Title 6. Community Services — Subtitle 4. Transitional Services

“Emergency food organization” means a nonprofit entity that provides emergency food services.

“Emergency food organization” includes an organization that operates:

potential applicants; and

nutrition advocacy groups in the State;

the equitable distribution of funds across all geographical regions of the State;

the adequacy of existing distribution organizations in the region served or intended to be served by the applicant;

the estimated population to be served by the applicant;

the applicant’s level of experience in operating a distribution organization; and

the amount of funding and other resources available to the applicant.

The Department may not release funds to a grantee under this part until the grantee establishes that the grantee has obtained matching resources or a commitment for matching resources that equals at least 50% of the grant amount.

The matching resources may be in the form of cash or an in-kind equivalent acceptable to the Department.

“Emergency food provider” means a nonprofit organization or an organization operated by a local government that provides food at no charge to needy individuals.

“Emergency food provider” includes:

provide funding to assist emergency food providers in purchasing food for needy individuals;

encourage needy individuals to become self-sufficient; and

distribute information on the State’s earned income tax credit established under § 10-704 of the Tax - General Article.

provide emergency food providers with information about the Program, including Program guidelines and fund availability;

accept and process requests for funding assistance from emergency food providers; and

allocate funding to emergency food providers based on the procedures approved in the administering agency’s grant application under § 6-413 of this subtitle.

use the grant to purchase food for distribution to needy individuals;

as a condition of distributing food, provide to needy individuals information, developed in collaboration with the Department, that encourages self-sufficiency consistent with the goals of the Family Investment Program established under Title 5, Subtitle 3 of this article;

distribute information on the State’s earned income tax credit established under § 10-704 of the Tax - General Article; and

submit a report to the Department and the administering agency detailing how the grant was used and how many units of service were provided.

No more than 5% of the Program’s budget may be used to cover administrative costs of the Program.

All remaining funding shall be allocated for food purchase only.

Program funds may not be used for equipment or other capital expenditures.

adopt a formula and qualifications for allocating Program funds to the counties based on county-wide statistics for:

submit annually to the State Advisory Council on Hunger a report detailing:

notify each county through the administering agency of the availability of Program funds under item (1) of this subsection.

Each administering agency shall apply to the Department for a Program grant.

The application shall include the procedures that the administering agency will use to:

criteria to ensure that the selected administering agency has adequate internal controls over cash receipts, materials, supplies, and inventories; and

a definition of “units of service” that shall be used to track Program utilization.