Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Hawaii Institute of Pacific Agriculture's Seed to Service: A Problem-solving Approach Towards A Sustainable Local Food System project is an innovative agricultural program designed to provide students with a "full spectrum" Hawaii-centric food-system-based education highlighting the cultivation, meal preparation, and sale and distribution of locally grown produce to inspire new generations of farmers and producers while strengthening local food systems.Hawaii's farmers' average age range is 45-60, with few new farmers entering the workforce due to a low-profit mythos, lack of Hawaii-centric technical knowledge, and lack of agriculture-based educational resources. To combat this issue, HIP Ag will collaborate with the Center for Getting Things Started to pilot an agriculture-based curriculum at Kohala High School (KHS).Leveraging the existing Agriculture Food Systems Natural Resources (AFNR) classes at KHS, HIP educators will instruct students in the garden and classroom. Through this instruction, AFNR students will cultivate produce to supply the KHS extra-curricular Future Farmers of America (FFA) Club, wherein participating students will receive culinary instructions at the campus-certified kitchen. The meals produced will demonstrate the possibilities for healthier dietary cafeteria meal options. Students and families will be invited to pick up packaged Seed to Service meals via an annual meal drive-thru.HIP Ag will utilize several methods to produce data, determine final results, and inform our target audience. These methods include survey data on best practice adoption, teacher workshop pre-and post-surveys, participant surveys, student participants' products, observations, and focus groups. The qualitative and quantitative results collected will be merged to determine where they converge and diverge, providing greater insight into the sustainability of the farm-to-school movement in Hawai'i. The HIP Ag team has chosen this approach based on past experience conducting similar programs at KHS. Through these experiences, HIP educators have established a baseline for best practices and will continue to build program standards for Seed to Service upon this foundation. ?
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
15%
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
85%
Goals / Objectives
The Seed to Service project was developed to meet three key goals:To trial and collect data on the feasibility of newly developed USDA-approved farm-to-school menu items to be shared and available state-wide.To build and increase interest and value for farm-to-school programs in Hawaii.To Increase AFNR agriculture-based education interest and career-connected pathways for Hawaii students.These overarching goals provide the framework and guidelines for Seed to Service's success while advancing HIP Ag's mission to practice and teach regenerative agriculture through Farm-to-School ED, farmer training, and ecosystem conservation. The project comprises three components that prioritize these goals.Food Cultivation- The goal of this component is to increase the number of young agriculturalists joining the local workforce. This component advances institutional goals by promoting career-connected learning and creating direct career pathways for students while promoting responsible land stewardship.Culinary; Meal Preparation - The goal of this component is to create easily prepared and accessible recipes to be adopted by HIDOE for regular use beyond the initial project duration. The meal prep component advances institutional goals by expanding the current agricultural curricula to include crucial and less-taught aspects of the Ag industry, including value chain-based education.Distribution - This component is the cornerstone of the Seed to Service as it provides students with knowledge and skill sets pertaining to the sale and marketing of goods, a sense of achievement and completion for their efforts, and contributes to a healthier student body and community. The community-wide inclusion of this component advances our goal of increasing interest and value for farm-to-school programs in Hawaii by demonstrating how agricultural-based education can benefit communities outside of school-based programs.Objectives:100% of students who participate in the food cultivation component of the Seed to Service program will receive the skills and knowledge necessary to start and maintain a home garden.100% of students participating in the culinary component will acquire food safety certification.A total of 2 recipes will be trialed throughout the duration of the Seed to Service program to determine a finalized HIDOE menu.300 meals will be served to students or community members each year during the two-year program.100% of students participating in the distribution component of Seed to Service will acquire the skills necessary to package, sell, and distribute food products on a large scale.
Project Methods
Methodology:Reflecting the mapping of the institutional goals, each key component in program operation will be supported by a core team member.Food Cultivation - Dash Kuhr, HIP Ag's Co-Director who leads youth farm education, will work with the KHS AFNR teacher and students in the KHS gardens to grow and harvest the produce while acting as a liaison with other local farmers to grow the volume needed to meet the needs. Mr. Kuhr will source seeds and materials for gardening and take responsibility for a successful crop harvest. With the students, he will calculate the approximate area and plant starts needed to grow more than needed for the 300 servings recipe, document the total harvest and any other specifics of what it takes to grow kabocha/bok choy and to meet the needs of the cafeteria recipes. This data will be used in the toolkit resource. Students will be guided to 1--set goals for crop production 2. Implement a plan for sustained inquiry through a range of sources. 3. As a class, suggest a strategy to add to the island's sustainability through the growth of this crop in food systems and agriculture. The Kabocha crop will be planted in September and harvested the following March. Bok choy gets planted in March and harvested in April before and during the meal distribution event.Culinary - Erika Kuhr, PD, is also the team's culinary expert. Along with her PD duties, she will also work after school hours with the FFA club students in the KHS-certified kitchen, guiding and supporting the processing and cooking of recipe trials for the Seed to Service meal. This will be held during the first semester of each school year. She will either purchase or source all cooking and packaging supplies needed for the project while also using HIP Ag's existing resources of commercial stainless steel food pans, cambros for storage/prep, and a Vitamix blender. If there is not enough money to buy all the supplies needed for prepping and cooking, we will borrow the culinary department kitchen supplies for after-school prep. Supplies will be labeled and stored in the certified kitchen. FFA students will take an online food handlers certificate course before starting recipe trials early at the start of the school year. The Seed to Service meal will be cooked the same day and served within the food safety window of four hours. All vegetables, meat, and spices will be measured and prepped the day prior to cooking.Meal Distribution - Dash and Erika Kuhr will work with the FFA students during the drive-through meal distribution events. Traffic control will be supported by non-profit staff from Partners in Development and KHS staff. The meal pick-up window will be within two hours to ensure all food is distributed within food safety standards. All three Kohala complex principals will be briefed on this event well in advance so they can promote the event school-wide through the monthly newsletters and parent apps used for communications. The 300 meals will be given out on a first-come, first-serve basis, with each family having a maximum of four servings. The drive-through will occur from the certified kitchen near natural resources buildings. There is an easy car route with a one-way in and out for traffic control that passes the kitchen. Food will be kept hot and served on demand. Core Team and KHS Principal feedback determine the finalized distribution plan for the best possible outcome. The eligibility requirements to receive a meal are 1. To be a Kohala complex student or to caretake a student. 2. Complete a sign-in sheet stating their name, number of meals received, and email address/phone number to receive a follow-up feedback survey. The Likeliness of responses is 50% of requests.Data Collection & Management:Data will be collected from the three key activities of Food production, Culinary, and meal distribution. All data will be kept in a Google folder shared with all Core team members for oversight and review. The data to be collected is as followsFood Production- Dashiell will collect data with students during class on the amount of garden space used, the number of plant starts, the amount of time needed to grow each crop, the number of inputs, and the total harvest by weight and pieces.Culinary- Erika will involve students in determining the ingredient quantity needed to increase recipes to 300 servings. Cost analysis will be conducted for the trial and 300-serving recipes. Inputs of time and labor will also be recorded, noting that it was conducted by students and not skilled food service professionals. Recipe data on quantity, time/labor, and cost will be shared via the toolkit.Meal Distribution - Data to be collected by FFA students led by Erika will be the number of meals given out and the qualitative likeability of the meals. The qualitative data will be collected from people who received the meal via a survey shared via email and phone text. Some people in Kohala do not use email, so it is important to have an option via smartphone text so that all will receive and fill out the post-survey.Evaluation:Center for Getting Things Started (C4GTS) will conduct process and outcome evaluations. The purpose of process evaluation is to monitor the implementation of activities for fidelity to the plan while suggesting opportunities for improvement. Project tracking and survey data will be used for this purpose, and the results will be presented twice annually to the Core Team and partners. The purpose of outcome evaluation is to determine the merit of the program based on its results and whether the intended outcomes were achieved. The outcome evaluation will utilize a convergent mixed methods design that targets the following questions:How is adopting project- and problem-solving-based learning related to the intended outcomes?How is the acquisition of new knowledge related to the intended outcomes?How have the project activities affected participants and their relationship with food systems in Hawai'i?What is the value of this project in building a sustainable farm-to-school system in Hawai'i?Data for the outcome evaluation will be gathered from all consenting participants. They will include survey data on best practice adoption, teacher workshop pre-and post-surveys, participant surveys, student participants' products, observations, and focus groups. After data collection and analysis, the qualitative and quantitative results will be merged to determine where they converge and diverge, providing greater insight into the sustainability of the farm-to-school movement in Hawai'i than would be possible using qualitative or quantitative data only. The outcome evaluation will be conducted during the final quarter of the program, and results will be delivered to HIP Ag, community members, the USDA, and the HIDOE for reporting purposes.