Moving the NC Local Food System Toward Sustainablility: A Comprehensive Graduate course in Local Food Systems for Cooperative Extension Agents, Specialists, and other Educators

Moving the NC Local Food System Toward Sustainablility: A Comprehensive Graduate course in Local Food Systems for Cooperative Extension Agents, Specialists, and other Educators

Summary

This two year project collaboration between NC Cooperative Extension, Virginia Cooperative Extension, South Carolina Cooperative Extension, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, and the Center for Environmental Farming Systems has been focused on designing, implementing, and evaluating a graduate course for Extension educators on local food systems. The overall goal of this course was to increase the capacity of Extension educators to work with and educate growers, buyers, and community members in the development of high performing local food systems.

In year two of the project, we implemented the course, Local Food Systems for Extension Agents, from February through July 2015. Formative evaluation after each session was used to improve the course throughout implementation. Lectures and panel presentations were captured on video and have been organized, along with the syllabus, reading materials, and session agendas, into modules available for viewing through the Extension Local Foods web portal – go.ncsu.edu/localfoodlectures. Summative evaluation, including 6-month post-course evaluation of outcomes, was completed in January 2016. We leveraged funding in the second year to begin transition of the course into a formalized, certificate-based online, non-credit course available to a broader audience of service providers and have therefore extended this project by one more year to facilitate that transition.  

Objectives/Performance Targets

(1) Objective 1: Extension educators can knowledgeably explain the benefits and challenges of localized food systems to a variety of audiences, including farmers.

(2) Objective 2: Extension educators can identify the structure and components of food systems and lead or facilitate a collaborative process of aligning these with agricultural and general community strengths for local food system expansion.  

Accomplishments/Milestones

Course Implementation

The graduate course began February 24th, 2015 and included a total of six (6), two-day sessions that met face-to-face once per month in different locations across North Carolina through July 2015. Themes of the 6 course sessions were:

• Introducing Local: Where We have been and where we are going
• The Bottom Line: Economic opportunities & challenges of local food systems
• Value Chain: Farm to fork, part 1
• Food as a Common Denominator: Bringing everyone to the table
• Value Chain: Farm to fork – part 2
• Understanding & Influencing Regulatory Policy & Frameworks / Local Leaders: Framing local policy

Site tours included an incubator farm, meat processing facility, grocery store that has recently remodeled and rebranded to focus on local food sales, farmstead creamery with retail store, meat-producing farms selling locally, farm to table restaurant (Chef and the Farmer), youth development center with local foods focus, food hub, food bank, value-added kitchen, an urban farm, and a corner store selling fresh produce.

Through formative evaluation, we adapted the original syllabus and agendas as the course moved through implementation so the course would best meet the needs of the students. The final syllabus and session agendas for the course are provided at the open-access online website for the course materials – go.ncsu.edu/localfoodlectures.

Twelve NC Cooperative Extension educators registered for the course for graduate credit through North Carolina State University (six via HS590 and six via FYD590), one graduate student in the Ag and Extension Education program at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University registered for the course through N.C. A&T State University, and three (3) NC Cooperative Extension educators registered for the course for professional development credit. Course attendee demographics included the following:

• 5 FCS Agents
• 2 Local Foods Agents (ANR)
• 1 Program Assistant (ANR)
• 1 Extension Associate (FCS)
• 1 NCA&TSU Ag/Extension Education Graduate Student
• 3 County Extension Directors (background = 1-4-H, 1-CRD/ANR, 1-FCS)

Though Virginia and South Carolina Extension Specialists engaged in the design, development, and promotion planning for the course, and participated in the course as speakers and moderators, agents in these two states were not able to commit to taking the course within the timeframe of registration, citing concerns about extended time away from work and budgetary challenges.

Course lectures and panel presentations were recorded using MediaSite and Blackboard Collaborate technologies. These presentations are available on the course website – go.ncsu.edu/localfoodlectures, and therefore are available for access by, and education of, the general public, including Virginia, South Carolina, and North Carolina Extension educators who were unable to commit to the full class. To further incorporate the VA and SC Extension educators into the course through non-credit professional development opportunities, the webinars between course sessions were made available to all Extension educators in all three states.

Course Evaluation

The evaluation plan was implemented by the project evaluator of record, Dr. Rebecca Dunning. Pre-course, mid-course, and post-course on-line questionnaires were used to evaluate the outcomes of the course. Additionally, at the end of each two-day session students completed a short set of questions to evaluate that session’s content. The evaluation questionnaires were designed to provide both formative and summative evaluation to make sure the remainder of the course, and future local food system courses, are as valuable as they can be to the participants. Students also participated in a focus group and individual interviews as a means to evaluate course outcomes and provide specific feedback on the program to inform future efforts. At the mid-point of the course, select students participated in a 30-minute qualitative, semi-structured interview; all students participated in a focus group immediately after conclusion of the course; and nine of the twelve students participated in a semi-structured interview 6-months after the course had concluded.

Online Certificate Course Development

In Year 2 of the project, we distributed a situation assessment survey in NC, VA, and SC regarding interest in an online, non-credit local food systems course. There were 235 respondents to the survey, including 195 fully completed surveys, with 63% from NC (125 respondents), 22% from VA (43 respondents), 7% from SC (13 respondents), and 8% from other states (16 respondents). 55% of respondents indicated a high level of interest in enrolling in the online local food systems course and 39% indicated they might be interested in enrolling. The background of respondents can be summarized as primarily staff or faculty in an education/research institution (32%), staff member of a public agency (17%), staff member of a non-profit organization (14%), and concerned citizen, passionately interested in food and farming issues (12%). The primary reason for potential enrollment was described as a desire for a better understanding of local food systems (23%), more opportunities for professional development training (16%), better utilization of food system expertise (12%), and greater understanding by others of food system development work (11%).

We leveraged funds from NC State University’s Office of Extension, Engagement, and Economic Development to begin modification of the graduate course into an online, non-credit certificate course. The audience of the online course will be expanded to include Extension educators as well as other individuals working on local food system development, including those working for non-profits, other state agencies, and private sector businesses. The recorded graduate course lectures and panel discussions are being repurposed and developed into content and activities that are more engaging for online learners.

We have continued discussions with VA and SC to determine best means for distribution of the course materials in future courses or professional development training. In December 2015, we delivered a webinar to NC, VA, and SC Extension administrators and educators to raise awareness about the online course materials, outcomes of the course in North Carolina, and the plans for development of the online certificate course. We also established a relationship with the North American Food Systems Network (NAFSN) through our partnership with the Center for Environmental Farming systems. NAFSN is a new organization developing a local food systems professionals’ certification program in North America. NAFSN is interested in potentially partnering with our project to include the online, non-credit course as a component of their certification program.

In our final year of this project we will continue development of the online, non-credit course and will work with our VA and SC partners to develop VA and SC focused components of the online course to parallel existing materials. We have also learned of the interest of some other states, e.g. Arkansas, in incorporating parallel and place-based material from their states into the course. Based on this interest, we are exploring the idea of expanding the course content to meet the needs of the southeastern U.S. in the future and will be seeking leveraged funding to do this work.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Outputs to date

• Trans-disciplinary syllabus for a graduate course on Local Food Systems
• Detailed session agendas for six sessions, themes identified above, for a Local Food Systems graduate course
• Local food systems lectures and panel discussions – listed and recordings available on course website.
• Website created, for sharing recorded lectures and panel presentations – http://go.ncsu.edu/localfoodlectures
• Educational tools supporting a graduate Local Food Systems course developed:
  • Grading Rubrics
  • Project Assignments
  • Small Group Activities
    • Local Food – Meaning and Value to Participants, Dara Bloom
    • Growing a Healthy Economy with Local Foods, Becky Bowen
    • Introduction to Basic Legal Structures, Becky Bowen
    • Exploring Food Value Chains, Dara Bloom
    • Experiencing Inequities in Food Systems, Shorlette Ammons
    • Community Organizing and Leadership Development – Growing Communities Curriculum, NC Community Garden Partners
    • What’s your problem anyway? Rochelle Sparko, CFSA
    • Systems Analysis of Scenarios – Can you act and how? Rochelle Sparko and Jared Cates, CFSA

• Food Council Toolkit, Jared Cates
  • CFSA developed a campaign guide for an online Food Council advocacy toolkit (full toolkit in development) and piloted the guide with graduate course participants. The guide was presented in Session 6 of the course  as an educational tool that agents could provide to community members as a way to strategically improve their community food system. The full toolkit is moving into a second phase of development with additional funding. The complete toolkit will consist of the campaign guide, a resource map of the Carolinas’ food system, and a curated list of additional resources. The toolkit will be available to the public online (via carolinafarmstewards.org and communityfoodstrategies.org), providing guidance to food councils and community groups wanting to build their capacity and launch advocacy initiatives.   
• Evaluation plan and evaluation data collection instruments created.
• Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval received on evaluation plan and tools so that findings can be shared as a research outcome.
• Participation in education programs:
  • Face to Face Course Sessions (includes multiple lectures, group activities, panel discussions and site tours – details on sessions are provided at the website above)
    • 16 participants registered for the course (13 for credit, 3 non-credit).
      Note: 2 non-credit students did not complete all sessions of the course.
  • Webinars (YouTube views as of 4/1/2016)
    • 28 participants trained on Business Legal Structures for Local Food Value Chain Businesses (18 live attendees, 10 recorded attendees, 64 YouTube views)
    • 19 participants trained on Community and Economic Impact Potential of Local Food Systems. (14 live attendees, 5 Collaborate recording views, 41 YouTube views)
    • 25 participants trained on Growing Food, Growing Communities. (19 live attendees, 6 Collaborate recording views, 53 YouTube views)
    • 27 participants trained on The Role of Extension in Local Food Systems: Distinguishing Government, Policy and Law. (23 live attendees, 4 Collaborate recording views, 22 YouTube views)
    • 26 participants trained on Local Food Systems Course For Extension Agents: A Multi-State Collaboration (25 live attendees, 1 Collaborate recording view)
  • Out of Class Site Tour
    • 12 participants attended site tour of niche meat processing facility in eastern North Carolina.

Evaluating Project Outcomes and Impacts

Project success is defined as successful development of the training modules and distribution of these via the web, and an increase in knowledge and aspirations among those attending the graduate course sessions.

All training modules and distribution of these online are complete. Further, the course designers/instructors received additional funding to begin making the course widely available as an online, non-credit certificate course. One of the designers/instructors was accepted into eXtension’s i­Three Issue Corps 2016, to receive technical assistance in the development of virtual (filmed) “field trips” for the course. The designers/instructors will also shared the structure and outcomes of the course in a presentation at the Virginia Cooperative Extension 2016 Community, Local, and Regional Food Systems (CLRFS) Forum .

Evaluation Based Upon Quantitative Data = Pre-Post Surveys

Evaluation of students increase in knowledge was conducted using a pre-post online survey of student self-perceptions of knowledge gained, by program content area. As recorded in Figure 1, course participants reported improvements in their knowledge in all course content areas, with an overall increase in knowledge of 27% (average of increase in means of knowledge pre and post course). Further, the variation in knowledge decreased over time, with the range of knowledge (measured by standard deviation of responses) decreasing 36%. This indicates both an increase in knowledge of participants, and less variation across participants. These findings illustrate the attainment of the courses objective to increase participants knowledge and skill development in the areas outlined in the original project proposal.

 (click to see full size)

Evaluation Based Upon Qualitative Data = 6-month Post-course Interviews

To further explore students self-perceptions of knowledge gained, and application of course content to their own extension practice, a 6-month telephone interview lasting 30-60 minutes was conducted with nine of the 12 participants. Interview questions focused on the following:

• Students’ reflections on course content and its usefulness to them in the 6-months after the course concluded, including use of specific tools, contacts, or resources
• Student-specific examples of applying the knowledge/skills gained in the course to their own work during the 6-months after the course concluded

Application and Usefulness of Course Content

Six of the nine students interviewed agreed that they applied specific knowledge and/or relied on specific resources identified in the course to enhance their food system projects. Four students noted that course content related to food hubs and incubator farms prepared them to be a knowledgeable resource on local food systems in their own communities. One noted that a presentation in the class led them to online resources on planning and evaluating food hubs. Another noted that the course sessions on food hubs and field trip to a hub (including discussions with hub management) allowed her to counsel community members struggling with the economic viability of an existing food hub:

We had a food hub here, a small food hub that was trying to survive. And it just wasn’t … it was having all kinds of issues as far as feasibility. So I brought to the attention of some [community members] what we learned about in the class and how most of them [food hubs] are run like businesses, and so through evidence and all of us talking that were on the committee for the food hub, they decided to merge it into a business that’s already here. So we don’t have, per se, a food hub anymore. [Now it is] a business that works with the farmers and [it] provides local foods. (student 3)

Two students also noted the valuable information gained on citing and operating an economically viable farmers market, learned through a panel discussion that included a market manager and discussions with a market manager and vendor. Noted one:

I’m working with the farmers market so I was able to use some of the information that I learned when we went to [the Cooperative Extension office that provides support to a farmers market] and talked with the director there, and how she’s working well with the manager at that farmers market. She was the one that inspired me to get a manager for our little farmers market. (student 6)

Three students noted that course content on food access had inspired them to increase their work with canning, preserving, and cooking with low income and elderly residents.

In addition to specific actions already taken or in a planning stage reflecting course content, students noted that participation had drawn their attention to the broad range of issues encompassed in local foods work. This increased their general knowledge on the components and structure of local food systems such that they were equipped to share this knowledge with others, and inspired to take action in the future. Following are illustrations of this sentiment:

We don’t have access to a lot of local produce except for when the farmers markets are open. Just thinking and trying to look at those labels [in grocery stores] and see how far away your food is coming from [is important]. It really has kind of opened my eyes to just being more aware and helping others to be more aware. (student 6)

A lot of people are not 100% sure even what local foods means, how that applies to them, how it works in [X] County, so it’s been helpful for me to just be able to discuss it with people, and give them a short definition of what is local food, and how is it important in [X] County. In that aspect, of just filling people in and making them aware that the local foods movement is important as far as agriculture in the county… (student 5)

The whole class was wonderful. It really was, [it] kind of solidified and validated everything that I had been learning on my own and through other means because it was being presented with scientific research and with a peer group that was trying to do the same work. (student 7).

I remember thinking quite a bit throughout the course, [food policy councils] is an idea I want to take back directly to my community. I think throughout the class there was this theme of strong community connections, in grass roots. Local food is really community development. You know, you’re trying to develop a part of the community that may not be very strong. Those connections are so important. The food policy council seemed like a really important component of any strong local food system. (student 7)

I would really say it has reinforced what I was already doing, and certainly helped give me more resources across the state to call on and more practical examples, so when I’m trying to teach people about the potential I’ve got more things to work with…[having] the academic pieces to back up what [I’d] already seen in action in the field [was useful]. (student 4)

Lasting Impressions of the Course

When asked what parts of the course stood out to them, 6-months after course conclusion, students noted the field trips and panel presentations by practitioners. One-half of the course participants were Family and Consumer Science Agents, and these students expressed strong appreciation for being able to visit and hear from participants along the food chain, including producers and processors. Noted one:

I don’t have a strong background in the production side of local foods. Seeing where farmers are coming from, what their issues are, being exposed to that world, I think, was really memorable. (student 1)

Students also appreciated the opportunity to network with other agricultural educators across the state:

That was one of the biggest feelings at that last class… wow, this has been so neat. To really build a relationship with these other people doing the same work and … that I can reach out to. I was really sad actually when I was leaving because I was like, I really was just starting to build the network that I needed. That class was hugely valuable for that.  (student 7)

The group that we had, we all came from different backgrounds with different situations. Some people had food hubs. Some people managed markets. Some people worked with new growers. A wide variety of backgrounds that all came together. I think it was just … It was very helpful in helping me and everyone else to see all of those components brought together. (student 5)

All nine of the students said they would recommend the course to other extension educators.

The below quotes illustrate this sentiment:

…This is a really valuable course… it’s valuable for our agents to have the resources and the knowledge to be able to help foster these local food systems and really keep them alive and keep them sustained. It’s a lot more complicated process than it sounds, but this course provided, literally, informational aspects from agricultural production to the sale of the finished product. I think it’s important for agents to have that full spectrum and to understand what their role is in the process and how they can interact with all these different players to really be that coordinator, moderator, facilitator, organizer type person. I think that puts extension agents in a very important role and I think this class will be wonderful for them. (student 1)

I think that just having a broader knowledge of it to share with our clientele is probably the best, the most important aspect of it, because we do get asked a lot of questions. A lot of people have a lot of misconceptions about what local food is and how it applies to cooperative extension. (student 5)

I think Extension, generally, as an organization, has a potential to really become “Extinction” if they’re not careful. Because this is a public sector entity that quite frankly is a little bit behind the curve when it comes to meeting what’s actually happening on the ground and what I think most, or a lot of, folks in the public are demanding and wanting, from small farmers to consumers. I think every agent in the state who’s at all planning to be around with the organization in the next decade, in the next two decades, in the next four decades, they need to go through local foods training and be really up on that, because I think that’s where the future lies. (student 8)

Summary of Evaluation Findings and Recommendations

The course met its objectives of designing and delivering a course on local food systems that  positively influenced the aspirations and knowledge base of participating extension educators, and the objective of making course materials widely available via the web.  The program design and details on execution of the course should be widely shared with other state extension programs to maximize impact.

It should be noted that the participant pool for the end-course interviews were primarily from the FCS program area. As the course is developed and utilized more widely, it will be instructive to analyze pre-post course survey and interview findings to understand to what degree the course meets the expectations of students in other program areas.

Two aspects of the course that were viewed by participants as major strengths — the ability to network with extension educator peers, and the ability to engage in site visits and talk with practitioners (e.g., farmers market and food hub managers), are features that may be challenging to replicate in a distance education format. A comparative evaluation of the outcomes of the distance education format will be useful for others as they seek to meet the demand from extension and agricultural educators for food systems training.  

Collaborators: