Understand Food Related Hardships Among Older Americans

Sources Sought Notice Understanding Food Related Hardship among Older Americans The purpose of this sources sought notice is to determine the interest and feasibility of businesses for the following requirement: Understanding Food Related Hardship among Older Americans. This synopsis is for information and planning purposes and is not to be construed as a commitment by the U.S. Government, nor will the U.S. Government pay for information solicited. The information from this notice will help the Food and Nutrition Service plan their acquisition strategy. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service intends to issue a procurement for the subject research study in Fiscal Year 2018 and is seeking statements of capability from potential offerors. Preference will be given to small businesses with experience and staffing to perform the requirement as demonstrated in their capability statement. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service is seeking a contractor to plan and implement procedures to competitively solicit and select research proposals that will increase understanding of why many seniors in the United States experience food insecurity. The contractor must be knowledgeable in SNAP policies and those of other federal nutrition and feeding programs that serve senior Americans; be familiar with food insecurity literatures and especially research into elderly food insecurity; have experience soliciting high-quality grant proposals and awarding project funds; demonstrate experience managing several successful research projects simultaneously; have experience gathering and incorporating input from a broad variety of technical and subject matter experts and agency personnel; demonstrate expertise writing integrated summaries of research findings and preparing manuscripts for peer review; and be knowledgeable in the design of primary and secondary data collection and analysis. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL, NO SOLICITATION EXISTS AT THIS TIME. The Food and Nutrition Service, Office of Policy Support & Contracts Management Division, is conducting a market survey to determine the availability and technical capability of qualified small businesses, including small disadvantaged businesses (SDB), 8(a) small businesses, woman-owned small businesses (WOSB), veteran owned small businesses (VOSB), service- disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSB), and Historically Under-utilized Business Zone (HUBZone) businesses capable of soliciting, managing, and synthesizing research projects that will increase understanding of food insecurity among older Americans. All responding small business firms are requested to identify their firm's size and type of business to the anticipated North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code. For this acquisition, the NAICS code is 541720, and the Small Business Standard is $20.5 Million. Teaming arrangements and joint ventures will be considered for any subsequent procurement based on the Government's market research, provided the prime contract is awarded to an applicable small business and that the small business provide at least fifty percent of the support. The Food and Nutrition Service, Office of Policy Support & Contracts Management Division, is conducting market research to identify sources that can demonstrate their experience, skills, and qualifications with projects of similar scope and size completed within the last three (3) years, and explain in appropriate detail how they intend to demonstrate competency in each of the following points (A through I). Expound, utilizing specific examples, on how the firm has undertaken and/or demonstrated the prerequisites listed below: A. Detailed knowledge and understanding of the regulations and operations of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other federal nutrition and feeding programs serving senior citizens as well as senior food insecurity. B. Experience writing clear, concise, and comprehensive requests for applications (RFA) and RFA announcements, and successfully soliciting high-quality proposals. C. Experience managing simultaneously several research projects of similar size and scope. D. Experience working with subject matter experts and researchers across a variety of government, academic, research, and non-profit organizations. E. Convening grant review panels composed of technical and subject matter experts, gathering and synthesizing reviewer feedback, and using this feedback to write persuasive recommendations for grant awards. F. Subject matter expertise in data collection instruments, sampling frames, and statistical methods appropriate for answering public health-related research questions consistent with study objectives and constraints. G. Experience synthesizing research findings in high-quality integrated summaries and editing and organizing manuscripts for publication as journal supplements. H. Capacity to write high-quality reports and provide oral briefings on technical information in language appropriate to non-technical policy-relevant audiences. I. Demonstrated experience meeting government objectives and ensuring the quality and timeliness of deliverables. Research Objectives of the Requirement: The primary objective is to develop a clearer and more comprehensive understanding of the factors that contribute to food insecurity and other food-related hardships among older adults in the United States and the role that nutrition assistance programs may play in ameliorating these conditions. The selected contractor shall meet each of the following objectives: - Develop an Integrated, Cutting Edge Research Agenda The grant initiative research must produce information that can be fit within an integrated framework rather than reflect a body of individual projects with little relationship except a link to senior food insecurity. - Build Research Capacity for Examining Senior Food Insecurity The grant initiative must stimulate new and innovative research on senior food insecurity and broaden the participation of social science researchers in this area. - Provide a Research Review with Implications for Nutrition Assistance Programs The research review must effectively integrate the research conducted under the grants; incorporate the research into the larger body of relevant research; examine the implications for nutrition assistance programs; and identify remaining information gaps and potential strategies to close them. Submission Requirements: 1. Limit the length of the packages to 12 double spaced pages. Note: Packages over 12 pages will not be evaluated. 2. 1 inch margins (top, bottom and sides) 3. Times New Roman font - 12 point 4. Page limitation does not include appendices, 1 cover page or 1 letter of introduction page 5. Do not include promotional materials Interested firms responding to this market survey must provide a capability statement demonstrating their experience, skills and capability to fulfill the Governments requirements for the above in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 19.502-2(b). The capability statement shall be in sufficient enough detail, but not exceed twelve (12) pages total, so that the Government can determine the experience and capability of your firm to provide the requirements above. Your capability statement needs to include a list of three customers (Government/non- Government) within the past 3-years highlighting similar work in nature, scope, complexity, and difficulty and a brief description of the scope of work. The Government technical team will then assess the experience and capabilities (A - I above) based on relevance to the described requirements and objectives. These capability responses should be based upon the 11 capabilities (A - I) pre-requisites listed above. Please specify one primary and one alternate Point of Contact (POC) within your firm, including telephone numbers and email addresses. Interested firms responding to this Sources Sought Notice shall submit the following: Company name, address, point of contact, telephone number, email address, and Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS), and NAICS code. Provide business size and status such as Small Business, Disadvantaged, 8(a), Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUB) Zone, Woman Owned, Minority Owned, Service Disabled Veteran Owned, or Other Than Small Business. Provide contract vehicles you participate in such as General Services Administration (GSA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise Wide Procurement (SEWP), National Institutes of Health (NIH) Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC), or any other vehicle. Capability statement shall be 8 pages or less. Questions may be submitted to Lawrence Williams at Lawrence.Williams@fns.usda.gov and Gloria Brown at gloria.brown@fns.usda.gov no later than APRIL 17, 2018 by 3:00 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time. NO TELEPHONE REQUESTS WILL BE ACCEPTED. Only electronic copies of capability statements will be accepted and should be emailed to: Lawrence Williams@fns.usda.gov and Gloria Brown at gloria.brown@fns.usda.gov no later than MAY 8, 2018 by 3:00PM Eastern Daylight Time. The e-mail shall contain the following subject line: Response to Sources Sought Notice - 12-3198-18-R-0005: Understanding Food Related Hardship among Older Americans. A determination by the Government to proceed with the acquisition as a set-aside is within the discretion of the Government. If capability statements are not received from at least two responsible small businesses or if the Government determines that no small business concerns are capable of performing this requirement based upon an assessment of the capability statements submitted, the Government may proceed with a full and open competition.