FAFH Acquisition SOW.docx

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service (ERS) Pandemic Response and Real Time Food Away from Home (FAFH) Data Statement of Work

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) seeks to purchase high-frequency data on American households’ food-away-from-home (FAFH) purchases and food service establishments’ sales. The household data should cover FAFH and FAH consumption and purchases, including as they relate to food-at-home (FAH) consumption; and include key demographic variables such as income, age, size, food program participation, and geographic location as well as school lunch participation. The food service establishment data should include the share and change in share of transactions (including, where possible, dollar value) and include store characteristics like segment (e.q., quick service), category (e.g., the menu type), meal-type/time of day, geographic location (Census Region and/or Division), and by in-premise versus delivered or pick-up. The data should be statistically representative at the national and regional (e.g., Census Region and/or Division) levels. The time frequency should be weekly to monthly.

Intended Use and Purpose Accurate, comprehensive, and representative FAFH purchase, consumption, sales data that are collected and delivered at a high frequency are needed to support ongoing research activities conducted by the USDA. This includes providing regular and up-to-date economic intelligence to USDA policymakers and key stakeholders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Total impacts of the pandemic on the end of the food supply chain and Americans’ diets comprise changes in FAH purchases, changes in FAFH purchases, and what consumers do with these purchases (e.g., consume, store, waste). Additional data surveying all food consumption behavior, pantry loading behavior, and characteristics of FAFH purchases and sales helps contextualize changes in American’s diets broadly.

The USDA will use the data for projects that support economic and policy research that is shared both internally and with the public at large. The research projects are often undertaken in collaboration with external experts, including but not limited to economists, researchers, and survey and data methodologists at non-governmental organizations. For such collaborations, data will be shared with external research collaborators. The data may be used in combination with (linked to) other data to conduct the research projects. The resulting aggregated findings (not the raw data) will be disseminated through multiple media, including but not limited to professional economic journals, USDA publications, the USDA web site, and presentations at meetings of professional economics associations. Before public release, all publications and reports will be reviewed by USDA to meet data disclosure requirements and to strictly maintain privacy and confidentiality requirements of data purveyors. The USDA will retain the right to use the data and information indefinitely to undertake its projects as specified above.

General Tasks/Requirements The requested data need to have a time frequency of collection that is weekly and, at most, monthly. Delivery should take place on a weekly to monthly to basis, with a time gap between collection and delivery that is as short as one week and, at most, a month if necessary. Data should be delivered for 52 weeks following the execution of the contract. The time coverage should begin in January 2020 at the latest to ensure a sufficient comparison in advance of the changes caused by the pandemic. However, a start state after January 2020 but sufficiently close to March 2020 for data products developed in direct response to the pandemic is acceptable.

The data should be representative of FAH and FAFH behavior or market characteristics at the national and regional levels (e.g., Census Region and/or Division). If a facet of the data is not nationally or regionally representative, then the coverage should either (a) crosswalk with other nationally representative facets or (b) provide a sufficiently high proportion of the most important consumer households and/or food service establishments.

Base Task 1: Real time data on household-focused data Household consumption data should track the types of food being eaten, where it was acquired, how it was prepared, the nutrition content, and dollars spent that all includes FAFH consumption. In addition, measures on food consumption should be linkable to select items stored in the home.

The household data should be available by key demographic information such as:

· number of members

· age of household head or other members

· presence of children

· whether children received school lunch

· income

· geographic location (Census Region and/or Division).

Documentation should provide information on how data are collected, including sampling strategy to ensure representativeness. Support answering questions should be provided within a week, providing updates to data with problematic records.

Base Task 2: Real time data on food service establishment focused data Food service establishment sales data should include by key characteristics the share of transactions, change in share of transaction, dollar value of sales, restaurant traffic, number of items per order, and dollar value of orders. The key characteristics include

· segment (e.g., quick-service, or casual dining)

· category (e.g., the menu type)

· meal-type/time of day

· geographic location (Census Region and/or Division)

Task 3 (Option Years) These data may be need for subsequent years. USDA request quotes for 4 additional years, one for each year hence.

Period of Performance Base: 52 weeks after the award Base: 52 weeks for each option year

2) Real time data on food service establishment focused data First delivery will take place 5 business days after award. Each additional delivery will take place weekly to monthly (terms for individual facets to be determined) for 52 weeks thereafter.