The Agriculture Department is renaming the Food and Nutrition Service and moving Washington, D.C.-area employees to eight locations around the country, the department announced Thursday.
FNS will now be known as the Food and Nutrition Administration. A USDA news release says the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will be relocated to Indianapolis, Child Nutrition Programs will be relocated to Dallas, and Supplemental Nutrition and Safety Programs will be relocated to Kansas City, Missouri.
In addition, research programs will be relocated to Raleigh, North Carolina, while Denver will be the new home of Emergency Management and Continuity of Operations. Retailer operations and compliance will be spread across four offices in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Dallas and New York City.
“The FNA Administrator will remain in Washington, D.C., along with a small footprint to be responsive to Congress, interagency needs, regulatory work, and policy coordination,” USDA’s news release says.
It’s easy to be “in the know” about what’s happening in Washington, D.C. Sign up for a FREE month of Agri-Pulse news! Simply click here
The move is the latest in the department’s effort to move about 2,600 of 4,600 employees in the National Capital Region to regional hubs outside the Beltway. Last week the department announced the reorganization of the Research, Education and Economics mission area and the Food Safety and Inspection Service.
“This shift in customer service will not disrupt program execution nor any endeavor to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse across USDA’s 16 nutrition assistance programs,” USDA’s news release said.
Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins and Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden said the moves are necessary.
“This reorganization is long overdue,” Vaden said in the release. “The Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services mission area has not had a Senate-confirmed undersecretary in nearly two decades, and the shift to the Food and Nutrition Administration will better align with other benefit programs administered across the federal government. This reorganization also reduces duplicative management and complexity within the agency, better prioritizes state service and participant needs, and expands the department’s presence to fight fraud, waste, and abuse.”
For more news, go to www.Agri-Pulse.com.
