Senior Farmers' Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP) and WIC Farmers' Market Nutrition Program (FMNP):
State Plan Guidance for Fiscal Year (FY) 2012

Due Date: November 15, 2011

This guidance sets forth the minimum areas that must be addressed in the State Plan. Each State agency applying for or participating in the SFMNP and/or FMNP must submit for approval to the appropriate FNS Regional Office a State Plan for the current year as a prerequisite to receiving Federal funds, for each Program. A State Plan defines and describes the manner in which a State agency intends to implement, operate and administer the SFMNP or FMNP; under the regulations governing both Programs, the definition of “State agency” includes Indian Tribal Organizations, the District of Columbia, and United States Territories as well as geographic States.

Consolidated State Plan Option: The SFMNP regulations acknowledge that several State agencies administer both the SFMNP and the FMNP, often as a single program, to serve seniors, women, infants, and children. Such State agencies are given the option to submit a single, consolidated State Plan of Operations that addresses both programs, rather than submitting separate State Plans for each Program. The Consolidated State Plan must address completely all of the provisions that are unique to each program in addition to those areas in which functions or tasks are duplicated for the SFMNP and the FMNP. State agencies that elect to use the Consolidated State Plan option must provide separate budgets and expansion requests for each program.

FNS has provided the SFMNP, FMNP, and Consolidated SFMNP/FMNP State Plan Guidance documents in a Word fillable format, to simplify and expedite the State Plan submission process. (Additional information on using Word fillable forms is provided below.) Electronic submission of SFMNP and FMNP State Plans is strongly encouraged. State agencies should contact their respective FNS Regional Offices for technical assistance (a list of FNS Regional Offices can be found at http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/Contacts/fnsoffices.HTM ).

Instructions for Using Word Fillable Forms:
For State agencies that may not be familiar with Word fillable forms, the essential instructions are to open the file, use the mouse or Tab key to navigate, click and type responses, and "Save As" with their SA's name on the State plan. The checkboxes open, fill in, and/or clear with a mouse click. The text boxes expand as text is typed in or as the Enter key is pressed within the gray text box. Even if additional lines are needed, the user can just continue typing in the text box. (Only numeric fields and checkboxes are formatted with size limits.)

The user always has the option of including an attachment in the State Plan submission in the form of a word processing file or hard copy placed in the attachments section (see the "Update" section document for instructions about attachments).