Source: AGRICULTURE & LAND-BASED TRAINING ASSOCIATION (ALBA) submitted to NRP
LATINO IMMIGRANT FARM-OWNER EDUCATION ON FOOD SAFETY (LIFE)
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1017263
Grant No.
2018-70020-28859
Cumulative Award Amt.
$75,000.00
Proposal No.
2018-05198
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2018
Project End Date
Dec 31, 2019
Grant Year
2018
Program Code
[A4182]- Regional FSMA Center
Recipient Organization
AGRICULTURE & LAND-BASED TRAINING ASSOCIATION (ALBA)
1700 OLD STAGE ROAD
SALINAS,CA 93912
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The goal of the LIFE project is to provide hands-on food safety training, technical assistance to underserved, hard to reach audiences on California's central coast. Targeted farmers are mostly small-scale, Latino-owned farms who are either preparing to launch their farm business, in the start-up phase, or have graduated and are farming in the region. Each group will be provided with tailored training and technical assistance appropriate to their stage of development with the intent to educate and assist them in implementing Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) and obtain third-party food safety certification, a gateway to lucrative markets. In all, the project will reach 120 underserved farmers in the tri-county area, half of which are off-site.New requirements under the Food Safety Modernization Act, and evolving regulatory requirements and business demands are particularly burdensome on new and small-scale farmers, particularly those who don't speak English. In response, ALBA has develop a comprehensive, bi-lingual food safety assistance program for the farmers we serve, mainly Latino immigrant farmworkers who aspire to farm ownership. This includes an innovative food safety certification program called Group GAP, a program designed by USDA/AMS and piloted by ALBA to streamline the food safety compliance process for networks of small farmers. The program helps ALBA certify up to 40 farms annually.Continual revisions to GAP standards, new staff and looming deadlines to comply with the FSMA Final Produce Rule for small farms, call for urgent attention to farmer readiness, as well as ALBA's own capacity building to meet the challenge. Furthermore, rising demand for assistance from our alumni and other regional farms requires ALBA to expand outreach and services, which will be explored under the pilot project.LIFE implementation will leverage ALBA's experienced staff, a longstanding food safety consulting partner, and a proven farm incubation program. With the passing of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) in 2011, ALBA has since devoted significant time and resources in preparing participating farms to comply with new requirements, while selling over $20 million of their produce into California markets. LIFE will build on this experience to help ALBA become a food safety resource institution not only for farms at ALBA but in the wider region. ?
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
71214301060100%
Knowledge Area
712 - Protect Food from Contamination by Pathogenic Microorganisms, Parasites, and Naturally Occurring Toxins;

Subject Of Investigation
1430 - Greens and leafy vegetables;

Field Of Science
1060 - Biology (whole systems);
Goals / Objectives
The LIFE goal is to provide food safety information, training and technical assistance to underserved farmers at different stages of development. The objectives correspond to different stages of farm business development, providing training and assistance appropriate to each stage.1. Educate 25 aspiring farmers who are preparing to launch farm businesses at ALBA. These participants participate in the Farmer Education Course, the first step in ALBA's program toward launching a farm business. Designated sessions will be devoted to food safety, including demonstrations and opportunities to apply these practices in the field.2. Facilitate GAPs implementation and food safety certification for 35 start-up farms. Farms will gain knowledge and assistance in complying with ALBA's Food Safety Plan, preparing them for third-party audits to obtain certification. ALBA will ensure ongoing compliance through hands-on supervision and monitoring on record-keeping and in the field.3. Provide training to at 60 more underserved (Latino or small-scale) farms in the region. Be they alumni or other underserved farmers, ALBA will hold 2 off-site bi-lingual FSMA-mandated workshops for regional farms. At these events, ALBA will distribute compliance tools which were developed under previous USDA projects and distribute a questionnaire to gather feedback on challenges and needed assistance. This information will be used it to develop a service strategy in the following years.4. Strengthen capacity of ALBA to provide food safety assistance to underserved farms. ALBA has already hired new staff and called on senior staff to serve on the new Food Safety Management Team. Under LIFE, the team will receive on-site and off-site training and shadow our food safety consultant as they gain familiarity with their new roles. The team will also develop a food safety assistance strategy to expand outreach to underserved farms.
Project Methods
ALBA's approach is based on experiential learning. We understand that farming (and food safety) can't be learned solely in the classroom. Practices are learned by seeing, feeling, listening, discussing and doing. This provides different levels of exposure, repeated reinforcement of concepts, and the opportunity to put learned knowledge into practice with the following methods:· Introduction to concepts in the classroom to help in preparing to launch a farm business.· Demonstration of practices in the field, including the use of a model food safety station on ALBA's practice plot to showcase options for storage of supplies and materials, field management, postharvest, and communication with employees.· Regular workshops for ongoing farmers to prepare them for audit.· Technical assistance in the field and office to prepare for either Group GAP audits. · Year-round engagement of farmers in monitoring their food safety practicesALBA has the good fortune to fully own our Rural Development Center (RDC), which has 100 acres of quality farm land. The RDC serves as both a launch site for small businesses and a learning lab. Our training center (i.e., classroom, offices, well, and mechanic's shop) sits in the middle of the ranch, directly adjacent to the practice plot and a block of land hosting newly launched farms. The remaining beginning farmers are practicing within a few hundred meters of our experienced staff, facilitating the delivery of training and technical assistance and close monitoring of practices. ?

Progress 09/01/18 to 12/31/19

Outputs
Target Audience:The goal of the LIFE project is to provide hands-on food safety training, technical assistance to underserved, hard to reach audiences on California's central coast. Targeted farmers are mostly small-scale, Latino-owned farms who are either preparing to launch their farm business, in the start-up phase, or have graduated and are farming in the region. Each group will be provided with tailored training and technical assistance appropriate to their stage of development with the intent to educate and assist them in implementing Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) and obtain third-party food safety certification, a gateway to lucrative markets. In all, the project will reach 120 underserved farmers in the tri-county area, half of which are off-site. New requirements under the Food Safety Modernization Act, and evolving regulatory requirements and business demands are particularly burdensome on new and small-scale farmers, particularly those who don't speak English. In response, ALBA has develop a comprehensive, bi-lingual food safety assistance program for the farmers we serve, mainly Latino immigrant farmworkers who aspire to farm ownership. This includes an innovative food safety certification program called Group GAP, a program designed by USDA/AMS and piloted by ALBA to streamline the food safety compliance process for networks of small farmers. The program helps ALBA certify up to 40 farms annually. Changes/Problems:One problem that we encountered during the project period was that our original Food Safety Assistant under the grant was unable to commit the time required of the grant and left ALBA to become an independent contractor. Luckily, we were able to find a great replacement but we did have to file an extension to spend out the grant. We have now successfully met all of the program goals and spent out funds under this grant and are positioned to expand our bilingual food safety program. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Our Food Safety Management team and other staff members have received various food safety trainings including a Produce Safety Alliance Training, Basic GAPs and Symptoms of Food Borne Illness, among others. Our Food Safety Assistant also attended the Western Regional Food Safety Summit and our Production & Marketing Advisor attended the Organic Grower Summit to listen to important food safety workshops. Both our Food Safety Assistant and Executive Director/FSOP Project Director were able to attend the Western Regional Center to Enhance Food Safety Meeting in Portland, Oregon and learn from other experts in the fields. Thanks to this pilot grant our Food Safety Assistant was able to participate in Produce Safety Alliance's Train-the-Trainer workshops and is on his way to become a PSA Lead Trainer. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have created an "alumni and underserved farmer network." This group of farmers receives bilingualfood safetyinformation through email communication and texts. We will also build upon our "alumniand underserved farmer event" offered this year and offer a second event in 2020. We also disseminate information through the use of social media, radio and print interviews,and through our partners under this grant. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? ALBA was able to surpass the major goals of this project. 1) 35 participants participated in the Farmer Education Course during the program year and learned about food safety in the classroom and field. 2) 49 Incubator farmers participated in GAPs implementation throughout the year and obtained their food safety certification. Our third-party audits were conducted by Agricultural Marketing Services (AMS) in November and six participants were inspected (per Group GAP requirements of a sample of 6). The audit was passed successfully and nocorrective actions were found. 3) ALBA provided 16 educational workshops to participants during the program year. Each workshop was attended by between 20-35 farmers which included Incubator tenants, alumni, and underserved farmers. ALBA distributed compliance tools, recordkeeping packets, and other food safety resources to attendees. ALBA also distributed pre and post surveys for these events, had focus groups, andcollected input on challenges and needsto conduct an assessment for the food safety resources that are needed by Latino farmers. 4) Our new approach to establishing a "culture of food safety" at the farm under this pilot program has had tremendous impact. By working as a Food Safety Team and involving key staff members including the Executive Director (FSOP Project Director), Education Program Director, Food Safety Assistant, Farm Manager, Farm Management Assistant, Production & Marketing Advisor, and the Program Assistant and having them work with and at the same time get trained by (shadow) a professional consultant from Carlson Food Safety Consultants (CFSC), we have been able to get a strong understanding of food safety requirements and have strengthened our internal food safety program significantly. Our goal under this pilot project was to get to the point where ALBA could phase out CFSC and run its Food Safety Program (Group GAP and Quality Management System) on our own and we are proud to report that his has been achieved. Antonio Acosta, our Food Safety Assistant under this pilot program, has been promoted to Compliance Manager and he is know manages our food safety program internally with oversight from the Executive Director/FSOP Project Director. Program participant feedback highlighted the increasing need of bilingual food safety assistance by small and underserved farmers in the region. We have used this insight to plan our 2020 food safety efforts and calendar and will be expanding our program to provide more bilingual technical assistance to farmers outside of our Incubator and to assist them with the creation of food safety plans and preparationfor third-party audits.

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