Progress 09/01/23 to 08/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:New Entry's farmer participants are from all over the world (Cambodia, Cameroon, Haiti, Mexico,Bangladesh, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the USA) and include socially disadvantaged, underserved, and limited resource producers. New Entry's target audience are primarily aspiring and prospective farmers,start-up and beginning farmers, and establishing farmers in their first ten years of operations. Most are farming or on small acreage near peri-urban or suburban communities across eastern Massachusetts. On average, approximately 50% of beginning farmers participating in our programs are economically disadvantaged; 52% of participants are women, and 38% are immigrants and refugees. Many are veterans. All are small scale: our specialty crop producers mostly farm less than 5 acres. Most producers are leasing, licensing, or renting small acreage close to communities of Greater Boston, Suffolk, Essex, and Middlesex County. For this FSOP project, we primarily focused on the 35 small producer selling to our New Entry Food Hub as that was the focus of the food safety training and technical assistance. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project provided New Entry staff with opportunities to receive PSA certification, learn about and receive CQP certification, create and offer a site-specific post-harvest handling training, and many one-on-one TA opportunities to learn specific ways to improve produce safety. Staff who attended the NECAFS and FSOP PD meetings also gained knowledge and training by learning about other program models used to educate producers on food safety. The national FIELD Network networking sessions on food safety and best training approaches for diverse audiences also provide ongoing training and education about working with adult learners in land-based training concepts. New Entry staff also participated in a June 2023 Language Justice education program offered by Cultivemos (the Northeast Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network) to support our capacity to provide education in multiple languages and modalities. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results of this project have been disseminated to communities of interest through a variety of channels. We use social media platforms, newsletters, our website, and our YouTube channel to share updates and achievements. Additionally, we host community events, workshops, and info sessions to directly engage with our audience. Collaborations with local organizations and partners also help us reach a wider audience and ensure that the information is accessible to all interested parties. Food Safety Resources Guide forFSMAandCQPcompliance. This guide is posted in our website and promoted through our monthly Farmer Resources Newsletter. The audience of this newsletter has 2,615 subscribers. The guide has been also promoted thorough our social networks to an audience of 8K+ subscribers via Facebook (4.8K), Instagram (2.6K) and LinkedIn (500+). Resources and results from the project have been shared at agricultural conferences, community events and networking engagements, this has included the following: Agricultural conferences: New Entry's Annual National FIELD School; MA Food System Annual Forum; 2023 National Ag Marketing Summit; NOFA conferences in Massachusetts; Northeastern Association of State Departments of Agriculture; Southeast New England Agriculture Annual Conference and Trade Show; Local Food Trade Shows; Massachusetts Commercial Urban Farming Symposiums; 2024 Mass Farm and Sea to School Conference, 2024 MDAR Farmer Resources Trade Show; and the New England Fruits and Vegetable biannual conference. Community Events: New Entry hosts farm tours as part of learning activities for diverse audiences in the local food system including students, farmers, and agencies offering support services for farmers. In 2023, we hosted the New Entry Farmer Resource Fair, that brought together 30 beginning and small farmers to meet and register with 15+ representatives of essential farm service providers. We also hosted the NCAT Armed to Farm training for veteran farmers. In this weeklong training, a cohort of 30 veteran farmers from MA and the region learned about many topics in agriculture and business management, including food safety. Networking Engagements: In 2023, New Entry launched the North Shore Mobile Market Coalition (NSMMC), a regional collaboration in Massachusetts to enhance the distribution, promotion, and sales of local produce through mobile markets. The project aims to leverage the collective purchasing power of mobile market operators to support small and underserved producers, and improve access to fresh, locally grown food for those facing food insecurity. The NSMMC builds on recommendations from the 2020 Conway School's Upper North Shore Food Study and other community food assessments, which highlighted the need for expanding mobile markets to underserved areas. The coalition will focus on integrating local produce into mobile markets and selecting locations that lack existing farmers markets or grocery stores, aiming to enhance food access in low-income communities. A strong emphasis in this partnership is distributing food that is safe, wholesome, and meets the food safety needs of vulnerable communities. New Entry is an active collaborator of TheMassachusettsAgriculture Innovation Center (MAAIC), housed under theFranklin County Community Development Corporation, a network ofbusiness-assistance providers across the Commonwealth that helpsfarms and other value-added producers launch and scale new product ventures. Additionally New Entry leads a national network of Incubator farms and Ag apprenticeship programs (the FIELD Network), were learning sharing happens during monthly networking engagements. Food safety took a center stage during a webinar presented in partnership with theAgriculture and Land Based Training Association (ALBA)in Salinas,CAto discuss a decade of experience incorporating food safety training and technical assistance into incubator farm training program. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Obj 1: In May 2022 and 2023, two New Entry held Produce Safety Trainings for incubator farmers, local farmer networks, and uncertified staff and interns. Locations were accessible to farmers who had not yet attended. In 2022, we hired a translator in Khmer (Cambodian language) and 24 growers attended this 8-hour training and received PSA certification. In 2023, 11 growers and 10 New Entry interns and staff received PSA certification.Additionally, 4 more farmers who sell regularly to the Food Hub completed trainings in other venues and provided PSA certificates to the Food Hub. Obj 2: In March 2022, with MDAR, we offered a webinar on CQP to explain the certification process, introduce farmers to MDAR staff who facilitates certifications and mock audits, and explored CQP benefits for expanding market channels. Outreach specifically targeted beginning farmers. We reached out via text, phone and email and provided assistance with the online registration. 23 people registered for the webinar and 12 attended. We posted the webinar on YouTube which had 14 views. In July 2023, New Entry offered an in-person food safety training in Dracut, MA where six farmers do their packing and post-harvest handling. Live demonstrations set up a wash station that supports safe produce handling, packing and sanitation. A video was recorded of the wash station and work flow that reduces risk of produce contamination. This video was shared widely on New Entry's YouTube channel, online trainings and other media. As follow-up, a New Entry intern visited farms on a weekly basis for 12 weeks during 2023 to support produce transfer, answer questions, relay issues and changes, and collect feedback from growers.She worked with producers on crop quality, recommended wash station configurations, developed relationships between growers and connected them to resources. In 2023, New Entry interns and staff created a food safety resources catalog for FSMA and CQP compliance which includes links translated to multiple languages including English, Spanish and Hmong; some links include resources translated to Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog, French, and Haitian Creole. In 2023, a certified Produce Safety Alliance trainer was featured in both sessions of our Crop Production Course (totaling 38 students) to inform the students about FSMA and the PSR. In June 2023, New Entry's national FIELD Network monthly discussion session for staff and managers of land-based farmer training programs was food safety training resources and the discussion was facilitated by ALBA out of Salinas, CA. They shared strategies for supporting historically underserved farmers with GAP certification, food safety plan development, and on-farm audits with 29 organizations who registered and received information and 25 organizations participated in discussions and break out groups. Obj 3: New Entry staff provides technical assistance to incubator farmers and growers who sell to the food hub. We communicated post-harvest handling and wash/pack protocols to ensure food safety, and emphasized the importance of clear and complete labeling and accurate invoicing for traceability. To make information accessible, New Entry staff used multiple channels of communication (including in-person, text, phone calls and emails). During the reporting period 25.25, 25.5 and 18.25 staff hours were logged respectively in 2021, 2022 and 2023 for 19 farmers in topics related to food safety visits, risk assessments, referral to MDAR - CQP program, traceability, records, and food safety documentation. Staff communicated post-harvest handling and wash/pack protocols to ensure food safety, and emphasized clear and complete labeling and accurate invoicing for traceability. New Entry staff used all available methods (including in-person, text, phone calls and emails) to communicate. During the summer of 2023, a New Entry intern provided 12 weeks of weekly in-person technical assistance to 6 farmers at the Dracut farm, totaling 9.3 hours of TA specifically about food safety. Obj 4: In March 2022, we held an informational CQP webinar to introduced to the official who conducts mock audits and producers were invited to take next steps to set up mock-audits and obtain CQP certification. In June 2022, New Entry staff invited incubator farmers to a field walk and mock audit of the farm with MDAR. MDAR staff clarified and demonstrated the CQP audit process to new farmers. Through the CQP audit process, 12 farm businesses on the incubator are certified Group CQP. New Entry staff supported CQP certification for farmers who sell to the Food Hub and 7 have received CQP, CAPS or CAPS+ Certification while 3 more have completed detailed Food Safety Plans. Staff visit those farms to determine their readiness for CQP certification by establishing a baseline and determining the types of TA support needed for CQP compliance. They then work with growers to complete the CQP certification process. On August 17, 2023, CQP audit at New Entry was completed and the certificate covers nine farm businesses that are operating on the incubator, five of which are engaged in sales to the New Entry Food Hub. Two other growers completed Vermont CAPs food safety certifications. These farmers are in neighboring New Hampshire, outside of the statewide Massachusetts CQP jurisdiction. During 2023, the CQP webinar that New Entry offered, "What is the Commonwealth Quality Program," recorded additional 27 views. The webinar (held in March 2021) "Wholesale and Institutional Markets: Conversations with Experts to Inform Buyers and Growers" that provides food safety information to sell to institutional sales recorded an additional 142 views. It discusses strategies and resources for expanding the local food sector into wholesale and institutional markets and included representatives from NCAT/ATTRA, Legal Food Hub, Farmer to Institution New England, and MA Farm to School. In this webinar, food safety tutorials, food service toolkits, and other resources are shared. New Entry also hosts an asynchronous course Making Less Risky Business of Wholesale and Institutional Markets: An Online Course to highlight resources for growers and buyers interested in wholesale and intermediated markets, including food safety. During the reporting period, 26 farmers requested and received access to the online course. Obj 5: In winter 2022, four New Entry staff completed a PSA Trainer certification to facilitate and teach the PSA Grower training. This training and practical experience by offering the course with a UMass Extension educator enhanced staff capacity to teach subject matter. Our Farm Manager participated in a 16 hr training and received certification in "Harmonized GAP Food Safety Coach Training Series" by Chesapeake Harvest. Our Food Hub Manager attended the FSOP PD Meeting in May 2022. In May 2023, five New Entry staff and five interns completed the 8-hour PSA Grower Training. This training enhanced staff and intern's capacity to communicate food safety standards to farmers. Staff leading the PSA Grower training gained teaching experience and improved subject matter fluency. Our Farm Manager attended the two-day NECAFS annual meeting in January 2023. Our Food Hub Manager submitted an abstract and participated in the two-day FSOP PD Meeting in May 2023. New Entry's targeted outreach resulted in surpassing the goal of PSA certification for 20 beginning farmers in our local network. Evaluation of pre and post assessment tests, demonstrated increased producer understanding of food safety practices and PSR compliance. Trainings in Dracut and at New Entry's Incubator Farm and CQP audit with MDAR providedfarmers with information to adopt new food safety practices. New Entry staff and interns received education and certifications by completing PSA Training and participating in the annual NECAFS and National Food Safety Director's Meetings.
Publications
|
Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:New Entry's farmer participants are from all over the world (Cambodia, Cameroon, Haiti, Mexico,Bangladesh, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the USA) and include socially disadvantaged, underserved, and limited resource producers. New Entry's target audience are primarily aspiring and prospective farmers,start-up and beginning farmers, and establishing farmers in their first ten years of operations. Most are farming or on small acreage near peri-urban or suburban communities across eastern Massachusetts. On average, approximately 50% of beginning farmers participating in our programs are economically disadvantaged; 52% of participants are women, and 38% are immigrants and refugees. Many are veterans. All are small scale: our specialty crop producers mostly farm less than 5 acres. Most producers are leasing, licensing, or renting small acreage close to communities of Greater Boston, Suffolk, Essex, and Middlesex County. For this FSOP project, we primarily focused on the 35 small producer selling to our New Entry Food Hub as that was the focus of the food safety training and technical assistance. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project provided New Entry staff with opportunities to receive PSA certification, learn about and receive CQP certification, create and offer a site-specific post-harvest handling training, and many one-on-one TA opportunities to learn specific ways to improve produce safety. Staff who attended the NECAFS and FSOP PD meetings also gained knowledge and training by learning about other program models used to educate producers on food safety. The national FIELD Network networking sessions on food safety and best training approaches for diverse audiences also provide ongoing training and education about working with adult learners in land-based training concepts. New Entry staff also participated in a June 2023 Language Justice education program offered by Cultivemos (the Northeast Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network) to support our capacity to provide education in multiple languages and modalities. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results of this project have been disseminated to communities of interest through a variety of channels. We use social media platforms, newsletters, our website, and our YouTube channel to share updates and achievements. Additionally, we host community events, workshops, and info sessions to directly engage with our audience. Collaborations with local organizations and partners also help us reach a wider audience and ensure that the information is accessible to all interested parties. Food Safety Resources Guide for FSMA and CQP compliance. This guide is posted in our website and promoted through our monthly Farmer Resources Newsletter. The audience of this newsletter has 2,615 subscribers. The guide has been also promoted thorough our social networks to an audience of 8K+ subscribers via Facebook (4.8K), Instagram (2.6K) and LinkedIn (500+). Resources and results from the project have been shared at agricultural conferences, community events and networking engagements, this has included the following: Agricultural conferences: New Entry's Annual National FIELD School; MA Food System Annual Forum; 2023 National Ag Marketing Summit; NOFA conferences in Massachusetts; Northeastern Association of State Departments of Agriculture; Southeast New England Agriculture Annual Conference and Trade Show; Local Food Trade Shows; Massachusetts Commercial Urban Farming Symposiums; 2024 Mass Farm and Sea to School Conference, 2024 MDAR Farmer Resources Trade Show; and the New England Fruits and Vegetable biannual conference. Community Events: New Entry hosts farm tours as part of learning activities for diverse audiences in the local food system including students, farmers, and agencies offering support services for farmers. In 2023, we hosted the New Entry Farmer Resource Fair, that brought together 30 beginning and small farmers to meet and register with 15+ representatives of essential farm service providers. We also hosted the NCAT Armed to Farm training for veteran farmers. In this weeklong training, a cohort of 30 veteran farmers from MA and the region learned about many topics in agriculture and business management, including food safety. Networking Engagements: In 2023, New Entry launched the North Shore Mobile Market Coalition (NSMMC), a regional collaboration in Massachusetts to enhance the distribution, promotion, and sales of local produce through mobile markets. The project aims to leverage the collective purchasing power of mobile market operators to support small and underserved producers, and improve access to fresh, locally grown food for those facing food insecurity. The NSMMC builds on recommendations from the 2020 Conway School's Upper North Shore Food Study and other community food assessments, which highlighted the need for expanding mobile markets to underserved areas. The coalition will focus on integrating local produce into mobile markets and selecting locations that lack existing farmers markets or grocery stores, aiming to enhance food access in low-income communities. A strong emphasis in this partnership is distributing food that is safe, wholesome, and meets the food safety needs of vulnerable communities. New Entry is an active collaborator of The Massachusetts Agriculture Innovation Center (MAAIC), housed under the Franklin County Community Development Corporation, a network of business-assistance providers across the Commonwealth that helps farms and other value-added producers launch and scale new product ventures. Additionally New Entry leads a national network of Incubator farms and Ag apprenticeship programs (the FIELD Network), were learning sharing happens during monthly networking engagements. Food safety took a center stage during a webinar presented in partnership with the Agriculture and Land Based Training Association (ALBA) in Salinas, CA to discuss a decade of experience incorporating food safety training and technical assistance into incubator farm training program. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Obj 1: In May 2022 and 2023, two New Entry held Produce Safety Trainings for incubator farmers, local farmer networks, and uncertified staff and interns. Locations were accessible to farmers who had not yet attended. In 2022, we hired a translator in Khmer (Cambodian language) and 24 growers attended this 8-hour training and received PSA certification. In 2023, 11 growers and 10 New Entry interns and staff received PSA certification. Additionally, 4 more farmers who sell regularly to the Food Hub completed trainings in other venues and provided PSA certificates to the Food Hub. Obj 2: In March 2022, with MDAR, we offered a webinar on CQP to explain the certification process, introduce farmers to MDAR staff who facilitates certifications and mock audits, and explored CQP benefits for expanding market channels. Outreach specifically targeted beginning farmers. We reached out via text, phone and email and provided assistance with the online registration. 23 people registered for the webinar and 12 attended. We posted the webinar on YouTube which had 14 views. In July 2023, New Entry offered an in-person food safety training in Dracut, MA where six farmers do their packing and post-harvest handling. Live demonstrations set up a wash station that supports safe produce handling, packing and sanitation. A video was recorded of the wash station and work flow that reduces risk of produce contamination. This video was shared widely on New Entry's YouTube channel, online trainings and other media. As follow-up, a New Entry intern visited farms on a weekly basis for 12 weeks during 2023 to support produce transfer, answer questions, relay issues and changes, and collect feedback from growers.She worked with producers on crop quality, recommended wash station configurations, developed relationships between growers and connected them to resources. In 2023, New Entry interns and staff created a food safety resources catalog for FSMA and CQP compliance which includes links translated to multiple languages including English, Spanish and Hmong; some links include resources translated to Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog, French, and Haitian Creole. In 2023, a certified Produce Safety Alliance trainer was featured in both sessions of our Crop Production Course (totaling 38 students) to inform the students about FSMA and the PSR. In June 2023, New Entry's national FIELD Network monthly discussion session for staff and managers of land-based farmer training programs was food safety training resources and the discussion was facilitated by ALBA out of Salinas, CA. They shared strategies for supporting historically underserved farmers with GAP certification, food safety plan development, and on-farm audits with 29 organizations who registered and received information and 25 organizations participated in discussions and break out groups. Obj 3: New Entry staff provides technical assistance to incubator farmers and growers who sell to the food hub. We communicated post-harvest handling and wash/pack protocols to ensure food safety, and emphasized the importance of clear and complete labeling and accurate invoicing for traceability. To make information accessible, New Entry staff used multiple channels of communication (including in-person, text, phone calls and emails). During the reporting period 25.25, 25.5 and 18.25 staff hours were logged respectively in 2021, 2022 and 2023 for 19 farmers in topics related to food safety visits, risk assessments, referral to MDAR - CQP program, traceability, records, and food safety documentation. Staff communicated post-harvest handling and wash/pack protocols to ensure food safety, and emphasized clear and complete labeling and accurate invoicing for traceability. New Entry staff used all available methods (including in-person, text, phone calls and emails) to communicate. During the summer of 2023, a New Entry intern provided 12 weeks of weekly in-person technical assistance to 6 farmers at the Dracut farm, totaling 9.3 hours of TA specifically about food safety. Obj 4: In March 2022, we held an informational CQP webinar to introduced to the official who conducts mock audits and producers were invited to take next steps to set up mock-audits and obtain CQP certification. In June 2022, New Entry staff invited incubator farmers to a field walk and mock audit of the farm with MDAR. MDAR staff clarified and demonstrated the CQP audit process to new farmers. Through the CQP audit process, 12 farm businesses on the incubator are certified Group CQP. New Entry staff supported CQP certification for farmers who sell to the Food Hub and 7 have received CQP, CAPS or CAPS+ Certification while 3 more have completed detailed Food Safety Plans. Staff visit those farms to determine their readiness for CQP certification by establishing a baseline and determining the types of TA support needed for CQP compliance. They then work with growers to complete the CQP certification process. On August 17, 2023, CQP audit at New Entry was completed and the certificate covers nine farm businesses that are operating on the incubator, five of which are engaged in sales to the New Entry Food Hub. Two other growers completed Vermont CAPs food safety certifications. These farmers are in neighboring New Hampshire, outside of the statewide Massachusetts CQP jurisdiction. During 2023, the CQP webinar that New Entry offered, "What is the Commonwealth Quality Program," recorded additional 27 views. The webinar (held in March 2021) "Wholesale and Institutional Markets: Conversations with Experts to Inform Buyers and Growers" that provides food safety information to sell to institutional sales recorded an additional 142 views. It discusses strategies and resources for expanding the local food sector into wholesale and institutional markets and included representatives from NCAT/ATTRA, Legal Food Hub, Farmer to Institution New England, and MA Farm to School. In this webinar, food safety tutorials, food service toolkits, and other resources are shared. New Entry also hosts an asynchronous course Making Less Risky Business of Wholesale and Institutional Markets: An Online Course to highlight resources for growers and buyers interested in wholesale and intermediated markets, including food safety. During the reporting period, 26 farmers requested and received access to the online course. Obj 5: In winter 2022, four New Entry staff completed a PSA Trainer certification to facilitate and teach the PSA Grower training. This training and practical experience by offering the course with a UMass Extension educator enhanced staff capacity to teach subject matter. Our Farm Manager participated in a 16 hr training and received certification in "Harmonized GAP Food Safety Coach Training Series" by Chesapeake Harvest. Our Food Hub Manager attended the FSOP PD Meeting in May 2022. In May 2023, five New Entry staff and five interns completed the 8-hour PSA Grower Training. This training enhanced staff and intern's capacity to communicate food safety standards to farmers. Staff leading the PSA Grower training gained teaching experience and improved subject matter fluency. Our Farm Manager attended the two-day NECAFS annual meeting in January 2023. Our Food Hub Manager submitted an abstract and participated in the two-day FSOP PD Meeting in May 2023. New Entry's targeted outreach resulted in surpassing the goal of PSA certification for 20 beginning farmers in our local network. Evaluation of pre and post assessment tests, demonstrated increased producer understanding of food safety practices and PSR compliance. Trainings in Dracut and at New Entry's Incubator Farm and CQP audit with MDAR provided farmers with information to adopt new food safety practices. New Entry staff and interns received education and certifications by completing PSA Training and participating in the annual NECAFS and National Food Safety Director's Meetings.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:New Entry's farmer participants are from all over the world (Cambodia, Cameroon, Haiti, Mexico, Bangladesh, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the USA) and include socially disadvantaged, underserved, and limited resource producers. New Entry's target audience are primarily aspiring and prospective farmers, start-up and beginning farmers, and establishing farmers in their first ten years of operations. Most are farming or want to farm on small acreage near peri-urban or suburban communities. On average, in 2022-2023, approximately 26% of farmers participating in New Entry's programs earn less than $30,000 per year (are limited/resource or economically disadvantaged); 54.4% of participants are women, 9.8% are military veterans, 44.3% identify as an ethnicity other than white, and 14.2% are foreign born. All are small scale: our specialty crop producers mostly farm less than 5 acres. Most producers are leasing, licensing, or renting small acreage close to communities of Greater Boston, Suffolk, Essex, and Middlesex County where farmland is rare and costly, making it imperative to have strong, direct market connections and a solid farm business strategy to succeed. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? New Entry's efforts at targeted outreach resulted in surpassing the goal of PSA certification for more than 20 beginning farmers in our local network. Through evaluation of pre- and post- assessment tests, attendees demonstrated increased understanding of produce safely practices and produce safety rule compliance. The food safety training in Dracut and the New Entry Incubator Farm CQP audit with MDAR provided farmers with information that enables them to embrace food safety practices. New Entry staff and interns also received education and certifications in produce safety by completing PSA Training and participating in the annual NECAFS and National Food Safety Director's Meetings. This project has provided opportunities for staff to received professional development through PSA certification courses, to learn about and receive CQP certification, create and offer a site-specific post-harvest handling training and many one-on-one TA opportunities to learn specific ways to improve produce safety. Staff who attended the NECAFS and FSOP PD meetings also gained knowledge and training by learning about other program models used to educate producers on food safety. The national FIELD Network networking sessions on food safety and best training approaches for diverse audiences also provide ongoing training and education about working with adult learners in land-based training concepts. New Entry staff also participated in a June 2023 Language Justice education program offered by Cultivemos (the Northeast Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network) to support our capacity to provide education in multiple languages and modalities. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Disseminating information about these learning opportunities has been a major focus of this project. Staff used text, phone calls, on-farm visits to the 30+ farmers we work with closely on the incubator and in the food hub and by email to communicate upcoming training opportunities and the benefits of attending to over 4,000 farmers in our local/regional networks. Staff also provided technical support registering for trainings and arranged for translation services when needed. We have posted training videos and workshop recordings on our YouTube channels to reach a broader audience and we are in the process of finalizing a resource toolkit that compiles food safety resources and sample food safety plans for broad distribution. This fall (October 2023), New Entry plans to share food safety training strategies and certification support resources at the national FIELD School and through future FIELD networking events. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? New Entry plans to offer a 2024 PSA Grower training in spring 2024, present at the October 2023 FIELD school and a follow up FIELD networking event. We will coordinate follow-up site visits for CQP compliance with producers this fall, focusing on a follow-up visit with an MDAR CQP representative to the Dracut farm site to assess food safety progress since the on-site training and identify challenges and next steps in the certification process. During the project extension period, we will also be documenting our strategies to assist producers with development of individual food safety plans and compliance and we will finalize and disseminate the Food Safety resource guide and develop additional food safety training videos and educational tools to share with broader audiences, specifically those serving non-English language speakers.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective 1: In May 2023, with the support of a lead trainer from UMass Extension, two New Entry staff offered an in-person Produce Safety Training at the site of one of our partner organizations, Mill City Grows. This training was offered specifically for the small-scale incubator and post-incubator farmers in our local beginning farmer network as well as uncertified staff and interns. The location was chosen to make the training more accessible to farmers in our network that had not yet received the certification. New Entry staff members actively reached out to the farmers who regularly sell to the Food Hub to explain the relevance and benefits of this certification and provided assistance registering for the training. Through the course of this 8-hr training in 2023, all 11 growers and 10 New Entry interns and staff who attended received PSA certification. Objective 2: In July 2023, New Entry offered an in-person food safety training at a farm site in Dracut, MA where six farmers do their packing and post-harvest handling. Staff performed a live demonstration for the six farmers and set up a wash station that supports safe produce handling, packing and sanitation. A video was recorded that explains how and why the wash station is set up and how to create a work flow that reduces risk of produce contamination. This video will be shared widely through New Entry's YouTube channel, online trainings and other media. In preparation and as follow-up for this training, a New Entry intern visited the Dracut site on a weekly basis for 12 weeks during the summer of 2023. The intern was at the point of produce transfer each week to help answer questions, relay issues and changes, and collect and distribute feedback from the growers. She worked individually with many on crop quality and spent time assessing what the best wash station configurations would be best based on the growers' diverse needs. She developed relationships with all the growers and connected them and the organization as a whole more fully to this site's food safety needs and connected them to other regional supporting organizations who assisted. In the summer of 2023, New Entry interns and staff also created a food safety resources catalog for FSMA and CQP compliance which includes links to resources available in multiple languages including English, Spanish and Hmong mainly; some links also include resources translated to Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog, French, and Haitian Creole. Additionally, food safety training has been a central component of our Crop Production Course. In 2023, a certified Produce Safety Alliance trainer was featured in both sessions of our Crop Production Course (totaling 38 students) to inform the students about FSMA and the PSR. In June 2023, New Entry held a national FIELD Network monthly discussion session for staff and managers of land-based farmer training programs (incubator farms, apprenticeships, and other University-based or community-based farmer training programs). The topic was food safety training resources and the discussion was facilitated by ALBA out of Salinas, CA who shared their program strategies for supporting historically underserved farmers with GAP certification, food safety plan development, and on-farm audits to achieve compliance. ALBA also offers services to BIPOC-led organizations to prepare successful FSOP training proposals; there were 29 organizations who registered and received information from the workshop and 25 organizations attended the virtual session and participated in the discussion and break out groups. We are currently planning to host a national workshop session at our 2023 FIELD School in October 2023 to share strategies for assisting new producers to obtain third party certifications on incubator farms which will address food safety compliance and audited food safety training programs. We anticipate that at least 65 organizations from across the US will be represented at the FIELD School to share best practices. Objective 3: During the reporting period (September, 2022 - August, 2023) 25.50 staff hours were logged-in for 19 farmers in topics related to food safety visits, risk assessments, referrals to MDAR - CQP program, traceability, records to keep, and food safety documentation. This one-on-one technical assistance was provided to incubator farmers and small-scale growers who sell produce to the Food Hub. Staff communicated post-harvest handling and wash/pack protocols to ensure food safety, and emphasized the importance of clear and complete labeling and accurate invoicing for traceability. In order to make this information accessible to as many growers as possible, New Entry staff used all available methods (including in-person, text, phone calls and emails) to communicate food safety information to producers. In addition, during the summer of 2023, a New Entry intern provided 12 weeks of weekly in-person technical assistance to 6 farmers at the Dracut farm site, totaling 9.3 hours of technical assistance specifically about food safety; another 62 hours of intern time was also spent providing support to producers on crop quality, workshop preparation, research on curriculum and best practices for teaching food safety, and communications with farmers and project team. Objective 4: On August 17, 2023, the CQP audit at New Entry was completed and New Entry Incubator Farm received CQP certification. This certificate covers nine farm businesses that are operating on the incubator, five of which are engaged in sales to the New Entry Food Hub. Additionally, two other growers for the Food Hub completed Vermont CAPs food safety certifications. These farmers are in neighboring New Hampshire, outside of the statewide Massachusetts CQP jurisdiction. During the reporting period, the 2022 CQP webinar that New Entry offered, "What is the Commonwealth Quality Program," recorded additional 27 views. The webinar (held in March 2021) "Wholesale and Institutional Markets: Conversations with Experts to Inform Buyers and Growers" that provides food safety information to sell to institutional sales recorded an additional 142 views. It discusses strategies and resources for expanding the local food sector into wholesale and institutional markets and included representatives from NCAT/ATTRA, Legal Food Hub, Farmer to Institution New England, and MA Farm to School. In this webinar, food safety tutorials, food service toolkits, and other resources are shared. New Entry also hosts an asynchronous course Making Less Risky Business of Wholesale and Institutional Markets: An Online Course that is designed to highlight resources for growers and buyers interested in wholesale and intermediated markets, including food safety. During the reporting period, 26 farmers requested and received access to the online course. Objective 5: In May 2023, five New Entry staff and five interns completed the 8-hour PSA Grower Training led by our Farm and Food Hub Managers who are certified to teach the training. This training greatly enhanced the staff and intern's capacity to communicate food safety standards to farmers throughout the season. The staff that lead the PSA Grower training, in collaboration with a UMass Extension educator, gained additional teaching experience and improved fluency in the subject matter. In addition, Leah Jurman, Farm Manager, attended the two-day NECAFS annual meeting in January of 2023. Sara Poggi Davis, Food Hub Manager, submitted an abstract and participated in the 2-day "Food Safety Outreach Program Project National Director's Meeting" in May of 2023. Additionally, New Entry staff participated in the June 2023 FIELD Networking session with ALBA and learned from other program strategies how they best support producers with food safety education.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:New Entry's target farmer participants reached during this FSOP reporting period are from all over the world (Cambodia, Cameroon, Haiti, Mexico, Bangladesh, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the USA) and include socially disadvantaged, underserved, and limited resource producers. New Entry's target audience are primarily aspiring and prospective farmers, start-up and beginning farmers, and establishing farmers in their first ten years of operations. Most are farming or want to farm on small acreage near peri-urban or suburban communities. On average, approximately 50% of beginning farmers participating in our programs are economically disadvantaged; 52% of participants are women, and 38% are immigrants and refugees. Many are veterans. All are small scale: our specialty crop producers mostly farm less than 5 acres. Most producers are leasing, licensing, or renting small acreage close to communities of Greater Boston, Suffolk, Essex, and Middlesex County where farmland is rare and costly, making it imperative to have strong, direct market connections and a solid farm business strategy to succeed. Changes/Problems:We have no major changes to the program plan to report. However, we are finding that producers are interested in attending and receiving PSA (Produce Safety Alliance) training, but have been less interested in taking the next steps to become CQP (Commonwealth Quality Program) certified due to the paperwork, inspection process, and lack of market requirements for third-party certification. In order to continue to encourage certification, New Entry is exploring making CQP certification a future requirement for sales through the New Entry Food Hub. We will be planning to roll out the farmer communications and opportunities for technical assistance as we conduct the baseline farm visits this fall and identify key challenges or barriers to certification and determine what additional trainings or supports are needed. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?As reported above, one of our main objectives (Objective 5) directly addresses professional develoment goals for staff. Objective 5: Improve the training capacity of New Entry staff through ongoing FSMA training and participation in NECAFS regional learning groups for key New Entry staff to increase our organizational capacity to teach the FSMA Produce Rule and Preventative Controls to new and beginning specialty crop producers across Massachusetts. In the winter of 2022, four New Entry staff completed a week-long Produce Safety Alliance (PSA) Trainer certification course that qualified us to facilitate and teach the PSA Grower training. This training, as well as the on-the-ground experience gained through offering the course in collaboration with a UMass Extension educator in the spring, greatly enhanced the staff's capacity to teach and improved food safety fluency in the subject matter. Additionally, New Entry's Farm Manager and Operations Administrator, participated in a 16 hour training and received certifications in "Harmonized GAP Food Safety Coach Training Series" by Chesepeke Harvest. New Entry's Food Hub Manager also attended a National Food Safety Conference May 25-26, 2022. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?New Entry has not yet developed a targeted outreach and communication campaign to share results achieved to date as a result of this program. We did include notification to broad stakeholders in our monthly newsletters (>15,000 subscribers) and various regional farmer listservs about the PSA trainings and the CQP mock audit workshops. We will continue to communicate to targeted audiences about ongoing training and technical assistance programming. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?As noted above in Objective 2, we plan to share our educational approaches with other agricultural service providers in several ways. At the FIELD School this fall (October 2022), our Farm Manager will present New Entry's approach to Food Safety Training; she will be joined by staff at Transplanting Traditions, a nonprofit organization in North Carolina, who will offer a virtual presentation on Food Safety Training for refugee farmers as part of the workshop session. This workshop will likely be attended by 30 service providers who train beginning farmers. Later this fall, New Entry will also organize and facilitate a national webinar that will feature a Mass Farm to School presentation on selling to institutions. As noted in Objective 4, New Entry staff will continue to work toward supporting CQP certification for those farmers who sell regularly to the Food Hub. As a first step, staff will visit those farms this fall to determine their readiness for CQP certification by establishing a baseline of existing food safety practices and risk areas and determining the types of technical assistance support needed to come into CQP compliance. We will then work with growers to address any barriers and complete the CQP certification process. We will also be working to on-board new producers to apply to the incubator farm and to sell to the food hub this fall/winter to help prepare them with food safety training and certification process prior to the 2023 growing season.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective 1: Support at least 20 new and beginning producers to complete 8-hr FSMA Produce Safety Rule grower training testing innovative educational delivery methods. In May 2022, with the support of a lead trainer from UMass Extension, a Produce Safety Training was offered at our farm by four New Entry staff. We offered this training specifically for the small-scale incubator and post-incubator farmers in our local beginning farmer network. We actively reached out to the farmers who regularly sell to the Food Hub to explain the relevance and benefits of this certification and provided assistance registering for the training when needed. We hired a translator to make the training accessible in Khemer. Through the course of this 8-hr training, all 24 of the growers who attended received PSA certification. Objective 2: Implement outreach activities (translation as needed) to enhance FSMA/PSR understanding and compliance for beginning specialty crop producers across Massachusetts and through our National Team's efforts with the FIELD Network. In March 2022, with the support of Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR), we offered a webinar on the Commonwealth Quality Program (CQP), which is MDAR's state food safety certification program equivalent to GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) certification. In this webinar, we explained the CQP certification process, introduced farmers to the MDAR representative who facilitates the certification and the mock audits, and explored the benefits of CQP certification for expanding market channels. Once again, our outreach for this webinar was specifically targeted to beginning farmers in our local networks. We reached out individually through text, phone, and email channels to invite incubator and post-incubator farmers in the region to participate and provided assistance with the online registration for the session when needed. Twenty three people registered for the webinar and twelve attended the live session. For those who could not attend, we posted a video recording of the webinar on YouTube which, to date, has fourteen unique views. We plan to share our educational approaches with other agricultural service providers in several ways. At the FIELD School this fall (October 2022), our Farm Manager will present New Entry's approach to Food Safety Training; she will be joined by staff at Transplanting Traditions, a nonprofit organization in North Carolina, who will offer a virtual presentation on Food Safety Training for refugee farmers as part of the workshop session. This workshop will likely be attended by 30 service providers who train beginning farmers. Later this fall, New Entry will also organize and facilitate a national webinar that will feature a Mass Farm to School presentation on selling to institutions. Objective 3: Implement direct technical assistance for new and beginning farmers on our incubator farms, on our graduates' farms, and at the New Entry Food Hub. Direct technical assistance activities will include but not be limited to: farm site visits to assess compliance and support remediation; bookkeeping including invoicing systems for traceability, and other communication around food safety during produce delivery windows at the New Entry Food Hub; one-on-one support for creation of individual food safety plans. Direct technical assistance will include translation services as required to ensure that socially disadvantaged farmers are not left behind by the Produce Safety Rule. New Entry staff provided 25.25 hours of one-on-one technical assistance to incubator farmers and small-scale growers who sell produce to the food hub. We communicated post-harvest handling and wash/pack protocols to ensure food safety, and emphasized the importance of clear and complete labeling for each bin of produce delivered and accurate invoicing for traceability. In order to make this information accessible to as many growers as possible, New Entry staff used all available channels of communication (including in-person, text, phone calls and emails) to communicate technical information and food safety requirements. Objective 4: Educate and support New Entry Food Hub producers on MDAR Commonwealth Quality Program (CQP) requirements and support compliance with GroupCQP Certification (MGAP) and Audit services. Disseminate existing food safety training materials to producers to prepare them for certification and audit visits. Provide direct technical assistance for beginning and limited resource farmers participating in the New Entry Food Hub. In March 2022, we invited those beginning and limited resource farmers who participate in the Food Hub to participate in an informational CQP webinar. Those in attendance were directly introduced to the official who conducts the mock audits and were invited to take next steps to set up mock-audits and obtain CQP certification for their farm operations. In June 2022, New Entry staff invited incubator farmers to participate in a field walk and mock audit of the New Entry incubator farm with MDAR. MDAR staff provided a run-through of the CQP audit process in order to make this process less intimidating and more accessible to new farmers. Through the CQP audit process, 12 farm businesses on the incubator are now certified through the Group CQP. Next steps for the incubator farm is to perform a mock-recall/traceability exercise. New Entry staff will work toward supporting CQP certification for those farmers who sell regularly to the Food Hub. As a first step, staff will visit those farms this fall to determine their readiness for CQP certification by establishing a baseline of existing food safety practices and risk areas and determining the types of technical assistance support needed to come into CQP compliance. We will then work with growers to address any barriers and complete the CQP certification process. Objective 5: Improve the training capacity of New Entry staff through ongoing FSMA training and participation in NECAFS regional learning groups for key New Entry staff to increase our organizational capacity to teach the FSMA Produce Rule and Preventative Controls to new and beginning specialty crop producers across Massachusetts. In the winter of 2022, four New Entry staff completed a week-long Produce Safety Alliance (PSA) Trainer certification course that qualified us to facilitate and teach the PSA Grower training. This training, as well as the on-the-ground experience gained through offering the course in collaboration with a UMass Extension educator in the spring, greatly enhanced the staff's capacity to teach and improved food safety fluency in the subject matter. Additionally, New Entry's Farm Manager and Operations Administrator, participated in a 16 hour training and received certifications in "Harmonized GAP Food Safety Coach Training Series" by Chesepeke Harvest. New Entry's Food Hub Manager also attended a National Food Safety Conference May 25-26, 2022.
Publications
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