PROMOTING DIRECT CERTIFICATION IN THE NATIONAL SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM: DATA MATCHING UPDATE STUDY

THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE ONLY. IT IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS. A SOLICITATION IS NOT AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) intends to issue a competitive procurement for advisory and assistance services to assess the effectiveness of direct certification in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). FNS is sponsoring this study to update an earlier study concluded in 2005 on computer data matching of client benefit information from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations and other data as a means of directly certifying and verifying eligibility of households with school age children for free school meals in NSLP. Since that study, direct certification has now become a requirement by legislation and not an option. Consequently, the Agency is collecting up to date information on the mechanisms of data matching currently is use by States and School Food Authorities (SFA) for conducting direct certification. The main sources of data collection for the study will be through surveys with States and SFAs. Interested parties may submit capability statements that demonstrate their ability to perform all elements of the requirement as described in this notice. Your response must include a description of your past experience on at least three (3) similar projects consistent in scope, size and complexity with this requirement which you performed in the past three years; and description of staff experience and skills. Contact information for references on the described, similar projects shall also be provided. All responses must be submitted to [email protected] NO LATER THAN 4:00 p.m. on May 03, 2010. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. For questions concerning this notice, please contact Belal Hammad, Contract Specialist, at 703-305-2262. Please limit the length of the packages to 20 pages. Packages over 20 pages will not be evaluated.