Progress 09/01/18 to 08/31/19
Outputs
Target Audience: The Nutrition and Food Securityprogramof the International Rescue Committee in Tucsonprimarily serves refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC), Burundi, Cambodia, and Syria. 100% of these refugees have previously practiced farming or growing their own food in their home countries. The clients served havea high occurrence of pre-literacy as well as pre or limited numeracy skills, and verylimited English. A significant subset of our audience has little to no experience in formal education which makes the format of many existing farmer food safety trainings inappropriate and less effective for this group. All of theexisting farming participants who received the training are from the DRC or Burundi. Out of 8 active farmers, 7 of them are women. Most of these women do not have day-time jobs due to their role as caretakers and yearn to contribute income and resources for their familiesthrough their farming and marketing practices. Changes/Problems:A major change was the adaptation of scheduling for training and focus groups. Initially, it was planned to have bi-weekly trainings hosted Thursday mornings, and focus groups scheduled at the same window of time. Due to changing work schedules and family responsibilities, there was at first inconsistent attendance. Staff began calling clients on a weekly basis to develop the training and focus group scheduling on a more flexible basis for the clients. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The educational OFRR (On Farm Readiness Review) conducted by Pima County Cooperative Extension and the Arizona Department of Agriculture, led by four AZDA Food Safety Educators, gave clients real-life and practical experience in site management, leadership, and food safety planning. The farmers lead the educators on a tour of the farm that included a demonstration of the newly built wash station. The feedback from the AZDA was overwhelming that the farmers in attendance had a strong and thorough command of FSMA guidelines and food safety practices. They were highly impressed that, due to the size of the farm, the farmers were technically exempt from the rule that they were knowledgeable and chose to follow the guidelines despite their exemption. The positive feedback from the AZDA staff indicates the professional growth and development of the farmers, who a year prior, had not independently led a farm tour nor developed a food safety plan of the site. In addition, two IRC staff participated in a Produce Safety Alliance Training on April 10, 2019. The New Roots Education and Outreach Specialist and the Garden Specialist both obtained Produce Safety Alliance Grower Training certificates. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results and curriculum of the IRC's FSOP has been shared to the refugee farming community of Tucson through garden and farm meetings that are mandatory for growers to attend once a season. In addition, the curriculum and results of the year-long Food Safety Outreach Project were shared with IRC partners, including Literacy Connects, the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, and The Tucson City of Gastronomy Board of Directors. Literacy Connects is a non-profit organization dedicated to education of under-served populations in Tucson, and have collaborated with the IRC for two years to develop the Literacy Garden on their property. The Literacy Garden is the center of the Amphi Neighborhood, which is currently being led by residents to revitalize the neighborhood. The Community Food Bank of Arizona is a large organization in Tucson that delivers emergency food services as well as community-led training opportunities. The Food Bank owns Las Milpitas de Cottonwood Farm, which serves as the farm site for several of IRC's refugee farmers. Las Milpitas is also the site for beginning farmer trainings open to the community at large. The Tucson City of Gastronomy Board of Directors is comprised of food leaders in various sectors of Tucson, including food distributors, food justice educators, and farmers. The Board leads city initiatives to bring together collaborators in the food system of Tucson that have greatly expanded since the city was designated the first U.S. City of Gastronomy as determined by United Nations Education, Science, and Culture Organization (UNESCO) in 2015. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Accomplished goals take the form of a five module, culturally appropriate, instructional series on food safety for farmers developed by IRC staff taking into consideration literacy, numeracy, and language barriers which include on-farm education, hands-on learning, and activities to gauge understanding. This project finalized in a collaborative Farm Safety Plan, which was developed by the refugee farmers as a group, using the skills and knowledge that they have accumulated in each area of the farm and in each stage of the process from field to market. The IRC New Roots Education and Outreach Specialist developed and revised the comprehensive food safety training based primarily on the Produce Safety Rule guidelines of the Food Safety Modernization Act. Each of these modules utilize frequent opportunities for farmer engagement and input, hands-on learning, activities to gauge the level of retained knowledge, practical application of new skills, and role play to practice food safety procedures. Rapid assessments were conducted at the end of each new module that was led by the New Roots Education and Outreach Specialist in tandem with an interpreter. Results of the cumulative rapid assessment data indicated that 100% of participants found the training useful and will apply the information to the food they sell. In addition to rapid assessments, three focus groups were hosted with refugee farmer participants. The feedback in focus groups was clear that farmers retained more information about the modules with interactive activates than other modules. In response, more activities were added to or expanded in each module. To evaluate success of the curriculum, farmers completed a pre-and post-assessment called the Farmer Competencies Assessment. This tool was developed by the national IRC network of food and agriculture programs, and it utilized across the United States for IRC's refugee farmer training programs. The Assessment was adapted for this project to examine skill increase in areas of food safety regulation practices. The Assessment evaluates the following areas of food safety practices: Food Safety Overview, Water Safety, Soil and Land, Worker Health and Hygiene, Handling: growing, packing, transporting; and Wildlife. Other skills assessed with the Farmer Competencies tool are: Spacing and Succession; Pricing and Money; and Farm Infrastructure maintenance. Analysis of farmer competencies assessment data, comparing baseline scores to post-assessment scores, showed that 80% of total participants increased in food safety farm skills. Another notable accomplishment was the completion of a site-specific Farm Safety Plan for Literacy Garden, where the majority of farmers grow, developed collaboratively by our farmers. The Farm Safety Plan was developed based on their newly acquired understanding of risk of contamination on the farm and at various stages of processing, and how to use preventative measures to ensure that their food arrives to market clean and safe for consumption. Their cumulative efforts on the Farm Safety Plan were further improved through an "On Farm Readiness Review" carried out by the Arizona Department of Agriculture (AZDA) and Pima County Cooperative Extension who conducted a mock-audit of the farm and the plan and determined which areas need more attention. The result of this educational visit was the "On Farm Readiness Review Walk Around Questions," a document filled out by AZDA staff that reflected the review with farmers and indicated areas of strengths and weaknesses. The educators visited our site and met with our farmers to review the guidelines with our farmers while also assessing how much knowledge they had and how closely they uphold the guidelines outlined in the PSA. New Roots farmers and the Literacy Garden scored high marks in every section. Areas of improvement primarily included the collection and retaining of documentation such as City Water Quality Reports, Certification of Tanks Compost, and cleaning records.
Publications
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