Recipient Organization
DUKE UNIVERSITY
BOX 90340 PHYTOTRON BUILDING
DURHAM,NC 27708
Performing Department
School of Public Policy
Non Technical Summary
This project seeks to create a mechanism to enhance the pipeline of African American youth who: 1) are connected to the historical and modern-day contributions of African American farmers; 2) understand and are connected to potential career paths in agriculture and nutrition in the food system, and 3) can apply increased nutrition literacy on food choices to invest in personal health. We will develop curriculum connecting students to the importance, contributions, and impact of African agricultural practices on the history of the US, the South, and North Carolina. We will explore the historical context of today's African American food and farming traditions and teach students skills and strategies for healthy food and beverage choices. We will also connect students with African American role models who are working in agricultural, nutrition, and food system-related careers. We will implement the curriculum as a complement to school garden work at two North Carolina urban schools, and an intensive hands-on summer experience at a working farm after receiving the curriculum at school. This project will enable installation of a school garden at one of the partner schools. The resulting curriculum will be shared publicly, and we will leverage partnerships to disseminate the teaching materials to schools throughout North Carolina and the Southern US in support of Black History Month and beyond.
Animal Health Component
10%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
10%
Developmental
90%
Goals / Objectives
We propose development of a curriculum that acknowledges our nation's history before, during and after slavery; frames the contributions of Black farmers to economies of the US and North Carolina; and articulates an African American legacy of resilience and community building through food. The curriculum will reconnect students with positive aspects of a heritage in agriculture, as well as teach actionable skills and strategies for healthy food and beverage choice. James Beard Award-winning author African food scholar Adrian Miller will inform lessons on cultural food traditions of the US African diaspora. This new curriculum will augment and complement agriculture/gardening curriculum developed by Inter-Faith Food Shuttle.To be useful as an intervention, nutrition, health, and agricultural education needs to address the lived experiences of North Carolina African American youth. Presenting agricultural history through an African-diaspora lens teaches students how African and African American communities have traditionally created community and economic wealth through agriculture and food. By understanding the immense contributions of Blacks to the US and the impact of inequity, African American students can embrace a culture of resiliency and self-sufficiency to confront and overcome generational shame over issues of poverty.Goal 1: To design an afro food and agriculture-centered curriculum that explores the historical context of today's African American food and farming traditions, and educate students about healthy food and beverage choices. Specifically, the curriculum aims to improve elementary students' knowledge of African American food and farming traditions, career opportunities, and food/nutrition literacy. Additionally, increasing consumer education is one strategy to address the challenges of low food availability in low-income areas. Diet-oriented interventions need to take African-diaspora food culture into account. Analysis of messaging with appeals that use strong arguments and highlight the potential adverse health consequences (i.e., obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer) of excessive SSB consumption have been found to increase adolescents' intentions to cut back on sugary drinks. Coupling such appeals with messages that increase self-efficacy may be particularly useful.Goal 1 Objective: By the end of January 2020, curriculum materials and teacher training protocols will be developed and ready for implementation.Goal 2: To implement an afro food and agriculture-centered curriculum in a school context and intensive summer agriculture experience.Three sites have been selected for this project. We will work with fifth graders at two urban schools: R. N. Harris Elementary School in Durham, NC, and Pleasant Grove Elementary in Morrisville, NC. The third site is Sankofa Farms, LLC.Goal 2 Objective: By the end of August 2020, we will have offered the curriculum to RN Harris Elementary and Pleasant Grove Elementary during Black History Month plus summer intensive farm-based gardening experience.Goal 3: To install a teaching garden at Pleasant Grove elementary schoolGoal 3 Objective: By the end of June 2020, we will installed a functional teaching garden at Pleasant Grove ElementaryGoal 4: To evaluate the afro food and agriculture-centered curriculum Goal 4 Objective: Improve from pre-post curriculum implementation in schools with/without a school garden on measures of:Knowledgeawareness and understanding of the positive history of African Americans' contributions to agriculture, food security, and wealth and community building in North Carolinaawareness and understanding of the many careers possible in agriculture and across the food systemliteracy on the food/health connectionSkillsskills needed to make healthy and informed choices about food and drinkskills for selecting the best food options when limited options are availableskills to counter weight stigma
Project Methods
We seek to create a new curriculum that will connect students to the historical and modern-day contributions of African American farmers; connect students to potential career paths in agriculture and nutrition in the food system; and can apply increased literacy on food choices in order to invest in personal health.A pre-post, quasi-experimental delayed control design will be used to measure outcomes for this 24-month afro-based curriculum implementation. The curriculum will consist of three components: nutritional knowledge, attitudes and beliefs regarding African American food and farming traditions, and career opportunities. Two urban elementary schools with predominantly African American students will participate in this study. Table 1 below shows the testing conditions. One of the two elementary schools will serve as the delayed control condition. In Year 1, we will implement and evaluate the afro-based curriculum in the school with a garden versus the school with no garden. In Year 2, we will integrate the garden within the school with no garden. Formal lesson plans and teacher training will ensure that the curriculum delivery is standardized, testable, and replicable. Culturally relevant and community relevant evaluation metrics will be informed in part by parent/student focus group input.We will perform a mixed-methods project evaluation to determine the impact on:Changes in knowledge and skills among students and parents over time.Quantitatively assess changes in student learning outcomes for in-school based curriculumQualitatively and quantitatively assess changes in student learning outcomes for summer intensive program at Sankofa FarmsTeacher mastery of material following curriculum training and shadowing activitiesQuantitative and qualitative assessment of teacher knowledge and mastery of materials and pedagogy approachesDifferences in changes among students between the control and intervention schoolTest for significant differences between control and intervention schools based on the quasi-experimental research designMultivariate analysis will be used to determine net effects of the intervention while controlling for known confounding variables