Recipient Organization
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY
5500 UNIVERSITY PKY.
SAN BERNADINO,CA 92407
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Sustainable solutions are critical to address food, nutrition and agriculture (FNA) challenges, and sustainable food systems (SFSs)are necessary to achieve food security and optimal nutrition that are economical and take into account social inequalities and environmental degradation. The overarching mission of this Capacity Building for Sustainable Food Systems (CBSFS) project at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) is to build capacity in sustainable food systems among diverse professionals reflective of the community in California's Riverside and San Bernardino counties, the "Inland Empire." The project has integrated four educational need area strategies to identify three coordinated capacity building goals in FNA education. To achieve a comprehensive approach, the project incorporates faculty capacity building in SFSs, fosters community with and capacity among FNA professionals in our geographic area, and trains the next generation of FNA professionals, including curriculum design for the creation of a new Undergraduate Minor in Sustainable Food Systems and 4 new courses. To most effectively support students from URM groups, the project focuses on recruitment and retention efforts, and emphasizes a requirement for experiential learning into the curriculum. During the grant period, a total of 20 faculty "mini-grants" will be awarded for faculty research and outreach proposals to engage regional resources and experts; at least 40 students will enroll in the SFSs minor and complete experiential learning; 9 students will receive fundings for research or conference attendance; and at least 2 students will be hired to contribute to the program implementation activities. The project design explicitly integrates efforts for cost effectiveness and impact amplification. Culturally responsive evaluation methods, including a project impact pathway (PIP) analysis, will be conducted to determine the effectiveness of the project over the duration of the grant.
Animal Health Component
45%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
45%
Applied
45%
Developmental
10%
Goals / Objectives
Goal 1: Foster capacity and community among CSUSB faculty, students and local (FNA) professionals. Objectives: 1.1. Each year of the grant, competitively award professional development "mini grants" to CSUSB faculty to 1) build community partnerships related to food systems or 2) conduct food systems research that engages students and/or benefits the community. 1.2. By September 2025, initiate an interdisciplinary SFS webinar series presented monthly during the academic year. 1.3. By September 2025, produce and distribute a CSUSB FNA quarterly newsletter with events and news. 1.4. Biannually during the grant period, update the project's advisory board and solicit feedback.Goal 2: Develop an undergraduate minor in Sustainable Food Systems, emphasizing experiential learning for post-graduation job placement. Objectives: Upon completion of the SFS minor: 2.1. students will demonstrate working knowledge of FNA and SFS topics through completion of didactic coursework with at least a "C." 2.2. 100% of students will have participated in relevant experiential learning; 2.3. 100% of students will have a higher self-assessment score of their employability in the FNA sector than their pre-program self-assessment score; 2.4. 80% of students will report high confidence in pursuing a FNA graduate program or career.Goal 3: Recruit and support individuals from diverse backgrounds into the SFSs minor program. Objectives: 3.1. Promote the SFS minor through four main methods that include students from underserved, and/or underrepresented backgrounds: 1) targeted courses, 2) campus events and organizations, 3) student advisors, and 4) campus listserves. 3.2.1 By August 2025, at least 10 undergraduate students will enroll in the SFS minor. 3.2.2. Each August of following grant years, a cohort of at least 15 undergraduate students will designate the SFS minor. 3.3. Once established, every student enrolled in the minor will be contacted by the minor advisor for program support. 3.4. Starting in year 2 of the project, 3 students per year (9 total) will receive funding for FNA research activities or conference attendance. 3.5. Each year of the grant, 1-2 student assistants will be employed to contribute to and help coordinate project activities.
Project Methods
During the first year of the grant period, a "SFSs mini-grant" competition will be established to provide CSUSB faculty with professional development funds to support: 1) establishing community partnerships around SFSs, or 2) SFSs research or other creative activities that involve students and/or benefit the community. Supporting faculty professional development in SFSs will build communities of practice in FNA, and directly support the development of the minor in SFSs. Mini-grant awards will allow faculty to directly engage students in research and community engagement, and to build skills, knowledge, and experience in FNA and SFSs that can be applied and incorporated into their classes. Faculty who accept the professional development funds will participate in building communities of practice, including by presenting in a webinar series for the local FNA community. Communities of practice mutually benefit both faculty and community partners, and establish opportunities for student experiential learning. The PI and Co-PI (Drs Harding and Tolar-Peterson) will lead the professional development mini-grant competition, including to develop the call for proposals, advertise the opportunity, review applicants, coordinate distribution of funds, and ensure awardees satisfy the funding conditions, including submission of final reports and presentation of activities as part of the SFS webinar series. The PI and Co-PI will be supported by the project's DEI Advisor (Dr. Verissimo) and the project Advisory Board will provide input. To support, expand, and connect more strongly the local community of FNA professionals, a monthly webinar series will present on topics in SFS. Faculty funded through mini-grants will be required to create presentations for the webinar, an integral curriculum component for students pursuing the SFS minor. Therefore, these webinars serve not only as a resource for local FNA professionals, but also bring together faculty, students, and local professionals for networking and community building. Furthermore, this activity will further increase CSUSB's visibility in the FNA community and solicit partners for experiential learning opportunities for our SFSs minor. The SFS undergraduate minor will be developed in Year 1, offered starting in Year 2. The SFS minor will be a new option for undergraduates at California State University, San Bernardino, the only public, 4-year university in San Bernardino County, a rapidly growing region of inland Southern California encompassing over 20,000 square miles and home to 2.19 million people.The SFS minor will be promoted campus-wide, and externally at local high schools and community colleges. However, we anticipate that the majority of interested students will come from the following four majors: Nutrition Science and Dietetics, Public Health, Biology and Geology. Each of these programs' course catalogues have existing courses relevant to SFSs that will serve as elective options for the minor, allowing flexibility in order to accommodate a range of disciplines and programs.The SFS minor curriculum has been designed around the three principal student learning outcomes which emphasize community and experiential learning. There will be a SFS Seminar designed to build community of practice among students, faculty, and local FNA professionals. This seminar will include the SFS webinar to engage with faculty and local professionals, scholarly skill-building activities, and discussion and presentation of SFSs topics to engage with faculty and the broader scholarly community. By engaging students in the local community and with current topics of SFSs, they will be better connected and prepared for both their experiential learning as part of the minor curriculum and securing a job in the FNA field post-graduation. Additionally, the two consecutive semesters of experiential learning are designed to provide students with training and capacity building to facilitate their success in FNA careers. To better support our first-generation students, the first semester of experiential learning will involve 2 hours of in-class time and 7 hours at on-campus placements per week. The class time will be used to support students to learn about FNA career paths and build their professional skills. The on-campus placement (e.g., food pantry or campus gardens) is designed to ease students into a professional internship setting, allowing them to develop their knowledge, skills, professionalism, and confidence. The subsequent semester, students will be in off-campus experiential learning placements with 1 hour in-class time and 14 hours at their off-campus placement per week.In order to engage CSUSB students as future FNA professionals, the project will implement the recruitment, retention, and support activities. During each academic year of the grant, the SFS minor will be promoted through four different avenues on and off campus, all of which include students from underserved, and/or underrepresented backgrounds: 1) targeted courses, 2) campus events & organizations, 3) student advisors, and 4) campus listservs.Evaluation Project evaluation will address three questions using a mixed-methods approach in which qualitative and quantitative data are triangulated for both process and impact evaluation and continuous quality improvement. Overarching Evaluation Questions: 1. How successful is the project? 2. What specific components of the project are effective in building capacity in sustainable food systems among diverse professionals reflective of the community in California's Riverside and San Bernardino counties? 3. What areas of improvement in the products being delivered are necessary?Process evaluation will determine "how well the project is working," the extent to which the project is being implemented as designed, and whether the project is accessible and acceptable to its target population. This will identify problems in the early stages and monitor the overall project. Process measures will address not only the effectiveness of products, but also whether they have additional benefits for participants. Questions for process evaluation will address: Who was served by the project and How was the project implemented.The evaluator understands the importance of incorporating cultural awareness and responsiveness in the evaluation process. Cultural Responsiveness extends beyond the race and ethnicity of participants and includes their shared experiences, such as demographics, behaviors, geographical location, and unique needs. Taking these factors into consideration ensures the evaluation tools and procedures are appropriate, equitable, and respectful of all participants. A mixed-methods approach will evaluate the project processes and activities, examine impacts of the five projects, and include a Project Impact Pathway (PIP) analysis. Quantitative data from the collection tools will provide basic descriptive statistics to characterize the sample. Non-numeric data from focus groups and interviews will be useful in exploring themes and social interactions, and also supplement quantitative data by giving voice to participants' knowledge, expertise, and experiences. Quality improvement will be ongoing based on formative evaluation to regularly assess project implementation, fidelity, and performance shared with the project team. The evaluator will attend all project management meetings to collect information. At each checkpoint, a review of the original project design will also evaluate its progress against original milestones to determine if adjustments are needed in project activities and that delivery of the intervention adheres to the protocol and activities originally developed.Evaluator questions to be directed toward an assessment of the degree outcomes have been attained over the entire project, with emphasis on the projected time-frame of impact.