USDA, Food and Consumer Service, Contract Management Branch, 3101 Park Center Dr., Rm. 914, Alexandria, VA 22302

B -- NATIONAL SURVEY OF WIC PARTICIPANTS AND THEIR LOCAL AGENCIES SOL FCS-96-011KMS DUE 062496 POC Karen M. Scott, Contract Specialist, (703) 305-2250; William Pinkey, Contracting Officer, (703) 305-2250. The USDA, Food and Consumer Service (FCS) anticipates issuing a competitive procurement for advisory and assistance services to complement biennial Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Participant and Program Characteristics studies which are based on management information systems of WIC State Agencies. This National Survey of WIC Participants (NSWP) and Their Local Agencies will return to the use of personal interviews with participants (used in PC88) and local staff members as a means of determining detailed personal or program characteristics that may not be regularly recorded or of interest in the WIC certification process. The contractor will conduct interviews consisting of a nationally representative sample of WIC participants at local WIC clinics on the occasion of their certification for WIC along with voluntary in-home audits of a subsample of WIC participants to create a national estimate of case and dollar error in WIC certification practices and to identify ways that FCS and local agencies may more easily describe the income of households adjunctively income eligible for WIC through participation in AFDC, Medicaid or the Food Stamp Program. The study will require specialists in survey design and implementation, data base construction and quality control of data, as well as ability to communicate with State and local agencies which operate the WIC Program. Knowledge of the WIC Program is desirable. The estimated level of effort to support the contract and options is approximately 6 person years. The period of performance is 24 months for the base period or 27 months with options. The RFP will be issued on or about May 24, 1996. Proposals will be due on or about June 24, 1996. All requests for the RFP must be in writing and must include four (4) self-addressed mailing labels (not) envelopes). Telephonic or facsimile requests will not be honored. (0123)

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