Performing Department
Human Sciences Administration
Non Technical Summary
Food safety education continues to be a challenge for limited-resource populations. Although Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania are home to over half of the Amish population in the US, state educucational programs are often generic and don't adequately address specific needs of the Amish. A stakeholder roundtable meeting identified the need for GAPs training that is more relevant to farming practices utilized by Plain growers. While many Plain growers have participated in GAPs trainings in the past and are aware of on-farm food safety hazards, it is evident that program content and delivery methods should be modified to better meet the needs of Plain growers. The objectives of this proposals are to: 1) develop GAPs training adressing the unique farming and handling practices and communication requirements of Plain growers, 2) pilot Plain grower GAPs with distinct settlements in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan (tri-state), and 3) share materials with Plain grower populations through North Central Region Center for FSMA Training. Plain grower GAPs training will be culturally adapted, consider sociolinguistic characteristics and consist entirely of practices utilized by Plain growers. The materials will be designed for settings without electricity. User-friendly presentation materials and food safety plan and recordkeeping templates will be developed for Plain growers. The training will be piloted by Plain growers across the tri-state and complement on-going food safety trainings in these states. Completion of this project will allow us to reach a larger number of Plain growers ensuring a greater impact on fresh produce safety in the tri-state region.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Our goal is to address existing gaps in knowledge and resources by providing Plain growers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and surrounding states with training opportunities to improve the safety of fresh produce and meet new fresh produce safety regulations. Our objectives are to 1) develop GAPs trainings that address the unique farming and handling practices and communication requirements of Plain growers in the region and 2) pilot Plain grower GAPs trainings with distinct Plain settlements (orders) in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan, 3) disseminate materials to Michigan and Pennsylvania extension network and other states with Plain grower populations through North Central Region Center for FSMA Training, Extension and Technical Assistance and 4) host a Project Director's Meeting to communicate and network with other regional Project Directors to reduce redundancy across the USDA-NIFA Food Safety Outreach Program.
Project Methods
Safety Alliance standardized grower training for Amish membership, will participate on the advisory board to ensure coordination of the two projects. State Extension Educators will participate in the process and the membership will remain open to other interested stakeholders. We will organize meetings with Plain grower representatives at their convenience at locations in the community, such a produce auctions. We will involve stakeholders in a structured manner and provide structured feedback during all stages of material development. After the content of the program is drafted, we will seek the Advisory Board's final feedback before piloting the program with Plain grower groups. Proposed project activities are described in Table 1.Dr. Tiffany Wild, Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning, College of Education and Human Ecology, Program Area language, Education and Society will serve on the Advisory Board on this project. Dr. Wild's research in education is focused on conceptual understanding of science through inquiry-based education among marginalized populations. Her research in education is qualitative in nature and presents a commitment to access and equity. Dr. Wild will provide advice on the adequacy of the materials to educational efforts on 5th grade reading level and ensuring that the delivery mechanism of the food safety message is effective. The PD of this proposal, Dr. Ilic, has previously successfully collaborated with Dr. Wild on two project involving marginalized populations.Table 1. Proposed project activitiesProject ActivityResponsible Person(s)TimelineHire project coordinator (PC) and set-up Advisory BoardOSU Faculty (Ilic and Ivey)September-October 2017Develop materials for all GAP modulesOSU Faculty (Ilic and Ivey, PC)October 2017-March 2018Design flipchart and notebookOSU Faculty (Ilic and Ivey, PCMarch-June 2018Obtain Advisory Board feedback (flipchart and notebook) Round 1OSU Faculty (Ivey) and PCJuly 2018Revise materials as needed 1OSU Faculty (Ilic and Ivey, PC)July-August 2018Obtain Advisory Board feedback (flipchart and notebook) Round 2OSU Faculty (Ilic) and PCSeptember 2018Revise materials as needed 2OSU Faculty (Ilic and Ivey, PC)October 2018Pilot program (OH, PA, and MI); compile evaluations resultsPC and OSU Faculty (OH, PA Ilic or Ivey; MI Phil Tocco)November 2018- May 2019Final program revisions and refiningOSU Faculty (Ilic and Ivey, PC)April-July 2019Print final materials and disseminate to educatorsPCJuly-August 2019Present program at grower meeting; publish results in grower magazines, newsletters, Journal of Extension and, annual meeting of the Northcentral Region Center for FSMA Training, Extension, and Technical AssistanceOSU Faculty (Ivey and Ilic)July-October 2019Techniques to be employed:Development of Plain Grower Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) content and material designThe Plain grower GAPs training content will be arranged in modules following the existing OSU GAPs training modules: i) introduction, ii) water quality and management, iii) soil amendments, iv) worker health, hygiene and training, v) wildlife, domestic, and working animal management, and vi) equipment sanitation and environmental control. They will achieve common GAPs training learning objectives and critical concepts (Table 2).In order to develop complete and culturally adequate content for Plain Grower GAPs training, we will construct a comprehensive list of Plain grower fresh produce production practices. This will be conducted during the first meeting with the Plain growers and the rest of the Advisory Board. The advisory board will be recruited from the stakeholders that are currently members of the OSU Stakeholder Roundtable group (Plain growers and their leaders, produce auction and cooperative managers, and board members), the representatives of MSUE and Penn State Extension, and the OSUE educators. In addition to content suggestions relevant to farming practices, the Advisory Board will provide feedback about the design of the material including flipchart size, images, flow charts and other details. Based on the complete identified list of practices and our extensive experience working with Plain growers, the team will produce the first draft of the GAPs program content. In addition to the new content and materials, existing appropriate hands on demonstrations of handwashing, sanitation and water sampling will be integrated into the new program. We will ensure that the content is consistent with FSMA requirements.After the content of the modules is drafted, feedback from the Advisory Board and Plain growers will be sought before moving on to the next stage of the project. We anticipate that two rounds of feedback will be required to finalize the content. Once the content is finalized, poster size flip charts will be prepared. The pages will be 46 x 36 in., an adequate size for viewing by large audiences (75-100 growers) and will meet the sociolinguistic needs of Plain growers (i.e. grade 5 level, simple words, and instructional diagrams). Flipcharts will be printed on light weight durable paper with spiral binding. Each flipchart will have a self-folding base. Upon completion of the pilot program (see below), six final flipchart sets will be printed for dissemination to Fruits and Vegetable Safety Team members for piloting in Ohio, and the collaborators in Michigan and Pennsylvania. The content will also be printed as an 8.5 X 11 in. notebook to be provided to workshop participants. These notebooks will replace the PowerPoint handouts that are currently given to Plain growers at GAPs trainings and will contain working pages with templates for basic standard operating procedures and record keeping sheets specific to Plain grower needs.Pilot Plain Grower GAPs program: We will pilot the newly developed materials to ensure they are effective, and to make necessary adjustments before it is distributed to educators and offered widely in the Region. The program will be piloted by 15-20 Plain growers from settlements in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan. The new materials will be incorporated into the current GAPs curriculum, replacing the PowerPoint presentation. The training will be delivered by a facilitator in the presence of an observer. At the end of each pilot training a modified focus group will be held to evaluate content and method of delivery. Each focus group will be led by a community leader and responses will be recorded manually by an independent facilitator. Please see the evaluation plan described below.Disseminate Plain Grower GAPs: We will communicate project progress to NCR using the monthly web conference meeting. During these meetings, we will seek feedback from state leaders. Upon completion of the pilot we will disseminate final materials to the NCR and post them in shared Box folders owned by the center. Printed materials (2 sets) will be distributed to MSU and Penn State Extension for use in their training sessions for Plain Growers.Project Director's Meeting: We will host a Project Director's Meeting to communicate and network with other regional Project Directors to reduce redundancy in food safety of fresh produce programs and resources across the region. We anticipate 75-100 attendees and the meeting will be hosted within our region, or at The Ohio State University.