Building Capacity: Farm to School

Building Capacity: Farm to School

Summary

This two year project is designed to build the capabilities of Extension, agricultural professionals, and communities in the development of Farm to School initiatives. Project team members will develop the training methodology, create outreach plans, devise a needs assessment tool, determine the scope of mentoring/consulting services, and develop a comprehensive project evaluation plan. A conference on how Extension professionals can engage with Farm to School is planned. Dissemination of materials and resources will be provided through the ASAP, SSAWG, and NFTSN websites. A team of project partners will present at a workshop at the National Farm to School Conference.

Objectives/Performance Targets

75 Cooperative Extension agents will define their role in the implementation of Farm to School programming. As the Farm to School movement continues to grow, farmers and other community members will look to Cooperative Extension for help implementing Farm to School initiatives. The workshops will provide Extension with the information and resources they need to define their role in this process. Several roles will be examined through the workshop trainings – farm and farmer assessments to meet school requirements, assistance implementing educational components of farm to school (help establish school gardens, recommend farms for farm field trips, utilize the Family and Consumer Science portion of Extension to offer local food cooking classes and demonstrations, for example).

75 Cooperative Extension agents will increase their knowledge of the Farm to School market (the market potential and market requirements) and the accompanying educational components. Project teams that include farmers, School Food Service Directors (SFSDs), state sustainable agriculture coordinators, and representatives from Departments of Agriculture are collaborating to design and implement the regional Cooperative Extension Farm to School Conference. SSAWG and the National Farm to School Network will provide their expertise through consultation. At the end of the conference, participants will understand school market requirements (liability insurance, GAP certification, distribution and other infrastructure needs, for example) and will be able to determine the potential for a given market based on the school population (size and demographics). Workshop trainers will provide information to familiarize Extension agents with the educational components of Farm to School and be able to provide this information to farmers, teachers, parents, and other community members. Outreach efforts for the trainings will uncover community resources and current Farm to School programs.

Extension agents will have access to pertinent and useful information through the training materials created by project teams. Conference notebook materials will be gathered from throughout the country to provide the best and most current information on Farm to School: best practices and lessons learned, case studies, market requirements. Extension agents will increase their knowledge of available Farm to School resources, gain a deeper understanding of the growth of the Farm to School movement, and better understand the barriers and challenges of the Farm to School market. These resources will be available in print to Extension agents attend trainings (75). Extension agents and other ag professionals unable to attend these trainings will be able to access them online (500).

Extension will be a Farm to School resource to farmers in their area. Whether for farmers in rural, tobacco-dependent and development-pressured areas or for farmers simply seeking market diversification, the farm to school market can be a key risk management strategy. Rural areas often lack sufficient markets (especially if the area was heavily dependent upon tobacco and are now under heavy development pressure) but school systems exist in every county that have the potential to provide a steady market for farmers. Moreover, farmers that learn to work with school systems can also apply that knowledge to expand their market potential to work with other institutional markets (i.e., colleges/universities and hospitals).

Accomplishments/Milestones

A conference call was held in August, 2010 to kick off the project with 12 of the 15 committee members participating in the call. It was decided to have bi-monthly conference calls and a group face-to-face planning meeting was scheduled for November 16 & 17, 2010.

The 2-day planning meeting was held at Devils Fork State Park near Greenville, SC. The group developed training methodology, outreach plans, a draft needs assessment tool, and a plan of evaluation for training. The committee determined at this planning meeting that it would be more beneficial to conduct a single conference to serve all three states rather than three state-specific trainings. Training Extension agents from the three states collectively will allow networking across the group of states and no single-state group from the committee felt that they would produce as strong of a conference as they could as a collective.

An electronic needs assessment survey was conducted in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina in January and February 2011. The survey was distributed to all Extension professionals through Cooperative Extension, in all three states. A one-page document summarizing the Farm to School movement and its impacts was developed by ASAP and shared with Extension to encourage their involvement in the distribution of the needs assessment survey. The document is attached to this report.

We had a 31% response rate to the survey across the three states. This level of response provided a good assessment of current Farm to School activity and needs. The survey results were compiled by the consulting firm of HunterKemper located in Asheville, NC. Survey results were reviewed by the project team at the March conference call and integrated into planning for the regional Cooperative Extension Farm to School Conference where Extension staff will be trained in Farm to School. 68% of respondents indicated that a training workshop would be the most helpful resource for a successful Farm to School program. 72% thought that Farm to School is a potentially profitable market for farmers. The summary of survey results is attached to this report.

The regional Cooperative Extension Farm to School Conference is scheduled for Thursday, August 25, 2011 in Asheville, NC at the Enka-Candler campus of Asheville-Buncombe Technical College. The use of this facility was donated to promote A-B Tech’s 21st Century Farmer certificate program. Extension professionals from three states (GA, NC, and SC) will be invited to participate in the conference. There is discussion of offering optional field trips on the day following the conference. Workshop topics are nearly finalized and we are scheduled to discuss speakers on our next call. Workshop topics include Models for Local Food Procurement, Starting and Supporting a Sustainable School Garden, How School Food Works 101/Working with Child Nutrition Directors, Connecting Farm to School with Curriculum, Cross Program Collaboration, Extension Connecting the Dots: A Case Study, Creating Educational Farm Field Trips.

ASAP and project partners began gathering existing training materials prior to the November 2010 planning meeting and continue to gather and develop materials for the August 25, 2011 conference notebook.

Because many conference participants will be traveling farther and require overnight accommodations for a regional, rather than state, training SARE State Coordinators will apply for funding through an enhancement grant to support additional travel and speaker stipends for the August conference.

Outreach/Spring 2011: Electronic “Save the Date” sent out to Extension Professionals in NC, SC, GA, and registration begins for the August 25 conference.

Training/August 25th, 2011: Regional Cooperative Extension Farm to School Conference held, Asheville, NC. Training notebook dissemination.

Dissemination/Fall 2011: Conference notebook made available on-line.

Dissemination/Spring 2012: A team of project partners will make a presentation at the National Farm to School conference in May 2012.

Evaluation/Late winter 2012: Project evaluators distribute survey to project team members to get feedback on project approach and success. Conduct a follow up with workshop attendees to assess how the learning from the conference is being applied.

• Needs Assessment Summary
• Farm to School One Page Overview

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Sixty-six percent of respondents to the needs assessment conducted in January and February of 2011 asked to be added to the email list for the National Farm to School Network.

Cooperative Extension agents will define their role in the implementation of Farm to School programming.

Cooperative Extension agents will increase their knowledge of the Farm to School market (the market potential and market requirements) and the accompanying educational components.

Extension agents will have access to pertinent and useful information through the training materials created by project teams.

Extension will be a Farm to School resource to farmers and their communities.

Collaborators: