Enhancing Cooperative Extension capacity to support the advancement of adding value and direct marketing by farmers in the Northeast

Enhancing Cooperative Extension capacity to support the advancement of adding value and direct marketing by farmers in the Northeast

Summary

In many communities throughout the North East, the concept of “local food” has grown from farmer-direct sales of small quantities of product to wholesale transactions. To effectively launch and grow a food venture in this new and challenging marketplace, many farmers – who, up to this time, have focused on growing and harvesting a variety of products – realize a need to expand their knowledge base to include the issues of food safety, marketing and pricing, and risk mitigation. Since 1992, Penn State Extension has offered a one-day workshop, “Food for Profit” (FFP), targeting farmers and local food entrepreneurs. This seven hour session covers many aspects of food business start-up and development, so that participants can make an informed “go/no-go” decision related to their starting and operating a food venture. In 2011, the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) raised the bar for all food business owners. While FSMA originally affected only large scale producers, as time has passed, small-scale food producers have been impacted, as well – often at great expense in time and money. As a result, a second Penn State Workshop, “Managing Risk for Food Businesses” (MRFB) was offered to build on the information offered through FFP, as a more comprehensive training about the unique risks of food businesses, and specific strategies for mitigating these risks.

Since 2010, demand for FFP and MRFB has continued to rise (in Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia) – with classes filled to capacity (30 to 45) and active wait lists. Until 2012, there was only a small group of five Extension educators (with the in-depth knowledge about food business start-up and management) to teach sessions and offer post-workshop individualized support.

To respond to this demand, this NE SARE project was launched — providing professional development training to 22 Extension personnel and agricultural professionals in the target states of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland (as well as to three additional agricultural professionals in Tennessee). The project team used a series of webinars and field trips, to empower the trainees to plan and deliver standardized “Food for Profit” and “Managing Risk for Food Businesses” workshops in their communities and regions, as well as provide customized follow-on support to farmers. Once trainees received this base of education, they apprenticed with seasoned food entrepreneurship educators (i.e., project team members) to offer eight “Food for Profit” workshops between October 1 and November 18, 2013, enabling 151 farmers and food entrepreneurs to determine whether their situation and interests would support a food venture.

These early results show that the project is well on its way to the goal of having a substantial corps of certified trainers (in year two of the project), who will be able to plan and deliver at least twelve workshops (the project’s target). During the apprenticeship stage, the professional development project’s target of 135 farmers attending these sessions has been surpassed. Six month post-workshop surveys (conducted by Survey Monkey and telephone) will take place mid-2014, to determine if the targets of a minimum of 20 attendees starting a food venture, another 20 adopting at least one recommended risk management strategy have been met. Additional impact targets are set for individuals who continue to research (but delay starting) a food venture and those who decide not to start a food business; these will also be gauged at that time.

Objectives/Performance Targets

During the first full year of the project, the collaborative tri-state project team:

— Distributed invitation letters and emails, and verbally recruited Extension and agricultural professionals who had (either through a previously-conducted needs assessment survey or by conversation) indicated interest in becoming certified to conduct “Food for Profit” workshops, resulting in a total of 25 trainees recruited.
–Offered web based training sessions synchronously (trainees attending “live”) and asynchronously (recordings available after the presentation) to accommodate trainee schedules; a roster was kept of all trainees whose names appeared in the participant pod of the Adobe Connect meeting room. All trainees were provided the web address of the training recording after its broadcast, so that absentees from the “live” session could make up attendance and those who had already attended could return for a second exposure to what they had previously seen and heard.
— The project team enlisted the trainees to identify successful farmstead and share-kitchen-based dairy, meat, fruit/vegetable and baked goods production enterprises and direct-marketing venues including farm markets, CSAs, and farm-to-institution ventures to serve as field trip locations; as a result, ten different locations (8 in West Virginia and 2 in Maryland) were visited by 12 of the trainees. Field trip participants were expected to reflect on what they had learned by completing a Survey Monkey evaluation after the tour. As of December 10, 2013, 35 field trip reports have been entered by trainees.  Because of trainee feedback about the effectiveness of the field trips, some of the original locations will be re-visited, and additional field trips (especially in Pennsylvania) will be held in 2014.
— In August 2013, the Project Leader created an on-line Dropbox account to provide standardized Power Point presentations for all trainees to use in upcoming “apprenticeship” workshops, as well as sample press releases, workshop agendas, table tents, and completion certificates. Some of the materials shared were modified for specific state usage, so that the workshops would have a “local” feel, while other presentations were kept consistent because of the concepts being universal.
— In the fall of 2013, eight “Food for Profit” workshops were held, five in Pennsylvania (Montrose, Gettysburg, Dauphin, Philadelphia, and Clarion), two in Maryland (Forest Hill and Wye Mills) and one in West Virginia (Charleston). The project team mentored trainees at each of these locations, as they facilitated and presented at the workshops. Trainees were responsible for contacting sanitarians and guest speakers, making arrangements for rooms and food service, marketing and maintaining registration for the session, and teaching at least one segment of the program, as indicators of what they had learned, and in preparation for “solo” opportunities in 2014/15.

For the remainder of the second year, the team will:
— Offer additional webinars to update trainees about new developments in food safety and business development, and to allow trainees to network about their individual discoveries and successes as they begin to use what they have been taught.
— Develop and distribute sets of comprehensive teaching resources, including a set of “Food for Profit” fact sheets, food business plan workbooks, food risk management workbooks, and sets of the power point presentations and handouts for FFP and MRFB workshops (although this has been done electronically through the Dropbox, the Project Leader created and supplied the physical handout packets for all eight sessions – the goal in 2014 is for trainees to begin to produce their own handout packets and suggest additional materials throughout the tri-state project).
— Serve as mentors and guest presenters as the trainees move from apprenticeship to “solo” activities, planning and delivering initial sessions of the FFP and MRFB workshops in their own communities; backstop the trainees by providing telephone, e-mail or in-person educational support for one-to-one sessions with farmers.
— Offer on-going assistance to the trainees through an Internet site, on which will be posted actual documents and links to emerging reference and support materials (keeping them on the cutting edge of a quickly evolving marketplace).
– Arrange for additional field trips in the three states, so that trainees may continue to benefit from the experiences of successful food entrepreneurs and farmers adding value.
– Travel to Tennessee (funded by resources outside of the NE SARE funds) to offer a series of 3 sample “Food for Profit” workshops and observe the apprentice trainees as they teach and facilitate. This will be a good indicator of how to replicate food business education beyond the original three states.  Respond to similar interest in Oregon, Iowa, and Ohio.
– Begin six-month post-survey work, using Survey Monkey and telephone surveys to assess producer/entrepreneur impact as a result of the 8 fall 2013 workshops.

During the third year, the team will:
— Continue to support the trainees by providing updated information on the Internet site and serving as guest speakers/resource people for workshops and individualized counseling sessions.
— Gather impact data related to: • trainees’ activities (educational programs conducted and individual consultations with farmers and food entrepreneurs) and • impact of the trainees’ activities (numbers of value-added businesses started and risk management strategies adopted; intent to start a business in the future and decisions NOT to start a business as a result of the educational assistance provided).

Accomplishments/Milestones

Upon notification of the award of the NE SARE Professional Development Program Grant, the collaborative team began to recruit their Extension peers and other agricultural professionals with whom they had had contact related to “Food for Profit” sessions. Many of the individuals reached had facilitated sessions of the workshop in the past, preparing them to deliver the training themselves; this recruitment effort led to twenty-two people being selected for the training project from the three-state area, and an additional three trainees from Tennessee.

Once the trainees were identified, the project team introduced them to the subject matter through an initial, “Welcome to Food for Profit” webinar and 6 additional on-line training modules, covering Food Safety, Niche Marketing, Business Planning, Packaging and Labeling, Laboratory Services and HACCP, and Financing and Pricing (this series took place from May to July 2013). These webinars were available “live” and by recording; trainees who missed the “live” session were expected to log into the recording site, view the class, and then record their participation by entering a Survey Monkey site, providing a description of one new concept that they learned, how they would use the information when working with clients, and if they had further questions for the project team to answer. This method worked very well to keep all trainees on schedule; 16 of the trainees used the recordings, with a total of 56 instances where a trainee attended via recording. Nineteen of the 22 tri-state trainees (and one Tennessee trainee) completed at least 6 of the modules; the proposed target for numbers of trainees who would remain in the program was 17 trained food entrepreneurship educators, so to this point, we are exceeding that target for certified personnel.

Ten field trips were arranged so that trainees could expand their knowledge of adding value and direct marketing from successful producers. Twelve of the 19 trainees participated in at least one of the field trips. After visiting each farmer or local food business, trainees were required to enter a Survey Monkey site to record their participation and provide responses to the following:

– a description of the product or products that the business offers
– the specific market niche/segment is the business targeting
– why the entrepreneur started his/her business
– a description of one challenge that the entrepreneur faced in starting or building the business
– the role that an Extension (or other business) consultant played in this venture
– what the trainee learned about this business venture that he/she can apply to his/her own work, assisting farmers adding value and/or food entrepreneurs
– how the trainee will interact with the farmer/food entrepreneur he/she visited, as he/she pursues his/her work
– the most important idea or concept that the trainee learned from this field trip

To date, all 12 trainees who participated in field trips have filed at least two reports, for a total of 35 responses.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

From October 1^st to November 18^th, 8 “Food for Profit” workshops (5 PA, 2 MD, 1 WV) were planned, marketed, and facilitated by the trainees, apprenticing with one or more of the project team members. Trainees who participated in the webinar series and/or field trips apprenticed with the NE SARE project team members to offer eight “Food for Profit” workshops between October 1 and November 18, 2013. A total of 151 producers and food entrepreneurs received training through these sessions; end-of-session surveys showed KASA (knowledge, attitude, skill and aspirations) increases, as well as a desire to learn more about, or adopt, at least one risk management strategy as their food business starts or grows.

Collaborators: