Developing a Regional Mushroom Educator Network: Integrating Food Safety and Production Training for North Central Service Providers

Commodities

• Miscellaneous: mushrooms

Practices

• Education and Training: extension

This project establishes the North Central Region Mushroom Educator Network to bridge a critical expertise gap among agricultural service providers. While consumer demand for specialty mushrooms is surging, with the global market projected to reach $117 billion by 2030, most North Central Extension and NRCS staff lack the technical framework to advise growers.

Many educators do not yet realize the economic viability, natural resource stewardship, and improved quality of life possible from the "Fungal Use Matrix." There are three distinct columns of mushroom types that our educators are increasingly being asked about: Gourmet (culinary), Functional (medicinal/nutraceutical), and Practical (mycoremediation/materials).

The rows of the matrix span six essential topics for each mushroom type: Safety, Identification, Cultivation, Preparation, Marketing, and Distribution. Fill this table with the hundreds of species of mushrooms native to the United States, and on the way are entire grocery stores and pharmacies of new kinds of produce and products for all levels of the supply chain we will prepare educators for.

Our project trains the trainers, giving them a combination of Purdue Extension's food safety curricula with donated mushroom education materials from NourishCap Academy. Through two phases of conferences plus virtual training, we will deliver a multilingual (English and Spanish) introduction to the Digital Educator Toolkit to reach the region's agricultural workforce. We will train about 60 educators. Expected outcomes include the establishment of a Regional Mushroom Operations Registry and a commitment from participants to integrate our mushroom related materials into their local programming.

Regional Mushroom Operations Registry: This foundational database documents mushroom farming operations across the North Central region. It is compiled through a systematic synthesis of existing records from Indiana Grown, Fungind, and Purdue Extension attendee rosters. The development process requires direct coordination with state-level program leaders to ensure data accuracy and regional representation.

• Target: Engagement with about 25 organizations and agencies (including State Departments of Agriculture, regional nonprofit leadership, and Extension coordinators) to identify and list approximately 100 individual mushroom operations across the 12-state region in the Registry.

Regional Educator Survey and Dataset: A structured survey instrument designed to quantify educator capacity gaps across the six topics of the Fungal Matrix. The corresponding dataset includes responses from agricultural educators across the North Central region.

• Target: 60 completed responses from agricultural educators representing at least six North Central states and at least three educator types, including Extension agents, NRCS or SWCD staff, and nonprofit or vocational educators.

Participatory Listening Sessions: Twelve facilitated listening sessions co-located with major state or regional horticulture and small farm conferences across the North Central region, offering virtual join-in options. These sessions bring together agricultural educators and commercial mushroom growers to identify capacity gaps and professional development priorities. Grower participants receive compensation for their expertise.

• Target: An average of 10 participants per session, totaling approximately 60 educator and grower participants across all sessions representing all 12 North Central region states.

Multilingual "Digital Educator Toolkit": A comprehensive, publicly accessible digital repository containing updated curricula in both English and Spanish. The toolkit includes the pedagogical guides inspired by the Cornell Mushroom Project.

• Target: 60 unique educator registrations by project end.

Targeted One-on-One Interviews: A series of recorded interviews with commercial mushroom growers and selected educators identified as priority informants through the listening sessions. These transcripts are coded and incorporated into the final Needs Report.

• Target: 12 individual grower and educator participants.

North Central Mushroom Educator Needs Report: A publicly available report synthesizing survey data, listening session findings, and interview results. This report identifies preferred professional development formats for grower populations. It is circulated to participant reviewers and shared via a public webinar.

• Target: 10 participant reviewers; webinar audience of at least 30 educators and stakeholders.

Regional Educator Implementation Program: A strategic invitation for newly trained educators to co-facilitate sessions using the project's standardized lessons and quizzes. By integrating these educators into existing scheduled events, the project provides a low-stakes "practicum" context where they can build confidence while having project staff available for technical backup.

• Target: Involvement of at least 3 educators in co-teaching capacities at the Agriculture and Natural Resources Retreat September 2027 event or via the project's series of virtual webinars for sessions with 5+ educators attending.