Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:The audience reached during the grantincluded 100+ aspiring farmers in ALBA's Farmer Education Course; 51beginning and socially-disadvantaged farmers in the Organic Farm Incubator; approximately, 40ALBA alumni in ALBA's extended network; 25agricultural professionals and 45college students. Over 90% of particpiants were Latinos. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?- 4 completed the USDA's Fundamentals of Auditing course - 4 completed the HGAP Auditor certification or annual update (x 2 years) - 5 completed Cornell University's GAPs online Produce Safety course - 12completed the annual Basic GAPs and Symptoms of Food-Borne Illness training - 2 obtained HACCP certification - 5 completed the PSA Train the Trainer Course - 10 Hartnell college students completed 60-180/hr internships How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Annuall, the results were disseminated to: - FSOP Project Meeting presentation - WRCEFS presentation What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1. Sixty (60) early-stage farms develop the knowledge to adopt Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) through intensive food safety training and technical assistance at ALBA. 105 farmers received GAPs training throughut the grant. Additional workshop were held on food safety recordkeeping, mock recalls, COVID safety, traceability, audit preparation, and sanitation. Two rounds of PSA training was held for 30+ participants. 51farmers in ALBA's incubator received direct techncial assistance on completing annual pre-season risk assessments, completing monthly food safety logs, weekly field monitoring, and preparing for audits. Under ALBA's Group GAP food safety system, 51farmers received internal unannounced and announced audits. 12farmers received and passed a third-party HGAP audit by the USDA-AMS. 2. Sixty (60) regional farms strengthen their knowledge and capacity to comply with FSMA requirements. This includeda mix of ALBA alumni and other small-scale organic, Latino-owned farms in the region. They will have access to multiple off-site trainings and receive individual consultations under the project. A series of six workshops was provided (x3) to both 51ALBA incubator farmers, as well as 25+alumni. The workshops included: risk assessment, basic GAPs, traceability, mock recall, sanitation, and recordkeeping. Trainings were also provided on heat illness prevention, pesticide safety, wildfire smoke, wellness and COVID. Weekly field monitoring was conducted for 51farmers, as well as record-keeping reviews. 15internal food safety meetings were held, 100scheduled audits, 150unannounced audits, 51mock recall exercises, 100risk assessments, and an estimated 60 corrective actions. 40alumni farmers received support in developing food safety plans, paperwork review, mock audit, and assistance during the audits. 30obtained independent food safety certification to the HGAP standard. 3. One-hundred and eighty (184) students, field laborers, and food safety professionals develop knowledge and skills to address food safety service and skills gaps for regional Latino-owned farms and the wider industry. Through the combination of food safety trainings offered in the Farmer Education Course and the Organic Farm Incubator, internships, internal capacity builkding,trainings to partnerrs organizations, and other ad hoc presentations, the following is an estimate if the number of inidivudals who developed knoweldge and skills in food safety: - 25+agricultural professionals - 40 college students, including 10 food safety interns - 90 farmers and farmworkers - 100 aspirng farmers in ALBA's Farmer Education Course
Publications
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Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience reached during this period included 65+aspiring farmers in ALBA's Farmer Education Course; 39 beginning and socially-disadvantaged farmers in the Organic Farm Incubator; approximately, 23ALBA alumni in ALBA's extended network; 9 agricultural professionals and 20 college students. Over 90% of particpiants were Latinos. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? 4 completed the USDA's Fundamentals of Auditing course 4 completed the HGAP Auditor certification or annual update 5 completed Cornell University's GAPs online Produce Safety course 9 completed the annual Basic GAPs and Symptoms of Food-Borne Illness training 2 obtained HACCP certification How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?- FSOP Project Meeting presentation - WRCEFS presentation What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Activities Timeline Objective 1: Training and technical assistance to 60 start-up farms at ALBA. 24 farms in the pre-launch phase (Farmer Education Course; 12/year) Basic GAPs and symptoms of Food Borne Illness Annual Risk Assessment Logs and Record-Keeping Feb 2022 Mar 2022 Apr 2022 Joint record-keeping on practice plot Apr - Aug 2022 Internal audits of student farm plot Jun - Aug 2022 36 start-up farms leasing land in the Organic Farm Incubator. Workshops provided annually to incubator farms: PSA Grower Training Basics GAPs & symptoms of Foodborne Illnesses. Record Keeping Traceability Sanitation Food Safety Plan Development for 4th-year farms. Feb 2022 Mar 2022 April 2022 May 2022 Monitoring of Good Agricultural Practices in field. Year round Technical assistance and monitoring on record-keeping. Jan - Aug 1 scheduled and 2 unannounced internal audits per farm. Mar - Aug Objective 2: Training and technical assistance for 60 regional farms. 3 PSA Grower training: 1 at ALBA/2 off-site; more poss. Jan 2022 Basic GAPs & symptoms of foodborne illness (3/yr) Feb-Apr 2022 On-farm technical assistance for 50 farms (4hours/year). Feb-Aug2022 Food Safety Plan Development workshop (3/year) Feb-Mar 2022 Objective 3: Capacity building of 184 students, laborers and professionals Co-PD take PSA Grower Train-the-Trainer. Co-PD takes ISO 9001 3-day internal auditor; ISO QMS Mgmt; fulfills steps to become PSA Lead Trainer ED: ISO QMS training; on-line GAPS produce training 2022, TBD Food Safety Mgmt. Team. meets Bi-Monthly Project Directors attend WRC Annual meeting and PD Meeting Apr 2022 Update Quality Management System Dec 2021and 2022 4 study tours for Hartnell Food Safety Cert. Program;6 internships. Mar - Apr 2022 Incubator farm employees trained in Basic GAPs and receive TA ongoing.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Sixty (60) early-stage farms develop the knowledge to adopt Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) through intensive food safety training and technical assistance at ALBA.These include 24 farmers introduced to food safety standards in ALBA's 300-hour Farmer Education Course and 36 start-up farms in ALBA's Organic Farm Incubator gaining technical assistance. 45 Farmer Education Course students were exposed to GAPs through a 1.5 hour PowerPoint presentation. A field practicum was held for a subset of these participants where they received additional training in GAPs, Risk Assessment, Record-keeping, and harvrst and post-harvest practices while harvesting a crop. 14 new farmers received an orientation to ALBA's GroupGAP certification system and extensive 1:1 technical assistance with respet to GAPs and they initiated their businesses. Sixty (60) regional farms strengthen their knowledge and capacity to comply with FSMA requirements through training and technical assistance.This includes a mix of ALBA alumni and other small-scale organic, Latino-owned farms in the region. They will have access to multiple off-site trainings and receive individual consultations under the project. A series of six workshops was provided (x2) to both 39 ALBA incubator farmers, as well as 12 alumni. The workshops included: risk assessment, basic GAPs, traceability, mock recall, sanitation, and recordkeeping. Trainings were also provided on heat illness prevention, pesticide safety, wildfire smoke and COVID. Weekly field monitoring was conducted for 40 farmers, as well as record-keeping reviews. Seven internal food safety meetings were held, 16 scheduled audits, 30 unannounced audits, 24 mock recall exercises, 38 risk assessments, and 30 corrective actions. 12 alumni farmers received support in developing food safety plans, paperwork review, mock audit, and assistance during the audits. 3 obtained independent food safety certification to the HGAP standard. One-hundred and eighty (184) students, field laborers, and food safety professionals develop knowledge and skills to address food safety service and skills gaps for regional Latino-owned farms and the wider industry. During this reporting period, an estimated 129participants devloped knowledge and skills to address food safety concerns. This includes 45 aspiring farmers, 20 collegestudents, 40 ALBA farmers, 12alumni, and 12ag professionals.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience reached during this period included 35+ aspiring farmersin ALBA's Farmer Education Course; 39 beginning and socially-disadvantaged farmers in the Organic Farm Incubator; approximately, 5 ALBA alumni in ALBA's extended network; 9 agricultural professionals and 20 college students. Over 90% of particpiants were Latinos. Changes/Problems: Challenge Corrective Action and/or Project Change COVID-19 pandemic has made in-person meetings and trainings unfeasible Although no replacement for in-person education, ALBA has successfully shifted its group trainings to Zoom and the use of Google Classroom for its Farmer Education Course Social distancing requirements for one-on-one technical assistance ALBA has had to adapt its technical assistance services on an appointment only basis with the use of mandatory preventative measures, such as, masks and a 6-foot buffer; additional hand-washing stations and signage has been implemented at ALBA to create a safer environment Positive Development Project Change Increase in technological capacity of ALBA staff and farmers Due to distancing requirements, all project parties have quickly learned how to use new on-line platforms for communication; we have also been able to record many sessions for future use What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During this period,ALBA began strengthening its team to provide more food safety education. This included three ALBA staff members completing a PSA train-the-trainer course and assisting a lead-trainer conduct a course at ALBA. ALBA also hired a Food Safety Assistant who is in the process of completing his Food Safety Certificate at Hartnell College. With the additional support, the Compliance Manager will be able to focus more on developing curriculum for alumni, college students, field laborers, and other agricultural professionals. This will include allowing time for the Compliance Manager to provide direct techncial assistance to ALBA alumni. Two food safety interns were hosted at ALBA for a semester long experience. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The next year of the project will entail a number of important acitvities: - Completion of the Food Safety workshop series for alumni; - A plan between ALBA and partners, MCG, for providing food safety technical assistance to alunni and other regional farmers with a goal of serving at least 40 farms; - Increased promotion directly to Hartnell's food safety instructors, so that more college students attend trainings and participate in internships; - One PSA training in English and Spanish; - At least three workshop for the Farmer Education Course; - On-going food safety technical assistance to ALBA's farmers; - Compliance Manager completes ISO-9001 course; - New ALBA staff and partner, MCG, completes a HGAP auditor training; - PI completes PSA train-the-trainers course.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1. Sixty (60) early-stage farms develop the knowledge to adopt Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) through intensive food safety training and technical assistance at ALBA.These include 24 farmers introduced to food safety standards in ALBA's 300-hour Farmer Education Course and 36 start-up farms in ALBA's Organic Farm Incubator gaining technical assistance. 44 farmers received GAPs training through workshops during this period. Additional workshop were held on food safety recordkeeping, mock recalls, COVID safety, traceability, audit preparation, and sanitation. A PSA training was held for 20 participants. 39 farmers in ALBA's incubator received direct techncial assistance on completing annual pre-season risk assessments, completing monthly food safety logs, weekly field monitoring, and preparing for audits. Under ALBA's Group GAP food safety system, 37 farmers received internal unannouncedand announced audits. Six farmers received and passed a third-party HGAP audit by the USDA-AMS. 35 aspiring farmers in ALBA's Farmer Education Course received training on Basic GAPs, risk assessment, and completing food safety record-keeping. 2. Sixty (60) regional farms strengthen their knowledge and capacity to comply with FSMA requirements through training and technical assistance.This includes a mix of ALBA alumni and other small-scale organic, Latino-owned farms in the region. They will have access to multiple off-site trainings and receive individual consultations under the project. During this period, ALBA began developing its strategy to perform outreach and programming to its alumni and other regional farmers. This will include a series of six workshops and up to 20 hours of follow-up technical assistance. The first workshop is planned for December 2020. We also began conversations with Mancera Consulting Group, a local firm who is specializing in food safety technical assistance in Spanish for regional farmers. They will partner with ALBA to reach more particpants through the project. 3. One-hundred and eighty (184) students, field laborers, and food safety professionals develop knowledge and skills to address food safety service and skills gaps for regional Latino-owned farms and the wider industry. ALBA began developing its strategy to more effectively target the above groups for food safety education. Through the combination of food safety trainings offered in the Farmer Education Course and the Organic Farm Incubator,9 agricultural professionals and 20 college students developed knowledge on food safety topics.
Publications
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