Project Overview
Commodities
Practices
- Sustainable Communities: public participation, urban/rural integration
Abstract:
Three training workshops were conducted for agricultural professionals and community development specialists in Missouri, Ohio and Kansas. A total of 71 participants from Missouri, Kansas, Ohio, Colorado, Oklahoma, Illinois, Nebraska and Texas went through an intensive 1.5 day training that increased their knowledge of the concept, project design and implementation of community food security and community food systems in their own work. A training curriculum and resource manual were developed for each individual workshop. A web-based table of contents for the resource manual is now available at www.foodcircles.missouri.edu. Significant impacts of the training include: an increased awareness among resource providers and community members of community food systems and community food security; at least one significant grant (USDA Community Food Projects) awarded in Ohio based on skills developed in the workshop; new collaborations fostered between universities, farm and community groups, incorporation of workshop modules into state training for extension professionals; and excellent resource manuals available in three different states.
Project objectives:
To increase the knowledge of the concept, project design and implementation of community food security and community food systems among Extension educators, NRCS officials, other locally-based USDA staff, school-based agriculture educators and growers in the Midwest.
To increase the understanding of above mentioned participants of funding, program and policy opportunities, as well as barriers for implementing food security/food systems projects in their service areas.
To develop a state-specific curriculum on community based food systems and community food security for target audiences.
To compile and distribute to workshop participants a community food security/local food systems manual borrowing from existing Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC), SARE, USDA and academic materials. This manual will include a special resource section with contact information for key CFS organizations in each workshop state.
Expected Outcomes:
Increase of knowledge of community food security and community food systems among key educators within Extension and USDA.
Incorporation and implementation of these concepts in sustainable agriculture education programming.
Development of local food systems and community food security as alternatives to on-going crisis situation in NCR SARE region agriculture.