Source: CORNELL COOPERATIVE EXTENSION ASSOCIATION OF BROOME COUNTY submitted to
GROWING A FARM TO SCHOOL PROGRAM TO BUILD STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AND INCREASE ACCESS TO LOCAL PRODUCE WITHIN SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITIES
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1031096
Grant No.
2023-70026-40844
Cumulative Award Amt.
$218,315.00
Proposal No.
2023-01912
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2023
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2025
Grant Year
2023
Program Code
[FASLP]- Food and Agriculture Service Learning Program
Project Director
Kenyon, T. K.
Recipient Organization
CORNELL COOPERATIVE EXTENSION ASSOCIATION OF BROOME COUNTY
840 UPPER FRONT ST STE 1
BINGHAMTON,NY 13905
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The Growing a Farm to School Education Program to Build Student Engagement and Increase Access to Local Produce Within Schools and Communities project targets 8,354 K-5 students within six rural and two urban school districts in Broome and Tioga Counties. The goals will be to 1) increase access to fresh produce by building capacity for garden, nutrition, and food education 2) increase leadership skill development and interest in agricultural and food science careers by engaging students in hands-on experiential learning opportunities and 3) establish a learning community within and between partnering school districts in order to positively impact the schools' curricular, physical, and service-learning environments. These goals will be met through strategic planning amongst collaborative partners and school districts, professional development opportunities, and educational support from New York State and Broome County Agriculture in the Classroom educators, AmeriCorps members, and university public health students. Outcomes include employing a Farm to School Educator to lead project implementation; establishing eight school garden programs and Farm to School Committees with individual district action plans; increasing the use of student-grown produce on school lunch menus, taste tests, and school-operated food pantries; implementing garden-based educational experiences and agriculture education for elementary students; providing three professional development trainings for school garden leaders; and offering learning opportunities to engage community stakeholders. Thus, the project will work to expand capacity for experiential and agriculture-based learning opportunities for students while supporting student health in underserved communities by increasing access to fruits and vegetables through the use of student-grown produce.
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
80660993020100%
Knowledge Area
806 - Youth Development;

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

Field Of Science
3020 - Education;
Goals / Objectives
This project has three major goals:1. Goal 1 (G1): To increase access to fresh produce by building capacity for garden, nutrition, and food education in partnering urban and rural school districts.1a. Outcome 1 (O1): One full-time Farm to School Educator will be employed to lead school garden implementation within cohort districts by the fall of 2023.1b. Outcome 2 (O2): Eight school garden programs will be established by the end of the 2024-2025 school year, expanding school gardens and the use of growing towers and racks.1c. Outcome 3 (O3): Student-grown produce will be utilized on school lunch menus, taste tests, and within school-operated food pantries to increase access to fresh produce to 8,354 K-5 students.2. Goal 2 (G2): To increase leadership skill development and interest in agriculutral and food science careers by engaging K-5 students in hands-on experiential learning opportunities.2a. Outcome 4 (O4): 5,000 K-5 students will participate in hands-on school garden-based lessons or actiities by the end of the 2024-2025 school year - developing skills in leadership, critical thinking, and problem solving, while creating positiive attitudes towards food.2b. Outcome 5 (O5): 5,000 K-5 students will receive Agriculture in the Classroom education by the end of the 2024-2025 school year - providing them with the opportunity to gain awareness and knowledge of nutrition, food production, agriculture, and food science careers, and to make connections with local farmers through live virtual field trips.3. Goal 3 (G3): To establish a learning community within and between partnering school districts in order to positively impact the school's curricular, physical, and service-learning environments.3a. Outcome 6 (O6): Eight Farm to School Committees consisting of school garden leaders, district staff, students, and community members will be established to create individualized district action plans by the end of the 2024-2025 school year.3b. Outcome 7 (O7): 50 school garden leaders will participate in at least three professional development opportunities to support school garden programs by the end of the 2024-2025 school year.3c. Outcome 8 (O8): Eight community learning opportunities will be offered to stakeholders within cohort districts to gain awareness related to nutritional priorities in school and increase engagement with school garden programs and school-operated food pantries.
Project Methods
Methods:In the first month of the project, the Broome-Tioga Farm to School team will conduct interviews to select a Farm to School Educator that will lead project implementation. Onboarding will take place in the first three months of hire to develop relationships with partnering school districts, gain awareness of district needs and capacities, and provide professional development opportunities to gain knowledge on school garden programs. The Farm to School Educator will meet monthly with districts during the first year of the project and quarterly during the second year to support school garden programs in the purchasing of materials, organizing the building and/or maintaining of school gardens, growing towers, and racks, and the development of Farm to School Committees. Farm to School Committees consisting of school garden leaders, district staff, students, and community members will meet quarterly to develop individualized district actions plans to support school garden programs that engage elementary students in the process from seed to harvest. Cornell Cooperative Extension of Broome County's Farm to School Educator will work with the Farm to School Committees to develop implementation plans for hands-on, garden-based, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art/Agriculture, and Math) lessons and activities that engage 5,000 K-5 students to develop skills in leadership, critical thinking, problem-solving, and to create positive attitudes towards food. CCE-BC's Farm to School Educator and Ag in the Classroom (AITC) Educators will collaborate with the Broome-Tioga Farm to School Team and the garden leaders from cohort school districts to develop a curricular plan for agriculture education that aligns with harvesting of school growing towers, racks, and school gardens, in addition to NY Thursday menus and taste tests. Agricultural education will be implemented throughout each school year of the grant to around 5,000 K-5 students through both in-classroom and live virtual education. Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, live virtual field trips were introduced to connect students with local farmers for education. At least one live virtual farm trip will be offered each year of the grant. Rural Health Network's Farm to School AmeriCorps members will connect with students at district garden clubs to offer taste tests and planting activities, and to compile resources for school garden leaders and educators. Public Health students from Binghamton University will shadow garden, AITC, and nutrition programs to become knowledgeable on school garden programs to create garden-based educational support materials for students and educators. Two field trips to school gardens (Windsor Central School District and Union-Endicott School District) will be offered to 50 school garden leaders to observe the progress of current school garden programs. New York State Agriculture in the Classroom (NYS AITC) will conduct a training on the use of growing towers and racks to school garden leaders. School garden leaders will become members of a learning community that meets virtually twice each year in addition to the field trips and trainings to exchange knowledge. share strategies and collaborate on professional development opportunities. Student-grown produce will be harvested and incorporated into NY Thursday menus and taste tests to introduce new produce to students and increase consumption of fruits and vegetables. School food service professionals will collaborate on the use of student-grown produce on school menus and Farm to School Committees will monitor the use of student-grown produce in school-operated food pantries. Opportunities for community stakeholder involvement and feedback will be offered through participation on district Farm to School Committees, district open houses, and family summer garden activities. The Broome-Tioga Farm to School Team will collaborate to create promotional materials and press releases to engage community members on the progress of school garden programs.Evaluation:The Growing a Farm to School Program to Build Student Engagement and Increase Access to Local Produce Within Schools and Communities logic model will serve as the project's planning, monitoring and process evaluation framework. Progress towards accomplishing the project's goals and objectives will be continuously monitored through a process evaluation and reported as required/requested by USDA FASLP grant administration.The evaluation will employ a mixed methods data collection process, using quantitative and qualitative methods. The mixed method process evaluation will be used to measure individual-level and community-level gains outlined in the logic model. The process evaluation will describe and quantify the project's progress and be used to monitor and ensure progress to long-term project outcomes. The project's process evaluation will provide feedback about the ways in which the project is being implemented, what barriers are being encountered, what unexpected outcomes are being realized and what implementation improvements are warranted in order to ensure the project achieves its long-term outcomes.The evaluation is participatory in nature, meaning that the project team will have a strong voice in instrument design, data collection, data analysis and reporting. In addition to frequent email and telephone contact, the evaluator will make purposefully scheduled site visits to the project/school sites. These site visits will include tours of school gardens and grow tower projects, observations and interviews with school partners and community collaborators.All qualitative data will be analyzed through an iterative process of thematic content analysis in order to articulate linkages and/or disparities between various program components, processes and outcomes. Thematic content analysis of all qualitative data will be conducted. These data will inform the process and outcome evaluation efforts carried out throughout the program.Descriptive statistics will be calculated, as warranted for all quantitative data. T-tests will be used, as appropriate, to determine gains at the school partner, student and/or community-level. Paired t-tests will be conducted to determine statistical significance in order to measure outcome variables gains. Differences between the pre- and posttest results will be considered statistically significant at p< .05.

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

Outputs
Target Audience:During this reporting period, the target audience included 8,354 K-5 students across two high-need urban and six rural school districts in Broome County, New York. All eight districts report 100% free-or-reduced lunch enrollment, indicating significant socioeconomic need. In addition to K-5 students, middle and high school students are also benefiting from the expansion of school garden programs, particularly in districts where campuses are shared. Furthermore, teachers and school garden leaders overseeing these programs are supported through ongoing professional development opportunities and technical assistance, ensuring effective implementation and sustainability. Changes/Problems:Early on in the project year, one of our Co-PD's, Dr. June Mead, unexpectedly passed away. Dr. Mead was written into the grant to support the project evaluaton component. This was a significant challenge for us, we had to look at alternate options for completing the program evaluation as it had been written in the grant. We met with Binghamton University to discuss how the University might be able to support us in these efforts. They agreed to take on the project, and work within their Sustainable Communities Program to evalutate the Broome Tioga Farm to School Program. Dr. Sarah Velardi, a research professor at Binghamton University, was added as a Co-PD for this project to replace Dr. Mead. Currently, there are 5 graduate students working under Dr. Velardi to support the evaluation component of the grant. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The project has provided a variety of training opportunities for school districts, undergraduate/graduate students, and the Project Director (PD) and co-Project Directors (co-PDs). School teachers and school garden leaders participated in a Farm to Fork training for implementing STEAM education through gardening (detailed on the 'products' page) as well as a Seed Starting lesson training to be successful planting seeds within the classroom. School administrators participated in an informational training to understand the grant goals and outcomes, as well as a virtual tour of a nearby county's Farm to School Program to brainstorm ideas for their own district's garden implementation. Shadowing and educational opportunities were provided for two Farm to School AmeriCorps members. ? PD and co-PD's traveled to the 2023 NIFA Conference in New Orleans as well as two tours of Farm to School Programs within Delaware and Saint Lawrence Counties in New York. Two Farm to School Americorps members were also given the opportunity to help develop and teach lessons on seed starting in one of the project's participating schools. Americorps members developed a hands-on lesson about plant life cycles, and the parts of a seed.? How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Through our Farm to School Newsletter, our Association website, our social media platforms, school district open houses and events, and articles and interviews with news media, we are able to disseminate information about our Farm to School program throughout Broome County, to both rural and urban areas. We have focused on educating community members about the program, which has been severly lacking up until now. By educating our community members, we can help support more buy-in with the program. We want more people to be involved in their schools Farm to School efforts, and encourage more students to buy school lunches which support our ability to offer more local products and bring more nutritious food to their plates. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? To accomplish the goals of the project during the next reporting period we plan to strengthen the way we communicate about farm to school with the community. We will do this by working with a local news channel to produce a video series covering 12 different farm to school topics, as well as a commercial to help promote the video series. We will also organize community events at school gardens for teachers, students and community members to learn more about farm to school and become more engaged in farm to school activities. In addition to strengthening communication between schools and the community, we will also continue our efforts to create better communication within school by expanding farm to school committees. These committees make it possible for each school to envision a farm to school project that works for their particular building or district. We will continue our efforts to expand these committees by working with administrators and teachers to identify the right people for this role. So that teachers and other school staff are informed members of farm to school committees, and are able to comfortably integrate gardening into their student's educational experiences we will also continue holding School Garden Leader Trainings along with NY Ag in the Classroom. These trainings cover a variety of topics from hydroponics in the classroom to STEAM education in the garden. Teachers are able to take what they have learned at these trainings back to their districts and use school gardens and classroom hydroponics to teach new and engaging STEAM lessons. Increasing the use of school gardens for STEAM education is one of our goals for the second year of the project. We will hold two more of these trainings over the next year of the grant. Along with these trainings we will also continue to increase classroom access to Ag in the Classroom programing and virtual farm field trips for districts participating in the project. The second year of the project will also see the expansion of already established school gardens, as well as building new school gardens. Increasing the capacity of schools to produce their own food through teacher trainings and garden expansion will also allow for the increased use of school grown produce in cafeterias and classrooms. This increased capacity will also allow us to further the connection between food and agriculture, as well as food and nutrition. This connection will be reinforced by increasing the amount of nutrition education for participating schools in the second year of the project. The project will also provide opportunities in the second year for undergraduate students to shadow members of the farm to school team, and work with graduate students on conducting research to help us better understand how the project can be improved in the future.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? At the start of this reporting period, we successfully hired a Farm to School Educator to lead implementation of the majority of this project's activities. To align stakeholders with the project's goals and expected outcomes, we conducted an informational session for school superintendents and administrators from the eight targeted school districts. The session was well-attended, with 20 individuals participating. During this reporting period, six of the eight school gardens were successfully established, with additional indoor growing systems such as grow towers or racks implemented. The school gardens vary in size and design across the districts. In four of the eight districts, Farm to School Committees were formed, consisting of school staff involved in the project. Eight taste tests were conducted during school lunch periods, engaging 1,205 students. In the classroom, 4,982 students participated in Agriculture in the Classroom lessons, 2,691 students received Nutrition Education, 172 students learned about plant life cycles through seed starting lessons. Additionally, we hosted four virtual farm field trips, reaching 2,281 students. We conducted a Farm to Fork training in collaboration with NYS Agriculture in the Classroom for 31 teachers and school garden leaders involved in the project. Participants engaged in hands-on activities using engineering, math, science, and ELA concepts, exploring lessons they could implement directly in their classrooms. They built artificial irrigation systems, learned to construct and manage aeroponic grow towers (including maintaining pH balance, controlling pests, managing lighting, and addressing plant diseases), and explored strategies to extend the growing season. Additionally, participants applied engineering design processes to develop and construct aeroponic gardens. A separate Seed Starting Lesson Training was also offered to prepare teachers for beginning the growing season with their students within the classroom. During this reporting period we also organized the Broome County Farm to School Research Collaborative (BCFSRC). This collaborative consists of two researchers from Binghamton University, 5 graduate students and two members of the Broome County farm to school team. The goal of this collaborative is to better understand the effectiveness of the project in changing how students, teachers and community members think about and interact with school food, agriculture and nutrition. The BCFSRC is also assisting in the evaluation of the project described in our application. Two Farm to School Americorps members were also given the opportunity to help develop and teach lessons on seed starting in one of the project's participating schools. Americorps members developed a hands-on lesson about plant life cycles, and the parts of a seed. This lesson included students participating in the process of starting seeds. Americorps members pushed into 12 classrooms, teaching a total of 178 K-2 students.

Publications