Natural Disaster Nutrition Assistance Expenditure
| Submitted | Sept. 13, 2024 |
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Communications
From: Johanna Rayl
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:
1. Expenditures for any provision of nutritional assistance to individuals and households, including but not limited to bottled water, prepared food, or packaged food products for the years 2000-2024. Expenditures may include direct provision, contracted provision, or provision via another entity such as contribution to an interagency effort.
2. Expenditures on the Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, provisioned annually or by FEMA Disaster Number.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Johanna Rayl
From: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food, Nutrition and Consumer Sciences
Ms. Rayl,
We received your FOIA request below. We sent your request to the applicable FNS Programs so that they could conduct searches for responsive records.
However, one of our Programs was not clear about a portion of your request. Please see their inquiry below and respond back to this email with your response.
Sincerely,
FNS FOIA Office
Could you ask the requestor for clarification on what they mean by "prepared food and packaged food products?"
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From: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food, Nutrition and Consumer Sciences
Ms. Rayl,
We sent you the email below and we have not received a response. If we do not hear back from you by 5:00 pm on Friday, 9/27/24, we will assume that you are no longer interested in your FOIA request.
Sincerely,
FNS FOIA Office
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From: Johanna Rayl
Hello,
Thank you for your response. I apologize for the delay on my end. I am still interested in this FOIA request.
By "prepared food and packaged food products" I mean to include expenditures on any food supplies to assist individuals and households after natural disasters, whether this be prepared meals or packaged foods. Please let me know if this is unclear.
Thank you,
Johanna
From: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food, Nutrition and Consumer Sciences
Ms. Rayl,
Thanks for your response. We have forwarded your clarification to the applicable Program for review/search.
Sincerely,
FNS FOIA Office
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~WRD0000
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Sept. 13, 2024. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food, Nutrition and Consumer Sciences
Ms. Rayl,
Please see the attached file and data chart below. Both of these items are responsive to your request.
This completes our response to you.
Sincerely,
FNS FOIA Office
Expenditures for nutritional assistance to individuals and households 2000-2024 - Disaster Events
Year
Expenditure
2000
$338,311.00
2001
$145,680.00
2002
$92,224.00
2003
no data available
2004
$1,603,460.00
2005
$22,295,075.00
2006
$1,796,130.00
2007
$2,451,175.00
2008
$656,390.00
2009
$13,394.59
2010
$156,437.42
2011
$4,320,817.14
2012
$510,580.00
2013
$7,759,598.00
2014
$160,527.00
2015
$3,352,173.00
2016
$762,952.00
2017
$317,238.84
2018
$10,300,213.00
2019
$1,384,206.00
2020
$76,309,085.00
2021
$1,038,403.00
2022
$1,052,965.00
2023
$91,498.00
2024
data not available yet
From: Johanna Rayl
Dear FNS FOIA Office,
Thank you so much for the data provided. I have two questions to help me understand the records.
1. Could you elaborate on the column 3 title, "Number of LBS", on Sheet 2 of the record? What does LBS stand for and what does the column contain?
2. Does the total expense reflect both direct provision of food as well as expenditures on coupons/vouchers/cash for households to make their own food purchases? If so, is it possible to see a breakdown across these two categories, or would it require another FOIA request?
Thank you very much,
Johanna
From: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food, Nutrition and Consumer Sciences
Please see the response below regarding the 2 questions that you asked:
1. LBS is the abbreviation for pounds and the column contains pounds of food distributed.
2. The value provided is only for food distributed. There is no cash issued for households to purchase their own foods.
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~WRD0000
From: Johanna Rayl
Thank you for the response. My understanding of D-SNAP is that assistance is provided in the form of cash on an EBT card. Is D-SNAP then excluded from the records you provided?
Thank you,
Johanna
From: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food, Nutrition and Consumer Sciences
The response does not include D-SNAP benefits.
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~WRD0002
From: Johanna Rayl
Thank you for the explanation. My request included expenditures on D-SNAP benefits. Does this mean the data requested are unavailable, or should I proceed with a separate request for these records?
Thank you,
Johanna
From: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food, Nutrition and Consumer Sciences
We have forwarded your additional inquiry to the applicable Program for response. We will provide you with a response afterwards.
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~WRD0000
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Sept. 13, 2024. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Johanna Rayl
Hello,
I am writing to check in on the second part of my request, for expenditures on D-SNAP benefits. I am seeking to use the records before Dec 31, 2024, and am wondering if it would be possible to receive the expenditures on this timeline.
Thank you,
Johanna
From: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food, Nutrition and Consumer Sciences
Please see the attached file that is responsive to your request. The applicable Program also provided the information below.
Sincerely,
FNS FOIA Office
We have D-SNAP expenditure data dating back to FY 2004. We do not have any data available for the years FY 2000 - FY 2003 or for FY 2005. I have organized the data by fiscal year. Please note that years impacted by COVID will also include pandemic emergency allotments. Please ask the requestor to disregard issuances where "Type of Disaster" is "Other - Pandemic."
From: Johanna Rayl
Hello,
Thank you very much for providing the records.
Best,
Johanna
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Sept. 13, 2024. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food, Nutrition and Consumer Sciences
Ms. Rayl,
We already responded to you. Please see the highlighted portion of the email chain below.
Sincerely,
FNS FOIA Office
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~WRD0000