Non Technical Summary
There hasn't been much research done on the needs and challenges faced by local Hmong growers, taking into account their cultural values and way of life. Previous projects on food safety showed that Hmong growers need more resources like customized templates and one-on-one consultations. This new project builds on what was learned before and aims to develop a training program to help Hmong growers in the upper Midwest improve food safety. The hope is that this program can be shared with other small, diverse and socially-disadvantaged farms across the country.Specific objectives are:Objective (1): Provide customized and culturally sensitive food safety training program to Hmong growers in MO and MN.Objective (2): Complete rigorous evaluation of the culturally sensitive food safety training curriculum, and to adapt and improve it based on new FSMA updates and rules and to meet the needs of Hmong growers;Objective (3): Develop innovative, culturally sensitive, and easy to understand picture-based Supplemental Food Safety Manual guided by FSMA for Hmong growers in English and Hmong.Objective (4): Complete rigorous evaluation of Supplemental Food Safety Manual to assess usability and potential effectiveness and improve to meet the needs of the Hmong growers;Objective (5): Create a Hands-on Activity Trainer Guide with SOPs to describe a series of hands-on training activities for trainers to use when training Hmong or other socially disadvantaged growers for use in food safety and FSMA trainings.Objective (6) Provide one-on-one consultation and farm visits with farmer project participants to build confidence and skills of all growers. These growers will then serve as community liaisons, providing education and outreach around food safety to other Hmong farms in their communities.

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
903	6099	3020	100%

Knowledge Area
903 - Communication, Education, and Information Delivery;

Subject Of Investigation
6099 - People and communities, general/other;

Field Of Science
3020 - Education;

Goals / Objectives
The long-term goal of this collaborative education and training project is to develop a collaborative education and training program to advance food safety for Hmong growers in the upper Midwest, and to share new training materials nationwide to encourage adoption of these practices among small, diverse and socially-disadvantaged farms.Objective (1): Provide customized and culturally sensitive food safety training program to Hmong growers in MO and MN.Objective (2): Complete rigorous evaluation of the culturally sensitive Food Safety Training Curriculum, and to adapt and improve it based on new FSMA updates and rules and to meet the needs of Hmong growers;Objective (3): Develop innovative, culturally sensitive, and easy to understand picturebased Supplemental Food Safety Manual guided by FSMA for Hmong growers in English and Hmong.Objective (4): Complete rigorous evaluation of Supplemental Food Safety Manual to assess usability and potential effectiveness and improve to meet the needs of the Hmong growers;Objective (5): Create a Hands-on Activity Trainer Guide with SOPs to describe a series of hands-on training activities for trainers to use when training Hmong or other socially disadvantaged growers for use in food safety and FSMA trainings.Objective (6) Provide one-on-one consultation and farm visits with farmer project participants to build confidence and skills of all growers. These growers will then serve as community liaisons, providing education and outreach around food safety to other Hmong farms in their communities.

Project Methods
Objective (1): Provide customized and culturally sensitive food safety training program to Hmong growers in MO and MNTask 1: Provide 1-2 hour food safety trainings for Hmong growers using customized and culturally sensitive food safety training curriculum.Task 2: Develop hands-on food safety training activities to be offered alongside the previously created PPT based curriculum.Objective (2): Complete rigorous evaluation of the culturally sensitive food safety training curriculum, and adapt and improve it based on new FSMA updates and rules and to meet the needs of Hmong growersTask 1: To assess effectiveness of the customized and culturally sensitive food safety training curriculum that meets the specific needs of Hmong growers, the team will utilize a rigorous evaluation process (Steps (a) and (b)) at each food safety training program during the project.Step (a) - Implementation and evaluation of the culturally sensitive food safety training curriculum at Hmong farmsPart 1: Pre-Implementation Assessment of Food Safety Knowledge, Attitudes, and Self-reported PracticesPart 2: ImplementationPart 3: Post-Implementation Survey of Food Safety Knowledge, Attitudes, and Self-reported PracticesStep (b) - Evaluation of this collaborative education and training program by PSA certified trainers.Task 2: Update the training materials as needed to ensure they are continually up to date.Task 3: The team will evaluate if the developed food safety training curriculum with hands-on activities is transferable to other Hmong produce farms with similar characteristics across the U.S. The effectiveness of the program will be evaluated based on the feedbacks received during the program implementation Step (a) Part 2 and the results from Step (b) Task 2.Objective (3): Develop innovative, culturally sensitive, and easy to understand picture-based Supplemental Food Safety Manual guided by FSMA for Hmong growers in English and HmongTask 1: The project team, working closely with community partners, will develop an innovative, culturally sensitive, and easy to understand Supplemental Food Safety Manual guided by FSMA for Hmong growers participating in the project.Task 2: The manuals developed will be shared widely with trainers and educators across the country, and will be used to give supplement both FSMA Produce Safety Rule trainings and GAPs and general food safety trainings with Hmong or other limited English proficiency growers across the United States.Task 3: A comprehensive food safety training workshop using the culturally sensitive food safety training curriculum (objective 1) and Supplemental Food Safety Manual (Objective 3) will be developed and offered to 40 Hmong growers in year 3 in both states.Objective 4: Complete rigorous evaluation of Supplemental Food Safety Manual to assess usability and potential effectiveness and improve to meet the needs of the Hmong growersTask 1: To assess and evaluate the Supplemental Food Safety manuals for Hmong growers, multifaceted data will be collected after the comprehensive food safety training workshop is completed: (a) interviews with Hmong produce growers, (b) interviews with FSMA PSA trainers, and (c) observation of Hmong growers' food handling on the farm.Objective (5): Create a Hands-on Activity Trainer Guide with SOPs to describe a series of hands-on training activities for trainers to use when training Hmong or other socially disadvantaged growers for use in food safety and FSMA trainingsTask 1: Based on findings from the interviews and research conducted in objectives 2 and 4, the team will create a train the trainer compilation of hands-on activities for PSA and other food safety trainers.Objective (6) Provide one-on-one consultation and farm visits with farmer project participants to build confidence and skills of 40 Hmong growers in MO and MN. These growers will then serve as community liaisons, providing education and outreach around food safety to other Hmong farms in their communitiesTask 1: Provide one-on-one consultation on a variety of topics (e.g., pest control, soil amendments, wild animal control) as often as needed to the group of growers (MO=20; MN=20) that have been recruited for this project.Task 2: Continue to assist with good record keeping practices.