Progress 09/01/19 to 05/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:The International Rescue Committee's (IRC) "Expanded Refugee and Immigrant Food Safety Outreach Project in Sacramento" targeted three distinct audiences during the second reporting period. All three groups consist of immigrant or refugee farmers who are non-native English speakers and have reduced access to mainstream sources of food safety information (internet, English-language trainings, etc.). All three farmer groups sell their produce directly to the public at farm stands and informal channels within their communities; as well as indirectly, to area grocery stores and wholesale buyers. The three groups include the lu-Mien farmers, Nepali-Bhutanese refugees and Afghan refugee farmers. The first two groups of lu-Mien farmers and Nepali-Bhutanese farmers were described in a previous report. The group of Afghan refugees replaces the group of Arabic-speaking farmers that was previously included in this project. The Afghan refugee farmers are part of a larger group of Afghan refugees that have been arriving in Sacramento since 2011. All of the farmers arrived as part of the Special Immigrant Visa program (SIV). Currently Sacramento has one of the largest Afghan communities in the United States and the population is growing as more Afghans are expected to arrive in the area over the next 12 months. There are approximately 16,000 Afghan refugees living in the Sacramento region, including over 12,000 in Sacramento County alone, which is the largest number in any county in the United States. Many Afghans have experience gardening in their home country, including families with large orchards or farms in the countryside. In Sacramento, Afghans are active participants in community gardens and three Afghans are currently participating in a farmer training program that the IRC is operating on its farm in West Sacramento, which trains newer farmers on growing specialty crops in California. Afghan farmers are not new to farming and agriculture but they are not familiar with the rules and regulations around best agricultural and food safety practices used in the US. In addition to engaging participants from the three farming groups, IRC also took steps to work on wash station inprovements during this reporting period. A number of other communities will benefit from that system including individuals from the African American and Latinx communities that are farming on the land in West Sacramento. These individuals will benefit from improvements to the wash station as they use the station to wash their produce before selling it to customers or providing produce to community members in need. Changes/Problems:The project team struggled to manage the effects of COVID-19, as it delayed program implementation and led to challenges working with partners, most notably UC Davis. One significant change that occurred during this project was the participation of one farmer group, as the Arabic-speaking farmers were replaced by Afghan refugee farmers. This change was made in response to the current context in Sacramento and on the farm. As noted, there is a large population of Afghan refugees living in Sacramento that continues to grow, and the crisis in Afghanistan that took place in July and August of 2021 added to the influx of new arrivals from Afghanistan into the region. Within IRC's work in agriculture, this brings more Afghan farmers and gardeners to the program to participate in farming. At the same time the number of Arabic-speaking farmers working on the farm in West Sacramento decreased. In response to this changing context, a decision was made to include the Afghan farmers as one of the farming groups targeted by this project. As mentioned in the Target Audience section, a large number of Afghans have previous experience farming in Afghanistan. It is expected that as more Afghans arrive and settle into their new communities, more Afghans will enter agricultural production. The project team decided this was a good opportunity to create educational materials specifically addressing this group, as they are not as familiar with the food safety regulations in the US. It is expected that the videos and training materials created in this project will be able to serve the larger Afghan population that will spread throughout the US over the coming years. The fourth objective of the proposal was determined tobe impossible to complete due to engineering challenges that cannot be resolved. As a result of these constraints, the IRC Sacramento New Roots program proposed that the funds allocated to the evaluation of the reusable wash station be reallocated to improvements in the capacity of the Kuchenu farm site's rudimentary wash station. This aligned with the overall goal of improved food safety practices for refugee farmer communities and benefit 25 marginalized farmers operating on the site. With an increase in popularity of the culturally relevant foods these farmers are producing, the improved capacity of the wash station had a significant impact in the local community and improve the FSMA compliance capabilities of the farmers utilizing the equipment. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Beyond the above outlines dissemination activities of Objective 3 of the project, results of the project have been presented twice at the annual FSOP conferences, once in-person and once virtual. 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. Three complete sets of food safety training curricula each geared towards a different audience of marginalized farmers developed during year 1 of the project. During this project, three complete sets of food safety training curricula were completed and produced as described above in "other products." Six agricultural topics were made into training videos with each of the six topics provided in three different languages (lu-Mien, Dari and Nepali) for a total of 18 videos. The completion of the videos was the result of a number of steps and processes that were accomplished during the reporting period. A student from UC Davis with prior experience working in the field of agricultural training initially developed the scripts for each of the videos. These scripts were then reviewed and edited by the project partners including Margaret Lloyd from UCANR/UCCE and Kali Feiereisel from Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF). Two rounds of reviews were completed for each of the six topics, with reviews conducted at each step to ensure that the scripts were using plain language, technically accurate and presented in an engaging manner that. While the scripts were being finalized the IRC took the lead to select a production company to produce the videos. The company B Clip Productions was selected following a rigorous procurement process. Upon completion of the scripts, the production company developed a storyboard for each of the videos to prepare the scripts to be transformed into a video that could be filmed. The scripts with accompanied notes for video shots were edited by B Clip and reviewed again by the project partners to ensure accuracy.The 18 videos were filmed over a week at various sites in Sacramento including the IRC farm in West Sacramento, a farm stand in West Sacramento, a private farm operated by lu-Mien farmers and a community garden. Participants from each of the target communities were recruited to be in each video to demonstrate the practices that were discussed. A total of eight farmers participated in the filming, in addition to two IRC staff. Audio was recorded by native speakers of each of three languages. Once these activities were complete, the videos were edited and produced by B clip. Two rounds of editing took place to ensure that the videos and audio were accurate and met the needs of the project. Objective 2.Three different groups of marginalized farmers increase awareness and understanding of Ag food safety best practices through delivering newly developed curricula; farmers within these groups adopt best practices wherever possible through implementing detailed adoption plans with farmer participants: Final videos were delivered to the farmer groups representing all three languages and target populations. The videos were shown during two different training sessions that took place in October and December of 2022, which were supplemented with in-person demonstrations of practices shown in the videos. The training sessions were attended by UC Davis, CAFF, and UCCE, with end-result surveys developed by UC Davis and conducted by IRC staff. IRC worked with the farmers to document their compliance with FSMA regulations or their exemption from the regulations as appropriate. Monitoring plans and tools were developed during this project to monitor farmer participants' adoption of best practices. This work was developed by the team from UC Davis under guidance from Vikram Koundinya, who was monitoring and evaluating the project. A student from UC Davis was recruited by Dr. Koundinya to participate in the project and perform the monitoring on the farm, however, due to project delays as previously reported, this student was unavailable to perform long-term evaluations as initially planned. Instead, Dr. Koundinya provided two in-depth trainings to IRC New Roots staff and the broader IRC Sacramento staff on proper methods for conducting monitoring and evaluation plans, and development of monitoring tools. These trainings built the IRC capacity to accurately measure program impact across 14 departments beyond the life cycle of the project.The observations of the delivery of the trainings to each farming group were documented in the final report from Dr. Koundinya, with the end-of-session data indicating that there was a 19%-25% increase in knowledge gained surrounding the six topics outlined in the trainings.IRC also worked with CAFF and UCCE to develop an action plan to encourage adoption of best food safety practices beyond the project cycle. These plans were shared with training attendees at both sessions and were translated into native languages. Objective 3.Nationwide networks have access to IRC-developed curricula for use for their training of farmer groups on food safety topics:With the completion of the videos, dissemination activities were resumed and the curricula were made available to a national audience. The IRC in Sacramento conducted a webinar attended by project leads of the IRC New Roots team nationwide representing 8 states with 20 team members in which the videos were shown and results of the trainings disseminated. The videos were made available and multiple inqueries were made regarding the capacity to switch the voiceover to other language to train different farmer groups. This process is underway and communications are being made with BClip to produce videos in more language groups. Additionally, the videos were uploaded to the University of California Small Farms Advisors website and have received over 300 views through that portal alone. Additional channels for dissemination are being explored by the New Roots Techncial Advisory team, based at IRC Headquarters in New York City, to continue expanding the accessiblity of the video series. Objective 4. The pilot wash station water re-use system on the Kuchenu farm site will be monitored for effectiveness and user-friendliness, and modified with any needed improvements; replicable crop wash station water re-use plans will be developed and disseminated for other farmers nationwide to adopt on their farms:Work on the water re-use system at the Kuchenu farm site was delayed significantly due to staffing changes at UC Davis's D-lab. The previous program lead, Dr. Maureen Kinyua, left the university and the department head, Dr. Kurt Kornbluth, was in communication regarding the pilot wash station. Unfortunately, the water re-use system was not viable due to many engineering constraints and was ultimately not useable on the Kuchenu Farm site. While the pilot re-use system was not viable, wash station capactiy improvements were made to the existing structure to improve the FSMA compliance for the 25 farmers at the Kuchenu farms site. Wash station improvements are underway and adoption of best practices by farmers with respect to produce washing will continue to be monitored beyond the project life cycle.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:The International Rescue Committee's (IRC) "Expanded Refugee and Immigrant Food Safety Outreach Project in Sacramento" targeted three distinct audiences during the second reporting period. All three groups consist of immigrant or refugee farmers who are non-native English speakers and have reduced access to mainstream sources of food safety information (internet, English-language trainings, etc.). All three farmer groups sell their produce directly to the public at farm stands and informal channels within their communities; as well as indirectly, to area grocery stores and wholesale buyers. The three groups include the lu-Mien farmers, Nepali-Bhutanese refugees and Afghan refugee farmers. The first two groups of lu-Mien farmers and Nepali-Bhutanese farmers were described in a previous report. The group of Afghan refugees replaces the group of Arabic-speaking farmers that was previously included in this project. More details are provided in the Problems/Changes section. The Afghan refugee farmers are part of a larger group of Afghan refugees that have been arriving in Sacramento since 2011. All of the farmers arrived as part of the Special Immigrant Visa program (SIV). Currently Sacramento has one of the largest Afghan communities in the United States and the population is growing as more Afghans are expected to arrive in the area over the next 12 months. There are approximately 12,000 Afghan refugees living in the Sacramento region, including over 9,000 in Sacramento County alone, which is the largest number in any county in the United States. Many Afghans have experience gardening in their home country, including families with large orchards or farms in the countryside. In Sacramento, Afghans are active participants in community gardens and three Afghans are currently participating in a farmer training program that the IRC is operating on its farm in West Sacramento, which trains newer farmers on growing specialty crops in California. Afghan farmers are not new to farming and agriculture but they are not familiar with the rules and regulations around best agricultural and food safety practices used in the US. In addition to engaging participants from the three farming groups, IRC also took steps to work on the wash station recirculation system during this reporting period. A number of other communities will benefit from that system including individuals from the African American and Latinx communities that are farming on the land in West Sacramento. These individuals will benefit from improvements to the wash station as they use the station to wash their produce before selling it to customers or providing produce to community members in need. Changes/Problems:The project team continued to manage the effects of COVID-19, as it delayed program implementation and led to challenges working with partners, most notably UC Davis's D-lab. While communication with the D-lab resumed, the fourth objective of the proposal will be impossible to complete due to engineering challenges that cannot be resolved. As a result of these constraints, the IRC Sacramento New Roots program would propose that the funds allocated to the evaluation of the reusable wash station be reallocated to improvements in the capacity of the Kuchenu farm site's rudimentary wash station. This would align with the overall goal of improved food safety practices for refugee farmer communities and benefit nearly 30 marginalized farmers operating on the site. With an increase in popularity of the culturally relevant foods these farmers are producing, the improved capacity of the wash station would have a significant impact in the local community and improve the FSMA compliance capabilities of the farmers utilizing the equipment. The IRC received a No Cost Extension for this project through the end of May 2023. Despite previous project delays, it is expected that all the work will be completed by that date What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
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?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objectve 1. Three complete sets of food safety training curricula each geared towards a different audience of marginalized farmers developed during year 1 of the project During the previous reporting period, three complete sets of food safety training curricula were completed and produced. Six agricultural topics were made into training videos with each of the six topics provided in three different languages (lu-Mien, Dari and Nepali) for a total of 18 videos. The completion of the videos was the result of a number of steps and processes that were accomplished during the reporting period. Objective 2. Three different groups of marginalized farmers increase awareness and understanding of Ag food safety best practices through delivering newly developed curricula; farmers within these groups adopt best practices wherever possible through implementing detailed adoption plans with farmer participants: During this reporting period, the three marginalized farmer groups were all able to participate in the trainings on the six agricultural topics (agricultural water, biological soil amendments, chemical use, equipment tools and buildings, health and hygiene, and land use and animal access). IRC worked with the farmers to document their compliance with FSMA regulations or their exemption from the regulations as appropriate. Monitoring plans and tools were utilized during this reporting period to monitor farmer participants' adoption of best practices. This work was developed by the team from UC Davis under guidance from Vikram Koundinya, who is monitoring and evaluating the project. A student from UC Davis was recruited by Dr. Koundinya to participate in the project and perform the monitoring on the farm. The tools for monitoring and evaluation were reviewed by the UC Davis IRB board and approved for use in the project. The Student, Thomas Black, attended the training sessions with the farmers and selected six for long-term evaluation of adoption rates for the best practices shown in the training videos. Thomas returned monthly to conduct interviews with the participants and compiled the information for Dr. Koundinya to review. Results from this evaluation will be disseminated during the next reporting period and will inform the IRC of the efficacy of the training videos. IRC also worked with CAFF and UC Davis's Cooperative Extension (UCCE) group to conduct an on-the-farm risk assessment with members from each of the three farmer groups. Both CAFF and UCCE attended the trainings mentioned above and are willing to continue partnering for development of materials and information to ensure adherence to the food safety best practices and improved record-keeping systems for participating farmers, as these were not focal points in the trainings during this reporting period. Objective 3 Nationwide networks have access to IRC-developed curricula for use for their training of farmer groups on food safety topics The training videos were uploaded to the IRC Sacramento New Roots YouTube channel for more rapid dissemination throughout nationwide networks. IRC Sacramento will deliver a webinar to the other seven IRC offices in the US with New Roots programming on the products developed and the monitoring tools that were initial outcomes of the educational modules created. This webinar is scheduled for 3/15/2022 and will be included in the final reporting period. The project will also be presented to a network of refugee farming groups that are being organized by ISED Solutions, which operates programs for New American Farmers. In addition, the project and training videos will be shared with the network of agriculture cooperative extension offices around the country. Extension agents from New York already reached out to the IRC about this project as they have found the videos produced in the pilot project to be helpful for connecting with refugee farmers. Materials will be shared with the UCANR offices throughout California as well as with other states' extension offices. Objective 4. The pilot wash station water re-use system on the Kuchenu farm site will be monitored for effectiveness and user-friendliness, and modified with any needed improvements; replicable crop wash station water re-use plans will be developed and disseminated for other farmers nationwide to adopt on their farms Work on the water re-use system at the Kuchenu farm site was delayed significantly due to staffing changes at UC Davis's D-lab. The previous program lead, Dr. Maureen Kinyua, is no longer with the university and the department head, Dr. Kurt Kornbluth, has been in communication regarding the pilot wash station. Unfortunately, the water re-use system is not viable due to many engineering constraints and is ultimately not useable on the Kuchenu Farm site.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:The International Rescue Committee's (IRC) "Expanded Refugee and Immigrant Food Safety Outreach Project in Sacramento" targeted three distinct audiences during the second reporting period. All three groups consist of immigrant or refugee farmers who are non-native English speakers and have reduced access to mainstream sources of food safety information (internet, English-language trainings, etc.). All three farmer groups sell their produce directly to the public at farm stands and informal channels within their communities; as well as indirectly, to area grocery stores and wholesale buyers. The three groups include the lu-Mien farmers, Nepali-Bhutanese refugees and Afghan refugee farmers. The first two groups of lu-Mien farmers and Nepali-Bhutanese farmers were described in a previous report. The group of Afghan refugees replaces the group of Arabic-speaking farmers that was previously included in this project. More details are provided in the Problems/Changes section below. The Afghan refugee farmers are part of a larger group of Afghan refugees that have been arriving in Sacramento since 2011. All of the farmers arrived as part of the Special Immigrant Visa program (SIV). Currently Sacramento has one of the largest Afghan communities in the United States and the population is growing as more Afghans are expected to arrive in the area over the next 12 months. There are approximately 12,000 Afghan refugees living in the Sacramento region, including over 9,000 in Sacramento County alone, which is the largest number in any county in the United States. Many Afghans have experience gardening in their home country, including families with large orchards or farms in the countryside. In Sacramento, Afghans are active participants in community gardens and three Afghans are currently participating in a farmer training program that the IRC is operating on its farm in West Sacramento, which trains newer farmers on growing specialty crops in California. Afghan farmers are not new to farming and agriculture but they are not familiar with the rules and regulations around best agricultural and food safety practices used in the US. In addition to engaging participants from the three farming groups, IRC also took steps to work on the wash station recirculation system during this reporting period. A number of other communities will benefit from that system including individuals from the African American and Latinx communities that are farming on the land in West Sacramento. These individuals will benefit from improvements to the wash station as they use the station to wash their produce before selling it to customers or providing produce to community members in need. Changes/Problems:The project team continued to manage the effectsofCOVID-19,as itdelayedprogram implementation andled tochallengesworking with partners,mostnotably UC Davis. One significant changethat occurred during this reportingperiod wasthe participation of onefarmer group, as the Arabic-speaking farmers were replaced by Afghan refugee farmers. This change was made in response to the current context in Sacramento and on the farm. Asnoted, there isa large population of Afghan refugees living in Sacramento thatcontinues to grow, and the crisis in Afghanistan that took place in July and August of 2021 added to the influx of new arrivals from Afghanistan into the region.Within IRC's work in agriculture, thisbringsmore Afghan farmers and gardeners to the program to participate in farming.At the same time the number of Arabic-speaking farmers working on the farm in West Sacramento hasdecreased. Inresponse to this changing context, a decision was made to include the Afghan farmers as one of the farming groups targeted by this project. Asmentioned in the Target Audience section,a large number ofAfghans have previous experience farming in Afghanistan. It is expected that as more Afghans arrive and settle into their new communities,more Afghans willenteragricultural production. The project team decided this was a good opportunity to create educational materials specifically addressing this group,as they are not as familiar with the food safety regulations in the US. It is expected that the videos and training materials created in this project will be able to serve the larger Afghan population thatwillspread throughout the US over the coming years.Furthermore, theIRC operates weekly produce markets in season, and observeda large number ofAfghan customers at one of its markets. Customersat this marketare particularly interested in specific crops that are difficult to find in the US, such asgandana, a type of chive. There is increasing interest in the communityto growmore of this crop in Sacramento. The training materials created in this project will help to serve this community and ensure that the gandana, or other crops, are grown and harvested in a safe manner. The IRC received a No Cost Extension for this project through the end of May 2022.Despiteprevious projectdelays,it is expectedthatall ofthe work will be completed by that date. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?While results have not yet been disseminated, IRC started preparing for the presentation on the project and outputs for a national meeting of new farmer training programs. The project will be presented to a network of refugee farming groups that are being organized by ISED Solutions, which operates programs for New American Farmers. In addition, the project and training videos will be shared with the network of agriculture cooperative extension offices around the country. Extension agents from New York already reached out to the IRC about this project as they have found the videos produced in the pilot project to be helpful for connecting with refugee farmers. Materials will be shared with the UCANR offices throughout California as well as with other states' extension offices. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?As noted in the Accomplishments section, training videos will be shared with farmer groups and nationwide networks. Additionally, monitoring plans and tools developed by UC Davis.The first step will be to observe and monitor the delivery of the trainings to each farming group. UC Davis will also continue testing the water re-use system.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The accomplishments listed below correspond to the major activities outlined in the original project plan. Three complete sets of food safety training curricula each geared towards a different audience of marginalized farmers developed during year 1 of the project During this reporting period, three complete sets of food safety training curricula were completed and produced as described above in "other products." Six agricultural topics were made into training videos with each of the six topics provided in three different languages (lu-Mien, Dari and Nepali) for a total of 18 videos. The completion of the videos was the result of a number of steps and processes that were accomplished during the reporting period. A student from UC Davis with prior experience working in the field of agricultural training initially developed the scripts for each of the videos. These scripts were then reviewed and edited by the project partners including Margaret Lloyd from UCANR/UCCE and Kali Feiereisel from Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF). Two rounds of reviews were completed for each of the six topics, with reviews conducted at each step to ensure that the scripts were using plain language, technically accurate and presented in an engaging manner that. While the scripts were being finalized the IRC took the lead to select a production company to produce the videos. The company B Clip Productions was selected following a rigorous procurement process. Upon completion of the scripts, the production company developed a storyboard for each of the videos to prepare the scripts to be transformed into a video that could be filmed. The scripts with accompanied notes for video shots were edited by B Clip and reviewed again by the project partners to ensure accuracy. The 18 videos were filmed over a week at various sites in Sacramento including the IRC farm in West Sacramento, a farm stand in West Sacramento, a private farm operated by lu-Mien farmers and a community garden. Participants from each of the target communities were recruited to be in each video to demonstrate the practices that were discussed. A total of eight farmers participated in the filming, in addition to two IRC staff. Audio was recorded by native speakers of each of three languages. Once these activities were complete, the videos were edited and produced by B clip. Two rounds of editing took place to ensure that the videos and audio were accurate and met the needs of the project. During the next reporting period the videos will be used as part of a training series for each of the three groups of farmers. Three different groups of marginalized farmers increase awareness and understanding of Ag food safety best practices through delivering newly developed curricula; farmers within these groups adopt best practices wherever possible through implementing detailed adoption plans with farmer participants Due to delays in program implementation described in the previous report and in the next section, the final videos have not yet been delivered to the farmer groups. This will take place at the beginning of the next reporting period. Each of group of farmers will participate in a training on the six agricultural topics (agricultural water, biological soil amendments, chemical use, equipment tools and buildings, health and hygiene, and land use and animal access). IRC will work with the farmers to document their compliance with FSMA regulations or their exemption from the regulations as appropriate. Monitoring plans and tools were developed during this reporting period to monitor farmer participants' adoption of best practices. This work is developed by the team from UC Davis under guidance from Vikram Koundinya, who is monitoring and evaluating the project. A student from UC Davis was recruited by Dr. Koundinya to participate in the project and perform the monitoring on the farm. A project meeting was held with Dr. Koundinya and the student to discuss the scope of the monitoring and the types of tools to be developed. These tools are currently being reviewed by the UC Davis IRB board. Once the IRB process has been completed, these tools can be used. The first step will be to observe and monitor the delivery of the trainings to each farming group. This work is expected to take place at the beginning of the next reporting period. IRC will also work with CAFF and UC Davis to conduct an on-the-farm risk assessment with members from each of the three farmer groups, and an action plan will be developed to encourage adoption of best food safety practices. These plans will be monitored as part of the M&E process mentioned above. Nationwide networks have access to IRC-developed curricula for use for their training of farmer groups on food safety topics As the training videos were only recently completed, they have not been shared with nationwide networks. This work will take place during the next reporting period as the videos are now in a format that can be shared widely. IRC Sacramento will deliver a webinar to the other seven IRC offices in the US with New Roots programming on the products developed and the monitoring tools that were initial outcomes of the educational modules created. The pilot wash station water re-use system on the Kuchenu farm site will be monitored for effectiveness and user-friendliness, and modified with any needed improvements; replicable crop wash station water re-use plans will be developed and disseminated for other farmers nationwide to adopt on their farms Work on the water re-use system at the Kuchenu farm site was paused during this reporting period due to challenges with UC Davis staff and their lab continuing the work. As described in the last report, protocols around COVID-19 prevented students from participating in this project during the 2020-21 academic year. Students returned to campus in September, but the classes collaborating on this project will take place during the winter and spring quarters. For this reason, the water re-use system could not be tested as planned during this reporting period. Despite the delay, the system did operate temporarily. During the next reporting period it is expected that the UC Davis class, under the guidance of Dr. Maureen Kinyua, will be able provide more technical support to the project and be able to resume testing of the water samples. In the interim, IRC staff worked to maintain the system, as it needs to be periodically flushed to remove debris and materials that are filtered out by the system.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20
Outputs
Target Audience:The International Rescue Committee's (IRC) "Expanded Refugee and Immigrant Food Safety Outreach Project in Sacramento" targeted three distinct audiences during the first reporting period. All three groups consist of immigrant or refugee farmers who are non-native English speakers and have reduced access to mainstream sources of food safety information (internet, English-language trainings, etc.). All three farmer groups sell their produce directly to the public at farm stands and informal channels within their communities; as well as indirectly, to area grocery stores and wholesale buyers. The first group consists of lu-Mien farmers, most of whom came to California as refugees after the Vietnam War. These farmers primarily farm strawberries on one- to three-acre leased plots around Sacramento County. In collaboration with partners at the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources/University of California Cooperative Extension office (UCANR/UCCE), the IRC is attempting to reach 40 farmers with food safety outreach trainings. During this reporting period, the IRC and a UC Davis graduate student, reached out to ten farmers to engage them in a food safety knowledge assessment. Five farmers ultimately participated in the assessment that looked at their knowledge, perceptions, and barriers to adopting food safety best practices. More details on the results of this assessment will be provided in the section on achievements. The second group consists of Arabic speaking farmers including Iraqi farmers and Sudanese farmers. Iraqi farmers lease 2,500-square-foot farm plots from the IRC's farm in West Sacramento. These farmers arrived in the United States between 2011 and 2015 through the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program. As past members of IRC's farmer training program, they previously learned about California farming techniques while also learning about food safety best practices. The Sudanese farmers, who previously participated in the pilot project, farm on plots of land maintained by IRC's office in Salt Lake City, Utah, and were included in the assessment to broaden the number of participants. A total of four Arabic speaking farmers participated in the assessment report. The third group consists of Nepali-Bhutanese refugees, who also lease small farm plots from IRC's farm in Sacramento. These farmers arrived in the United States between 2008 and 2011, and many farmers have been selling their produce through the IRC for several years. The IRC plans to reach up to 20 of these farmers who have also previously participated in a IRC-run farmer training program. Four of these farmers are also currently participating in another farmer training program operated on the farm. A total of six farmers from this group were interviewed for the assessment. In addition to engaging participants from the three farming groups for the assessment, the IRC also took steps to work on the wash station recirculation system during this reporting period. The Nepali-Bhutanese and Iraqi farmers will be the direct beneficiaries of this water re-use system. Changes/Problems:The project team encountered a number of challenges during the reporting period that caused delays in implementing the project. Notably, award funding was not released until March 23, 2020, which was seven months after the grant was scheduled to begin on September 1, 2019. Funding for two key partners on the project, UC Davis and UCANR/UCCE was also delayed until May 13, 2020 due to a need to update authorization letters Moreover, the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic also created delays with implementation of the project by changing the ways that work could be done. This had a particularly significant impact on the wash station water re-use project, as UC Davis put in place protocols and procedures to prevent the spread of the virus. These procedures restricted the operation of labs on campus and also the ability for students and professors to conduct off site research that was not deemed essential. Consequently, IRC was unable to engage with students and professors to work on this project during the Spring and Summer terms. Despite these challenges, the IRC took steps during the reporting period to move ahead with the project. The IRC does anticipate the need to request for a No-Cost Extension before the close of the original grant period. This will allow the IRC to complete all stated goals and objectives outlined in the proposal. On a positive note, the changes in how workshops and trainings are being delivered as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to create virtual training modules that farmers and others can access from anywhere. IRC staff considers this an important finding, and this will factor into the design and development of the educational modules for this project. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
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?1. Three complete sets of food safety training curricula each geared towards a different audience of marginalized farmers developed during year 1 of the project During the next reporting period, the results and findings from the assessment report will be used to design the 15 training modules for this project. These modules will be developed by the IRC with support from UC Davis and the project committee. Members of the project committee will provide technical review and recommendations. Any modules requiring technical production will be contracted to a professional company or individuals to produce. The modules will be tested throughout their development with key stakeholders from each of the farming groups to ensure they are culturally appropriate and will be well received. 2. Three different groups of marginalized farmers increase awareness and understanding of Ag food safety best practices through delivering newly developed curricula; farmers within these groups adopt best practices wherever possible through implementing detailed adoption plans with farmer participants During the next reporting period, the modules will be finalized and trainings will be provided to the three groups of farmers. IRC will also work with the farmers to document their compliance with FSMA regulations or their exemption from the regulations, as appropriate. On-the-farm risk assessments will be conducted with members from each of the three farmer groups, and an action plan will be developed to encourage adoption of food safety best practices. These plans will be monitored by the team from UC Davis under guidance from Vikram Koundinya, who is monitoring and evaluating the project. He will lead a team to conduct monthly visits to support and assess farmers' progress toward adoption of these best practices, which will commence during this next reporting period. These monitoring visits will assist in identifying and removing, any barriers to adoption and FSMA compliance. 3. Nationwide networks have access to IRC-developed curricula for use for their training of farmer groups on food safety topics During the next reporting period, the training modules will be designed, consolidated and organized into a format that can be shared with other organizations nationwide that are working with similar groups of farmers. IRC Sacramento will also deliver a webinar to all other IRC New Roots offices nationwide on the outputs and initial outcomes of the educational modules created. A total of seven offices are expected to participate. Planning will also be done to prepare for the project to be presented at a national meeting of new farmer training programs. The presentation may happen after the next reporting period. Preparations will also be made to hold a workshop for other organizations working in Northern California with marginalized farmers. As the final findings from this project will not be known before the end of the next reporting period, the workshop itself will not be scheduled until more complete results are known that can be shared with stakeholders. 4. The pilot wash station water re-use system on Kuchenu farm site will be monitored for effectiveness and user-friendliness, and modified with any needed improvements; replicable crop wash station water re-use plans will be developed and disseminated for other farmers nationwide to adopt on their farms During the next reporting period, work will proceed on the water station if it is possible to arrange for UC Davis students to conduct field site visits safely. If site visits are allowed, then regular monitoring of the recovered water will occur during the next year. If site visits are not allowed, then IRC staff will coordinate with UC Davis to ensure that monitoring of the water quality will be conducted.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The accomplishments listed below correspond to the major activities outlined in the original project plan. 1. Three complete sets of food safety training curricula each geared towards a different audience of marginalized farmers developed during year 1 of the project The IRC took steps to develop the educational training modules for the three groups of farmers during this reporting period. The project committee was convened at the start of the project and comprises Professor Vikram Koundinya from UC Davis, Margaret Lloyd from UCANR/UCCE, and Kali Feiereisel from Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF). A project implementation plan was developed with roles and responsibilities for each partner. In order to determine the most appropriate method and format for each of the training modules, the project committee decided that additional research was needed to understand the farmers' perceptions on food safety, their preferred learning methods, and any barriers that affect their ability to adopt best practices. As mentioned above in the "Other Products" section, this assessment was conducted by a graduate student at UC Davis from the International Agricultural Development program working with an advisor, Dr. Amanda Crump, an assistant professor of teaching in International Agricultural Development. Key findings from this assessment include the following: Arabic speaking farmers 75% learn through observation and direct demonstration 75% have learned new things, including agricultural techniques, through watching videos on YouTube Nepali speaking farmers All Farmers prefer learning through observation and direct trial and error 83% learned new things through watching videos 50% prefer hands on training Lu-Mien speaking farmers All farmers learned how to farm through their relatives. They still rely heavily on peer to peer learning 60% prefer to experiment, test and verify new methods themselves before adopting them A common theme for all three groups was the belief that organic farming practices imply that the produce grown was inherently safe to eat. There was a strong connection between perceived food safety issues and chemicals. This is an important factor and will be taken into consideration as the training modules are developed. 2. Three different groups of marginalized farmers increase awareness and understanding of Ag food safety best practices through delivering newly developed curricula; farmers within these groups adopt best practices wherever possible through implementing detailed adoption plans with farmer participants Due to delays in program implementation (described in the next section), the educational modules have not yet been developed. Therefore the trainings have not been delivered to the three groups of farmers. During the next reporting period, the modules will be finalized and trainings will be provided to the three groups of farmers. 4. The pilot wash station water re-use system on Kuchenu farm site will be monitored for effectiveness and user-friendliness, and modified with any needed improvements; replicable crop wash station water re-use plans will be developed and disseminated for other farmers nationwide to adopt on their farms Work was done on the water re-use system at the Kuchenu farm site during the first part of the reporting period. As mentioned above in the "Other Products" section, two students worked under the guidance of Dr. Maureen Kinyua to further assess and refine the design that was completed on the wash station during the pilot project. In the interim period since the pilot project, a few challenges were observed with the current design that did not allow for the waste water to be properly filtered. The students worked on design modifications that were reviewed and approved by Dr. Kinyua. The students then worked on physically modifying the design at the farm. This was completed during the winter quarter of 2020. The next step in the process was to monitor the quality of the recovered water. However, when that activity was scheduled to start, the COVID-19 pandemic began affecting California and most of the US. It was during this time that classes were canceled at UC Davis, which caused all work on the filter system to be suspended.
Publications
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