Questions & Answers - Illinois - Equitable Access Towards Sustainable Systems (Il-EATS) funded by LFPA (25-444-80-3189)

Budget Questions & Answers

  1. Question: Are Indirect Costs allowed for IL-EATS
    • Answer: Indirect Costs are NOT allowed for the IL-EATS program.
  2. Question: How are you defining an administrative expenses? Is shipping and transportation considered administrative, or is it a different category?
    • Answer: The budget includes the following line-item categories: personnel, fringe, travel, supplies, contractual services, consultants, occupancy, telecommunications, training and education, and direct administrative costs. In developing your budget, administrative costs to operate the program should utilize all of the applicable line items listed above. Transportation costs will depend on each unique organization, but may be categorized under contractual services, travel, and/or supplies.
  3. Question: If audit costs can be placed under admin costs and the 2025 audit will not be complete until 2026 and paid for in 2026 can this cost be put into the grant since it will be after the grant period has ended?
    • Answer: This cost is outside the program agreement period and thus not allowable.
  4. Question: Can we invoice the state for items that the organization has received and was given an invoice from the farmer but has not paid the farmer for them yet?
    • Answer: Agreements between the lead agencies and the farmers are up to the lead agency. Any costs submitted to DHS for reimbursement must have back up documentation behind them indicating the food was received by the lead agency.
  5. Question: For awards greater than $400,000 at least 70% of the budget needs to be for food and administrative expenses should not exceed 20%, so are there any expenses (for example, transportation) that would count as neither food nor administrative expenses? Or does food effectively need to account for 80% of the budget?
    • Answer: The 20% limit on administrative expenses is intended to be cap for general operations. The remaining 10% would be budgeted under the various budget lines and be directly related to collection, safe storage, and distribution of the food. There is no limit to the 30% non-food for collection, safe storage and distribution of food.
  6. Question: What flexibility exists under the three different award payment methods for lead agencies to potentially pay farmers (in full or in part) in advance of the growing season? We understand that only two months of advance payments will be provided to lead agencies, but are there any limits on lead agencies paying farmers in advance of delivery? For example, can a farmer send (and can the lead agency pay and receive reimbursement for) an invoice in October for a product delivery that will occur in May? Or do invoices and claims for reimbursement need to occur in the month the product is delivered?
    • Answers: Agreements between lead agencies and farmers are defined by the lead agency.  Lead agencies would need to be sure that any advance payments to farmers would result in receipt of the product prior to the end of the state fiscal year (June 30). Payments cannot be made in SFY25 for products available in SFY26 (starts 7/1/25).  Advance payment requests can be submitted to the Department per the agreement. Subsequent monthly payments will be based on each monthly invoice submitted to the grant program, and will be adjusted up or down, based on a comparison of actual cumulative expenditures to cumulative advance payments, to date. Grantees that do not expend all advance payment amounts by the end of the grant term or that are unable to demonstrate that all incurred costs were necessary, reasonable, allowable, or allocable as approved in their respective grant budget, must return the funds or be subject to grant funds recovery.  In order for a payment to be a REIMBURSEMENT the costs on the invoice must be for items in hand and backup documentation must be on file to support the claim.
  7. Question: Are we able to elect a 10% de minimis indirect cost rate for this grant or does this NOFO not allow any indirect costs?
    • Answer: Indirect costs are not allowed for this grant. There is a Centralized Indirect Cost Rate Process for all State of Illinois grantees receiving awards from Illinois.  Grant making agencies must substantiate or elect an indirect cost rate for their organization even if they will not be charging these costs to the grant.
  8. Question: What costs fall under "direct administrative" costs?
    • Answer: The salaries of administrative and clerical staff should normally be treated as indirect (F&A) costs. Direct charging of these costs may be appropriate only if all of the following conditions are met: (1) Administrative or clerical services are integral to a project or activity; (2) Individuals involved can be specifically identified with the project or activity; (3) Such costs are explicitly included in the budget or have the prior written approval of the State awarding agency; and (4) The costs are not also recovered as indirect costs.
  9. Question: Since the reimbursement timeline is not confirmed, we are wondering if we applied for a loan to cover our advance payments for all approved expenses to growers, etc., if we would be able to include interest accrued on that loan as a budgeted expense item?
    • Answer: Interest costs are not an allowable expense under the terms of the federal grant award.
  10. Question: How does being awarded LFPA grant money as a lead agency affect taxes? Is the award taxed as income or is it considered tax deductible as a break even program?
    • Answer: We would not expect this program to generate any revenue as the food items are donated to the community. Entities may want to discuss with their accountants for specifics.
  11. Question: Where can I access the information regarding 2 CFR 200.302 (Financial Management) and 44 IL. Admin. Code 7000.120(b)(1)(A)(i and ii) (Advance Payments)?
  12. Question: When in CSA, for the Uniform Grant Budget Summary page when entering the CSA budget, do we need a  NOFO suffix?
    • Answer: If you have a grant for only 1 region then the suffix is optional and not necessary.  If you have a grant with more than one region please use "001" for region 1 and "002" for region 2 and so on as the suffix tied to additional regions.
  13. Question: When applying for more than one region (separate applications), can you explain how we create two budgets (one for each region) in the CSA system?
    • Answer: Applicants that are applying for more than one region are required to submit separate applications and separate budgets.  When in CSA under the Uniform Grant Budget Summary, you will need to include the Region and counties tied to that region in the "State of Illinois Awarding Agency and Project Detail Description" box and complete the process again for the second budget for another region you are applying for.
  14. Question: What documentation is needed for applying labor costs to the grant when a person is allocating 30% of their time to the grant? If the employee is a salaried employee and they put in more than 40 hours a week is the 30% based off of 40 hours or the amount of hours they put in each week?
    • Answer: There are a number of ways to enter staff time to the Personnel Line of the budget. An annual salary or hourly wage can be entered as well as the % of time and length of time which is entered in based on a Full Time Equivalent (FTE). It is VERY important to include enough information in the narrative to explain the Position and Personnel Costs associated.
  15. Question: If you allocate 20% toward administration in the grant and then labor costs aren't as much as expected can you reallocate the funds to food? Is there paperwork that has to be filled out prior to the reallocate of funds?
    • Answer: The budget entered serves as a spending plan however, many agencies make line item adjustments to their budgets throughout the grant year. The Department has a process for this which aligns with 2 CFR 200.
  16. Question: Are all items on the budget to be listed as "non-state"?
    • Answer: No, all budgeted line items for IL-EATS that the applicant wishes to be paid with grant funds should be shown under "State."  Non-state is used for in-kind costs to the grant and is not required.
  17. Question: Are audit costs allowed in the budget, including any fees we currently spend, or incremental because we are in this program?
    • Answer: Yes, audit costs are allowed if the amount of the award meets the threshold for a single audit. If the lead agency has multiple grant awards, a percentage of an agency's audit costs must be applied based on the cost allocation plan.