Progress 09/01/23 to 08/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this project is underrepresented beginning farmers. Socially disadvantaged and limited resource farmers/audiences as defined by the USDA as are those (groups of people) who have been subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice (1990 Farm Bill (Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990, 7 U.S.C. 2279, Section 2501)). Changes/Problems:Consultant Shannon Coleman moved from Iowa State University in June 2024 to Louisiana State University effective July 2024. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The PI and Co-PIs attended the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity (NCORE) in Honolulu, Hawaii and shared information about the grant and presented a poster. The PI and Co-PIs visited with the Division of Population and Health Sciences and representatives from the Food Pantry and the Indigenous populations at the University of Alaska at Anchorage to share information about the importance of training farmers in produce safety and how this training can translate into university partnerships for responding to food insecurity issues. The PI and Co-PIs are planning to attend the Black Farmers Conference in Delaware to share information regarding the grant via a presentation. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Now that the foundational components of the grant have been accomplished, for the next reporting year (Fall 2024 - Summer 2025), we plan to accomplish the following Activities that are related to Objectives 1 and 2: Objective 1: Activity 1: Advertise the opportunity to participate in focus groups and virtual farm tour recordings with the Southern Food Safety Center and the Deep South Food Alliance Activity 2: Conduct an informational meeting with farmers who will participate in virtual produce safety tours. Activity 3: Develop virtual farm tour produce safety related topics using a focus group. Activity 4: Meet with the Advisory Board/Consultants to discuss produce safety related topics list. Activity 5: Meet with farming operations who will participate in virtual tours. Activity 6: Visit farming operations to conduct video recording. Activity 7: Edit recordings from farming operation. Activity 8: Organize a video viewing session with the Advisory Board. Activity 9: Finalize virtual produce safety farm tour videoing recording based on feedback from Advisory Board. Activity 10: Development of supplemental educational material. Objective 2: Activity 1: Make progress on the "Virtual Interactive Produce Safety (VIPS) Exploration website. Activity 2: Make progress on the interactive app. Activity 3: Make progress on the development of the social media pages (Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube channel)

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Accomplishments What was accomplished under these goals? Objective 1 Development of Produce Safety Virtual Tours and Associated Activities: Subaward budgets were set up for all subawardees. Planning meetings were held with the PI and Co-PIs to review the proposal objectives and the timeline. Several virtual meetings were held during Year 1 of the project. In addition, the team also communicated via email. A meeting was held with Advisory Board members Dr. Camila Rodrigues, Dr. Benjamin Chapman, Dr. Lester Schonberger, and Dr. Jovana Korvacevic. This meeting was held to discuss project objectives, and the application and focus group questions for the project. Documents for review were sent to Advisory Board members prior to the meeting for review and feedback. Based on this, discussion points for the meeting were prepared. Meetings were held with the Consultants - Dr. Shannon Coleman, Dr. Shecoya White and Mr. Andrew Williams (Director of the Deep South Food Alliance) to receive guidance on working with the target audience and developing material for use in the focus groups. Mr. Andrew Williams provided valuable insight on how to best work with the target audience. As a result of the above, the following were developed and approved by Texas A&M University-Commerce's Institutional Review Board: A flyer to recruit the target audience Bank of questions for the participant application and focus groups Farmer focus group scripts Objective 2: Development of avenues to host educational material Dr. Yuehua Wang is working with the Center for IT Excellence at Texas A&M University - Commerce regarding servers to host the education materials. This is key in ensuring security and compliance.

Publications