Progress 06/01/23 to 05/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:Small farmers in Illinois and Missouri: outreach during the field trip in June 2023 restaurant owners and distributors in St. Louis:outreach during the field trip in June 2023 undergraduate and graduate students of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and University of Missouri: provided experiential learning experience during the reported peirod Changes/Problems:The project experienced a slight setback due to a delay in the sub-award funding transfer from the University of Illinois to the University of Missouri. This delay was primarily caused by a transition in grant personnel. Consequently, the recruitment of graduate students to assist with the project at the University of Missouri was postponed. Despite this minor delay in the project's timeline, we remain optimistic about making significant progress in the upcoming reporting period. We are confident that we will be able to expedite our efforts and catch up with the planned schedule. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Our team has been actively involving undergraduate and graduate students in the project to provide research training opportunities for students. A total of three graduate students (two master students and one doctoral student) and four undergraduate students were engaged in the project. They were trained to perform various research tasks (e.g., develop interview protocol, develop screening survey for participant recruitment, develop and implement recruitment strategies, conduct interviews, transcribe interviews, and clean data). Our team also engaged with the Univerity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's Community-Academic Scholar program to recruit undergraduate students from across campus to work as a research assistant for the project in the summer. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?During the two-day field trip, we talked to various stakeholders in the local food value train in the St. Louis metropolitan area, including local farmers, local food distributors who connect local farmers and restaurants, and farmer's market/ local food market owners/organizers and vendors, and co-op operators. Through these conversations, we have generated some interest among key stakeholders in the project and the research we will be doing. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In year 2, we will analyze the qualitative data to generate preliminary insights about consumer attitudes, preferences and decision-making regarding consuming local food in the restaurant setting. Moreover, the results from qualitative data will also inform the design of the survey portion of the consumer study. We aim to complete the survey design and data collection of the survey in Year 2.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? All three goals were partially accomplished in the past year. Our key accomplishment in the past year is the successful collection of qualitative data through 40 comprehensive interviews with restaurant consumers. All interviews were transcribed and proofread for multiple rounds, and cross-checked by different team members before analysis as a way to ensure the trustworthiness of the data. These interviews will provide us with valuable insights into consumer preferences, behaviors, and attitudes toward local food in the restaurant setting. We are currently working on the data analysis of these rich qualitative interview data. Through the analysis of these interviews, we will be able to identify key factors that influence consumer decisions which will be crucial for restaurants and small farmers to develop marketing strategies that effectively appeal to consumers. As such, this data collection builds the foundation for achieving all three goals in the following way: Under Goal1, the qualitative data will provide insights for restaurant owners/chefs and small farmers to develop marketing strategies to better promote local food-oriented products/servicesthat will appeal to customers, thus strengthening the linkages among small farms, restaurants, and consumers in local food value chain; Under Goal 2, the qualitative data will provide insights in terms of barriers and opportunities in promoting the local food value chain from the perspective of consumers, particularly through the lens of consumer decision-making, attitude, and preferences; Under Gaol 3, the qualitative data will also be part of the Extension program that we will develop in the later stage of the project. Moreover, our team was also on a two-day field trip to meet and talk to stakeholders in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area to gain some preliminary understanding of barriers, constraints, and opportunities in sourcing local food in the restaurant industry to enhance the financial sustainability of small farms (goal #2). Through this field trip, we also established connections with key stakeholders that will be instrumental in the later stage of the project (i.e., restaurant and farmer studies). In addition, in September 2023, we organized a Zoom project kickoff meeting in which all panelists in the advisory panel at both the University of Illinois and the University of Missouri met and discussed the project. Besides this formal meeting, the PI and Co-PI met with individual advisory panelists multiple times regarding the interview design and project progress. As a trans-institutionalproject team, we also met monthly. Within each university team, weekly meetings were held to discuss the literature review and develop the interview guide. Before conducting the interview, we performed a literature review on consumers' preferences and attitudes toward local food, which served as the foundation for interview guide development.

Publications