Progress 06/01/17 to 05/31/18
Outputs
Target Audience:Community members of the Red Lake Reservation (RL), located in Northern Minnesota. The reservation has a total population of 12,000, with approximate 50% being adults, 27% unemployment rate,and 39.5% being at or below poverty level. Diet related disease is epidemic with an excessive level of diabetes and childhood obesity. We have been able to work with 15 potential food producers; over 400 individual gardeners;approximately 25 individuals wanting to learn more about cooking healthy andnutrition; approximately 20 elders per week sampling a healthy food option; approximately 40 individuals attending one of threefinancial skill sessions; collaboration with 3 strong partners to continue our combined efforts of growing healthy, cooking healthy and eating healthy; approximately 80 participants in our Warrior Weight Challenge; and an average of 30 individuals making purchases at our weekly Farmer's Market booth. Changes/Problems:Our ability to provide the amount of cooking classes expected was decreased due to a decrease in funding captured and staffing level. We were able to provide one successful cooking class. Attendance was not has consistent as we had hoped; thus we are changing the curriculum so attendees understand they must attend a minimum of 8 classes in order to complete the various phases of training. SNAP staff ended before the project, so we lost our SNAP partner. However, the SNAP employee is still in the community and is interested in still participating as a community member even though SNAP is not connected with her anymore. Completion of the Foods Assessment is taking longer then expected; again due to limited staff capacity. We addressed this by obtaining a partnership with VISTA to provide one full time staff member that will focus solely on this specific task. Budgeting and Financial Literacy was not as strong as we would have liked it to be; so we are going to strengthen our cooking class curriculum to include a stronger budgeting component for future classes. The incentives worked great; we just need to market them more strongly to help increase the participation level. The food sampling started later than expected; but the participation was great. We plan on incorporating sampling at all our events to encourage tasting as a strong motivator to grow, cook and eat healthy. Ability to maintain and keep current our website and social media has proven difficulty, but we still are very active with it. We now have more staff knowledge and capability to maintain our marketing tools and should see a major improvement in the near future. Regular partner meetings were very difficulty to maintain. All partners as well as ourselves have very busy schedules. However, the partners understand the importance of communication, so we are attempting to utilze technology to help us communicate on a regular basis. All partners wish to continue with our healthy food efforts, and continue to support our efforts with staff, financial contributions and marketing. Partners consist of both local and well as off the reservation. Our database of food producers, participants adn resources is new and still being developed for easy use. With new software being incorporated into our new entity we see ourselves becoming more and more efficient and organized with all the information and data we have collected. This database will be a major asset to our planning and services in the future. Weare lookingforward to implementing our evalution tool. This tool will be used for all our activities not just the foods. BEing able to more formally assess our impact and outcomes will be a major asset to our longevity and sustainability. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We provided: 1. cooking training; which incorporated how to prepare fresh food, nutritional education and traditional food knowledge. 2. food preservation training such as canning and curring. 3. Business education training for future food producers. 4. Agriculture training for those interested in becoming a farmer or rancher. 5. Financial skills training to improve their personal and business cash management, as well as eating on a budget. 6. We created a video to education individuals on the USDA EQIP program. 7. Host an annual Food Summit to bring experts to our local community members to learn about healthy foods and healthy eating, and introduce the concept of traditional and healthy food to our youth as well as adults. 8. We compiled a list of gardners with which we will follow up with them to see what they need assistance with to help make their home grown food more successful. 9. We are developing our website to provide educational pieces, as well as short videos on social media to education, motivate and attract individuals to our services and activities. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?After each event we provide an update on our website, and facebook, and attempt to have an article and pictures publlished in the local paper. We also have some coverage from another local website manager, the Bemidji Pioneer and some coverage from the Lakeland TV.We also provide periodic reports to the Tribal Council and our funders. As for result from data collection; we have not finalized our data yet, but when we do we will take it back to the community with community meetings, as well as the marketing methods listed here. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective 1: established strong relationship with SNAP participatingwith cooking classes,providingnutrition education and healthy cooking tips; nutrition and health benefit information on ingredients used, a recipe and preparation instructions,withbudgeting tips. Taught specific cooking technique, how to prepare unusual food item not typically selected, and a traditionally gathered item. SNAP's partnership also incorporated healthyfood samples throughout the communities with a recipe. a partnership with University of Minnesota Extension Office where a staff member helped with the cooking classes and added another cooking class. used incentives of food baskets and a small freezer as prize opportunities for attendees of cooking classes. Elderly Nutrition Program (ENP) provided their kitchen for our cooking classes and a sampling site during elder's lunch time. cooking classes attracted 30 participants; sampling sites captured approximately 200 individuals. cooking & sampling ingredients incorporatedfresh grown veggies and herbs from our training garden. Objective 2: used First Nations Development Institute's assessment tool; unable to complete internally in a timely manner. Enlisted VISTA; one full time individual for a year, with an option of 3 years if continue future study. gathered new information from community members we come in contact with, and previous studies and surveys conducted. found the community open to healthy food policies;started research on policies other communities have incorporated; captured funding to draft some policy recommendations for Tribal Council. Objective 3: SNAP provided budget training as part of food sessions, attendance minimum of 6. cooking classes on nutrition, health and budgeting; offered weekly, average of 5per class, over a 16 week period. unable to schedule 2 separate cooking classes;invited both youth and adults to class provided. attempted a Youth Cooking Contest at 2017 Food Summit. structured into 2 to 3 teams preparing a meal for attendees;did not capture enough youth;will keep working on this for the future. participants attending 4consecutive classes won $30 veggie voucher; attend8 consecutive classes won small chest freezer. Financial skills classes, with 2 being provided:2-hour Credit Repair class(12 attendees), 2-day Financial Skills for Families (20 attendees). Objective 4: 4 posters printed and distributed throughout 4 reservation communities; promoted healthy eating, healthy food options, traditional food gathering, and the cooking classes. billboardmaterials and design completed, sites selected and approved by realty office, sites marked for utility lines before digging and placement. partnered with Waste Management Department to promote recycling and composting on back side; billboards changed out every 3 to 4 months for healthy food education and promotion. continue to maintain our website and facebook to promotehealthy growing, healthy cooking and healthy eating. partner with local organizations on events and opportunities to showcase and promote healthy options all year; i.e.Health Fair set up Fresh Veggie Sales Booth;Wellness Warriors Challenge with exercising (diabetic clinic & exercise center), healthy food (our food initiative), and health monitoring (comprehensive health). established Farmer's Market sales booth, signage, marketing, pricing and display to sell local fresh grown healthy food;market to local entities that serve food; established strong outlet with a food cooperative in Bemidji, Minnesota. use conventional marketing methods i.e. newspaper articles and fliers. Objective 5: drafted follow up questionnaire forparticipants and local food growers we workedwith; implementation this winter with50 class and cooking participants and 400 gardeners. Objective 6: purchased our point of sale equipment, and set up the vendor license and access. Objective 7: practiced run with Farmer's Market sales booth and marketing methods. Objective 8: SNAP established regular sampling site schedule; very well attended; alsopromoted cooking classes and education sessions Objective 9: website continues to be platform for foods promotion;marketing efforts drive traffic to website. capturedvideographer for content on website and social media options. Objective 10: held focussedmeetings with partners; i.e. monthly meetings with our cooks; local partners;trainers andknowledge carriers. Objective 11: captured list of community members as future food producer. capturedlist of resources and potential trainers to utilize. creating annual list of repeating trainings and conferences for staff. compiled list of 400 gardeners, depicted on a map, collectingcontact info, will gathering survey responses and needs/difficulties with growing food. Objective 12: hired consultant to investigate evaluation tools forbest fit; completed andevaltool purchased. staff training in process;implement by end of 2018. will use this pilot project during training to obtain an assessment of outcomes accomplished.
Publications
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