Progress 09/15/24 to 06/25/25

Outputs
Target Audience:The inaugural conference had 150 in attendance with opportunities to network and develop impactful partnerships around workforce development and nutrition security. The EFNEP and SNAP-Ed programs in Arizona have a combined full-time employee (FTE) of 100. Additional scholarships are written in the proposal to support 50 students from The Norton School of Human Ecology and the School of Nutritional Sciences and Wellness to attend the conference. Total students who did attend the conference after recruitment were 21 students, primarily from the two schools listed above. Statewide partners, including representatives from the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS), various non-profits working in food systems around the state, UA Cooperative Extension Administration, faculty from the University of Arizona, a student from Arizona State University who is an intern with ADHS, and colleagues from other land-grant universities who were invited speakers made up the rest of the 29 attendees who completed the 150 total attendance. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Ongoing training from the conference is planned through the Food Systems CoP and in-person across the state. Development of the statewide podcast and the Master Food Pantry Volunteer/Food Pantry Champions program are directly resulting from the conference. Advisory boards are starting in counties through collaborative efforts between SNAP-Ed and EFNEP. The newly published textthat was provided at the conference, Extension and the Social Sciences: Uplifting Children, Youth, Families, and Communities has sparked the idea of reading groups in and among the counties to go over the chapters not only in the conference provided text, but to seek out other books and literature to inform practice. Focus groups with supervisors and educators were held in late April 2026, along with a statewide survey of frontline community nutrition education workforce, and the results compiled into a report that was completed in June 2026. These focus groups and the survey built from the conference evaluation to discern competencies needed in onboarding and ongoing professional development of a strong workforce. This report will be the foundation of a new onboarding and training program to support the continued growth and efficacy of UA Cooperative Extension's Community Nutrition Education Program's workforce and comes at a time when, due to funding uncertainty will heighten the likelihood that turnover will necessitate an emphasis on onboarding to provide continuity of programming in communities across the nation. While funding mechanisms change, the mandate to serve local community's needs for nutrition security and building food accessibility as Cooperative Extension will remain. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The Food Systems CoP has videos of the conference sessions so that partners and educators can review the content at their leisure or as needed. The University of Minnesota has expressed interest in using the session on Extension history as part of their onboarding. The report from the focus groups and survey will be provided to Extension Administration and dissiminated within the program and among other institutions as opportunities arise. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The 2-day Inaugural Community Nutrition Education Conference was held on November 18th and 19th, 2024, at the Tucson Marriott at University Park. A community of practice (CoP) was launched on Facebook at the end of the conference that focuses on building sustainable food systems. The CoP will be utilized by Extension, SNAP-Ed and EFNEP to build capacity, collaborate, provide live trainings, webinars, podcasts, and funding opportunities to support the goal of building a vibrant food system across the state. The CoP is located athttps://www.facebook.com/groups/558725229867629 and is a private group with 39 members. Those wishing to join just request access and the page administrator provides access. The CoP is a work in progress for the program, but it is hoped that moving forward it will prove to be a valuable resource for programming in community nutrition education across the state. The program has also used other funding to provide podcast equipment to all the county offices to launch a statewide podcast on food security and collaboration with local community members. The podcast equipment was distributed at the conference. The training for the podcast will occurred in May2025 and recording is beginning in July 2025. The podcast is going to be particularly useful in democratizing access to the program, its educators, and content, especially in the more frontier and wilderness areas of the state where radio and podcasting is a primary means of communication due to geography and transportation limitations. Preliminary data from the conference evaluation survey provides a favorable response to the event with 97% of attendees responding that they strongly agree or agree that the conference was worth their time. 83% of the attendees responded that they strongly agree or agree that they learned something that they would use in their work. 94% of students surveyed reported that the conference content was relevant to their area of study. 94% of respondents reported that they met new people at the conference and 80% reported having developed new partnerships. Before the conference, 55% of respondents new some or nothing of Extension's history with an additional 45% reporting that they knew a little bit about Extension's history. Additionally, before the conference 41% reported knowing some or nothing of Extension's purpose and an additional 48% reported knowing a little bit about Extension's purpose. After the conference understanding of Extension's history increased to 68% of respondents reporting that they now know a lot about Extension's history with an additional 30% reporting that they know some. After the conference understanding of Extension's purpose increased with 73% understanding a lot about Extension's purpose and an additional 25% reporting that they understand some of Extension's purpose. Attendees were asked how they would like to receive future trainings, what sessions and topics were most impactful, and how they plan to implement their learning in their work. As an outcome to the conference, advisory groups that are coordinated by both SNAP-Ed and EFNEP are being created in the counties to provide more community voice and collaborative efforts between the programming and the community. The first advisory board meeting is scheduled for January 8th, 2025 in Graham County. The University of Arizona Cooperative Extension applied with Utah State University and New Mexico State University and received recognition as one of the new nine National Nutrition Hubs through USDA. From this work Master Food Pantry Volunteer Program/Food Pantry Champions will be developed. There was great interest in this program at the conference session about the Helping Hands Food Pantry Volunteer training curriculum developed by Tennessee State University. Focus groups were held based on the responses from the conference and to determine competencies needed for onboarding the frontline community nutrition education workforce. The outcomes of these focus groups and a survey that went out to all program educators, staff, and supervisors, was compiled and completed in June 2026. All of these preliminary outcomes are positive steps to train, develop, and unite a community nutrition education frontline workforce to align themselves with the community to co-collaborate plans and steps to create vibrant food systems and address food security across the state of Arizona.

Publications