Available; FY 14 est $2,500,000; and FY 15 Estimate Not Available
Range and Average of Financial Assistance
Grant funds will be made available on a competitive basis, subject to availability of federal funds.
Approximately $2.5 million is available for funding this new Cooperative Agreement.
Regulations, Guidelines, and Literature
Not Applicable.
Information Contacts
Regional or Local Office
None.
Headquarters Office
Karen A. Castellanos-Brown 3101 Park Center Dr., Alexandria, Virginia 22302 Email: Karen.Castellanos-Brown@fns.usda.gov Phone: 7033052732
Criteria for Selecting Proposals
See RFA.
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