Training, Technical Assistance, Evaluation, and Information Centers Cooperative Agreements offer training, technical assistance, evaluation, and informational support services to potential applicants, nutrition incentive projects, produce prescription projects, and to GusNIP as a whole.
Donor Name: U.S. Department of Agriculture
State: Selected States
County: All Counties
Territory: Selected Territories
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 05/04/2023
Size of the Grant: $7,000,000
Grant Duration: 4 years
Details:
Purpose and Priorities
Additionally, NIFA encourages projects that address the following: (1) serve underrepresented communities, such as tribal communities, communities of color, LGBTQ+, individuals with disabilities, Veterans, rural and remote communities, insular areas, or communities with residents predominantly living under the Federal poverty line; (2) serve underrepresented geographies. Underrepresented geographies for the GusNIP Nutrition Incentive Program are Alaska, American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, Connecticut, Delaware, Guam, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, U.S. Virgin Islands, Vermont, and Wyoming. Underrepresented geographies for the GusNIP Produce Prescription Program are Alabama, American Samoa, Arizona, Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, Delaware, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Idaho, Maine, Maryland, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, U.S. Virgin Islands, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Program Area
The total authorized funding support for NTAE Center(s) is $7 million for each fiscal year. NTAE Center(s) must be capable of providing services related to grants for GusNIP Nutrition Incentive Program (NI) and Produce Prescription Program (PPR), including offering incentive program training and technical assistance, evaluation, and informational support services to applicants and grantees to the extent practicable.
Program training and technical assistance should include the following key components, but are not limited to these approaches:
- building capacity, promoting program growth and sustainability in States, U.S. Territories, and Tribal Nations with low participation;
- collecting and providing information on best practices for nutrition incentive and produce prescription projects, such as communications, signage, record-keeping, incentive instruments, incentive dosages, development and integration of point-of-sale systems, and reporting;
- disseminating information and assisting with collaboration among grantee projects, applicable State/U.S. Territory SNAP/NAP implementing agencies, Tribal, U.S. Territory, and local government agencies, nutrition education programs, and healthcare providers;
- coordinating communication between the NTAE Center, grantees, applicants, State/U.S. Territory SNAP/NAP implementing agencies, Tribal, U.S. Territory, and local government agencies, nutrition education programs, healthcare providers, and evaluators/researchers; ensuring training is culturally competent and centered on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) principles;
Program evaluation and informational support services are encouraged to include the following components, but are not limited to using these approaches:
- working with awardees to ensure seamless data deposition of core data metrics (e.g., receiving and maintaining), data quality and completeness, including conducting independent analysis of the data. All data generated by the NTAE must be made publicly available and conform with best practices for data safety and accessibility. Data must be transferrable at the end of the project period, without interruption to users, and include coding mechanisms.
- compiling project data from grantees and providing additional statistical expertise to evaluate project performance that complements individual project evaluation teams; maintain and continually improve design of the instrument(s) and the mechanism for reporting for core firm-level and participant-level data sets consistent with the state of the science for food and nutrition security, chronic disease management and prevention, health care usage and associated costs, as well as advancements in the fields of nutrition incentive and produce prescription practitioners. Consultation to the extent practicable with farmers, grocers, health professionals, health care and insurance providers, researchers, Tribes, incentive program managers, and employees of the USDA is essential.
- working with grantees on protections for human subjects and the proposed protections from research risk relating to their participation, which includes working with Tribes;
- working with grantees on intellectual property protections for Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge,
- ensuring data surveying is culturally competent and centered on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) principles;
- receiving, maintaining, and transitioning via a warm hand-off a publicly accessible on-line site that makes annual nutrition incentive program and produce prescription program impact findings, reports, and information available in an anonymized format that protects confidential, personal, and other sensitive data without interruption in services; and
- generating an annual report to Congress on grantees’ project outcomes, including the results of the project and the amount of grant funds used for the project.
Funding Information
- The amount available for GusNIP NTAE in FY2023 is approximately $7,000,000. The funds will be awarded through cooperative agreement(s). Cooperative agreements will be with one or more organizations with expertise in developing outcome-based reporting, at least one of which has expertise in the GusNIP Nutrition Incentive Program and at least one of which as expertise in the GusNIP Produce Prescription Program. USDA is not committed to fund any particular application or to make a specific number of awards.
- Grant Duration: 48 Months
Eligibility Requirements
- Applicants for the GusNIP NTAE must meet all the requirements discussed in this RFA. Failure to meet the eligibility criteria by the application deadline may result in exclusion from consideration or, preclude NIFA from making an award. For those new to Federal financial assistance, NIFA’s Grants Overview provides highly recommended information about grants and other resources to help understand the Federal awards process.
- Organizations eligible to apply to the GusNIP NTAE program include: (i) nongovernmental organizations; (ii) state cooperative extension services; (iii) regional food systems centers; (iv) Federal, State, or Tribal agencies; (v) Institutions of higher education (as defined in section 101 (a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20) U.S.C. 1001 (a): or (vi) other appropriate entities as determined by the Secretary. Applicants are encouraged to seek and create partnerships with public or private, non-profit, or for-profit entities, including links with academic institutions (including minority-serving colleges and universities and tribal colleges and universities) and/or other appropriate professionals; community-based organizations; Tribal Nations and local government entities; and/or partnering entities for the purposes of providing additional resources and strengthening historical failure in underserved communities.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
