Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Jones Valley Teaching Farm (JVTF), a 510c3 nonprofit organization, requests a two-year,$225,000 Food and Agriculture Service Learning Program (FASLP) grant to support theexpansion of its Good School Food (GSF) education and apprenticeship model, a hands-on foodeducation model that connects students to food, farming, and the culinary arts throughstandards-based, cross-curricular lessons. The Good School Food expansion project will doubleour capacity to host students at the Center, increase connections between local producers andlocal school districts, and increase career exploration opportunities, while creating a pipeline ofstudents interested in agricultural and food-based careers. Specifically, the project aligns withFASLPS's priority of increasing knowledge of agriculture and improving the nutritional health ofchildren by 1) increasing agricultural knowledge and improving the nutritional health of pre-K to12th grade students who attend Birmingham City Schools and schools in the Birmingham region;and 2) creating value for the local food system by hosting training and expo events targeted toCNP staff within Jefferson County and local producers (building upon efforts established underprior Farm to School grant programs. The Good School Food Expansion Project is a deeplycollaborative initiative involving a diverse coalition of local and statewide organizations,including Birmingham City Schools, the City of Birmingham, Alabama Department of Agricultureand Industries / Sweet Grown Alabama, Alabama County Extension Services, and additionalstakeholders representative of the agriculture and education industries.
Animal Health Component
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Research Effort Categories
Basic
100%
Applied
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Developmental
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Goals / Objectives
Over a two-year period, the project will achieve the following goals and outcomes:Goal 1: To increase agricultural knowledge and improve the nutritional health of pre-K to 12th grade students who attend Birmingham City Schools and schools in the Birmingham region.Goal 2: To create value for the local food system by hosting training and expo eventstargeted to CNP staff within Jefferson County and local producers (building upon effortsestablished under prior Farm to School grant programs).Overall goals for the project that aligns with the FASLP Goals include: increasingcapacity for food, garden,and nutrition education within hostorganizations or entities andschool cafeterias and in theclassroom; complementing and building on the efforts of the farm-to-school programs implemented under section 18(g) of the Richard B.Russell National School Lunch Act; carryingout activities that advance the nutritional health of children and nutrition education in elementary and secondary schools;fostering higher levels of community engagement and support the expansion of national service and volunteer opportunities; andfocusing on the development of leadership skills, knowledge, and qualities necessary to prepare students for food and agricultural and related careers in the private sector, government, and academia.
Project Methods
JVTF will hire two additional Instructors to facilitate the GSF curriculum serving 2,000 additional K-12 students per year at the Center for Food Education. As a 2018 Farm to School grantee, JVTF will build on the partnership efforts with BCS to increase procurement from local producers, increase students' access to fresh produce, and improve school meals' nutritional value. JVTF will host an annual producer expos and culinary trainings for CNP staff.JVTF is partnering with a myriad of community partners including schools, local municipalities, a state agency, county extension offices, school districts, institutions of higher education, community-based organizations, and local residents. As an extension of its current apprenticeship program for BCS graduates, JVTF will partner with ACES to increase exposure to career opportunities, provide shadowing opportunities, and create a pipeline of students interested in agricultural careers and higher-education pathways.The Good School Food Expansion Project is a deeply collaborative initiative involving a diversecoalition of local and statewide organizations. Their involvement in project planning included theprovision of needs assessment data to inform approaches, inclusion in grant planning discussionsand meetings, stakeholder feedback from current and past educational programming, andongoing open communication between established partners.JVTF serves nearly 5,000 Birmingham studentsannually; harvests 19,000 pounds of fresh produce and grows 16,000 seedlings annually for freedistribution through our partners and farm stands. JVTF manages seven school and community-basedteaching and production farms, including a two-acre Teaching Farm at Woodlawn High School(WHS) and our three-acre downtown Teaching Farm where we have opened our new 12,483square-foot Center for Food Education. JVTFcreates agriculture and culinary-related career andhigh-education pathways by providing paid on-the-job training and support services toBirmingham high school interns who work on the WHS Teaching Farm and high schoolgraduates via our one-year full-time apprenticeship. JVTF is a past Farm to School grantee and acurrent Urban Agriculture and Innovation Production grantee (both awarded by USDA).The primary activities to be facilitated to achieve the project's goals and outcomes aresummarized below.1. Hiring two full-time instructors - JVTF will hire two (2) additional JVTF Instructorswhose primary responsibilities will be facilitating the Good School Food curriculum atthe Center. This addition will expand organizational capacity to meet demand from thelocal school district that currently exceeds capacity. An estimated 2,000 additionalstudents will be served annually based on adding four (4) field trips over two (2) days perweek with a maximum of 60 students per group.2. Expanding educational field trips - JVTF will host 2,000 additional field trips annuallyfor Birmingham students. Lasting approximately 2.5 hours, the visits offer food-basedcross-curricular and experiential learning opportunities that connect state standards withfarming, soil conservation, environmental science and stewardship, and culinary arts.3. Career Preparedness through food system exploration - As an expansion of ourcurrent internship and apprenticeship programs, JVTF will extend career explorationopportunities to focus on the local and regional food value chain. In collaboration withACES, JVTF will introduce BCS high school students and graduates to careeropportunities in the agricultural/food value chain sector. Students will participate inmonthly half-day experiences that expose them to professional opportunities andcorresponding pathways. This focused effort will include job shadowing and will furtherbuild the food system talent pipeline of students.4. Coordinating and promoting producer events - JVTF will collaborate with the State tocoordinate an annual expo that connects local producers with local school districts with afocus on engaging CNP staff who manage nutrition and menus within each school. TheCenter for Food Education will serve as the host site for the event.5. Training for CNP Managers/School Cafeteria Workers - JVTF will facilitate culinarytraining targeted to school food professionals with a focus on modules that cover the seed-to-tablepath of food production and methods to get students excited about trying newfoods and increasing their consumption of fresh produce.6. Evaluation - In coordination with an independent consultant, JVTF will evaluate theproject via a mixed method culturally responsive equitable evaluation framework thatassesses the accomplishment of project goals and objectives.Demonstrating the positive impact of JVTF's work is a high priority. Subsequently, staffhas developed an evaluation-centered culture that integrates performance measurement andoutcomes assessment into all activities. JVTF will coordinate efforts with the local projectevaluator, Dr. Christson Adedoyin, an Independent Evaluator who manages a minority-ownedsmall business evaluation firm in Birmingham, Alabama. He has over 15 years of experience as aprogram evaluator on Federal, State, and international program evaluation projects totaling atleast 11 million dollars. He is also a tenured Professor in the Department of Social Work atSamford University's School of Public Health. Dr. Adedoyin will lead project evaluation effortsand coordinate efforts to assess progress toward the accomplishment of project goals andobjectives.The uniquely racially diverse urban communities and underserved (African Americansand other minority groups) that JVTF serves are decisive in the selection of the evaluationparadigm that will be utilized. In addition, the evaluation approach we have selected for theexpansion of the Good School Food (GSF) education and apprenticeship model proposalrecognizes, underscores, and reaffirms the commitment of NIFA to advancing diversity, equity,inclusion and accessibility (DEIA). Accordingly, the culturally responsive equitable evaluation(CREE) framework will be deployed by JVTF for the GSF education and apprenticeship model.The CREE paradigm is an evaluation approach that considers the factors of culture, diversity,equity, context, socioeconomics, history, gender, social justice, structural issues, ethnolinguistics,and inter-sectional considerations in the overall design and implementation of a program'sevaluation spectrum (Mathematica 2021, Hood, Hopson, & Kirkhart, 2015). More specifically,CREE is a participatory evaluation design approach that ensures that the beneficiaries of aproposed program (like the GSF education and apprenticeship model) have a substantialcontribution to the different phases of a program. These stages include but are not limited to program strategy, program development, program improvement, theory of change, programdecision-making, program implementation, policy formation, and overall program sustainability.Hood, Hopson & Kirkhart (2015) recommend nine stages of a program evaluation and howCREE can be incorporated into each of the stages as depicted in our application'sFigure 1. The inquiries andactivities that operationalize CREE will be carried out in each of the nine stages of CREEprogram evaluation paradigm that will be integrated into the GSF education and apprenticeshipmodel proposal. It is our expectation that this CREE approach will make the overall programevaluation plan culturally sensitive, responsive, and social justice driven, while providingobjective measures of the program's processes, outcomes, and impacts.?