(1) Potential applicants will be notified by the department that in order to be considered for state emergency food financial assistance, an application must be submitted to the department.

(2) An applicant must make formal application using forms issued and procedures established by the department. Such application shall be for the period indicated on the contract face sheet. Failure of an applicant to make application in a timely manner, as specified by the department, may result in denial of the funding request.

(3) Department funds may not supplant other existing funding sources.

(4) The department shall notify successful applicants and shall provide to each of them a contract for signature. This contract must be signed by an official with authority to bind the applicant and must be returned to the department prior to the award of any funds under this program.

(5) Applicants that receive food bank or food distribution funds are subject to the following fiscal requirements:

(a) The total funds from the department received by a nontribal lead agency contractor or a food distribution subcontractor must be equally matched by funds from other sources during the fiscal year. No more than fifty percent of that match may be documented in-kind contributions. Nontribal participating food banks receiving funds from the department have two options for matching funds: They may equally match the EFAP funds, with no more than fifty percent being documented in-kind contributions; if they do not have at least one-half of their minimum match as cash, they may match their department funds by at least two hundred percent in in-kind contributions from other sources.

(b) Administrative costs for food bank and food distributor subcontractors under this program are limited to ten percent of their total contract award. Administrative costs for a lead agency contractor who also provides direct emergency food assistance services as a participating food bank and/or services as a food distributor are limited to ten percent of the contractor's allocation for providing direct services, ten percent of the contractor's allocation for providing food distributor services, and ten percent of the total contract award as food bank lead agency; total administrative costs, however, may not exceed fifteen percent of the total contract award. Administrative costs for agencies who are lead agency contractors only are limited to ten percent of their total contract award.

(6) Tribal applicants are subject to the following fiscal requirements:

(a) Tribal contractors and subcontractors must match thirty-five percent of the funds received by the department for the emergency food assistance program. No more than fifty percent of that match may be documented in-kind contributions.

(b) Of a contract award allocated to the tribal food voucher program, tribal contractors may not spend more than ten percent on administrative costs, and five percent on operational expenses. The balance of funds is to be used for food vouchers issued to clients. Of funds allocated to the food bank program, tribal contractors are subject to the same spending requirements as nontribal food bank contractors under subsection (5)(b) of this section.