Recipient Organization
TEXAS ORGANIC FARMERS AND GARDENERS ASSOCIATION
621 LEXINGTON
ELGIN,TX 78621
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
"Food Safety Capacity Building for Exempt Farms in Texas" develops resources for farmers and farmer-facing nonprofits to enhance the on-farm food safety of small, direct-marketing Exempt and Qualified Exempt farms. The project brings together two statewide and three regional organizations that work directly with sustainable and organic farms who largely sell direct to consumer. While these farms are in North, Central, and South Texas, they have very similar needs that have yet to be fully met by existing or previous training opportunities. With the Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (TOFGA) as the lead, this collaboration will strengthen the capacity of each organization to provide food safety information and resources for their farmer networks. The project leverages existing FSMA grower training materials from the PSA Grower Training curriculum and other Food Safety Outreach Programs to develop workshops on six topics pertinent to the intended farmers with their feedback, trains existing personnel at collaborating organizations, and develops an online food safety resource hub.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The goal of this project is to increase the capacity of farmer-facing organizations in Texas to provide training and technical assistance to underserved, small fruit and vegetable growers in the state through a network of trainers and resources.Objective 1: Increase the on-farm food safety knowledge of small-scale farmers in Texas by adapting existing food safety curriculum to meet the needs of the identified audience. The curriculum of six workshops - 2 sets of 3 topics - will utilize video, interactive activities, and on-farm experiences to teach food safety concepts needed for the target audience. The workshops will be offered across the three target areas of Texas.Objective 2: Establish a network of trained Food Safety Allies (FSAs) based at collaborating organizations. Co-PD's will participate as FSA's along with other staff or farmers as appropriate.Objective 3: Establish a food safety resource hub on the TOFGA website that will be a to-go resource for Texas small-scale, direct-marketing, sustainable and organic farmers.
Project Methods
The collaborative approach for this project will simplify food safety best practices and distill the information down to the basics. Our intended audience will understand food safety risks and how to assess them on their farm as well as employ appropriate mitigation strategies. The goal is for farmers to feel confident, not overwhelmed. They need to understand their responsibilities but also understand how those responsibilities will be implemented for their farm operation.At the beginning of the project, all Co-PD's will receive PSA grower training to establish a baseline of knowledge. The Team will use people and resources from the Southern Center to connect to other food safety experts and resources for similar audiences to build the workshops. Existing relationships with trainers Billy Mitchell, Kristen Woods, and Maggie Kaiser will provide additional support for finding existing resources and making connections. While we want to tailor our education to our audience, we also want to take advantage of strategies that other have already employed.The Project Team will work together to decide on topics, develop learning objectives, and find or create interactive activities to support the topic. Each Co-PD will participate with at least two of the six topics. They will develop a timeline for completion, meet as needed outside the Project Team meetings, and present the completed workshop plan to the collaborative. The workshops will be developed in two sets of three topic to be offered on the same day. The workshops will be scheduled for initial offering in each geographical area with the intent of gaining feedback from the participants. This feedback will be used to improve on workshop design and presentation in preparation for a second round of the same workshops. Evaluation is woven into the timeline to provide initial and ongoing feedback from the Project Team and from participants. Collaborators will schedule and promote the workshops events in their areas with support from the TOFGA team and all collaborators. The online resource hub will be built with the TOFGA team in the lead but with all collaborators participating.Evaluation for the project will be managed by the TOFGA Co-PD's with shared activities among all collaborators. Marisol Cervantes will oversee evaluation and ensure that these activities occur as they are scheduled on the timeline.Objective 1 - Increasing on-farm food safety knowledge:Participants will complete post workshop evaluations to gage knowledge and analysis of how the information applies to their operationAdditional evaluations will occur 1 month and 3 months after the workshop experience through email or phone follow-up by organizational staffParticipants will provide feedback on workshops and presenters for iterative improvement throughout the projectProject collaborators will continually offer suggestions and ideas for improving or adapting curriculum and presentation of materialResults are tracked based on the expected outcomes listed aboveEach collaborator will be responsible for printing evaluations for in-person trainings in their area and having participants complete them. These will compiled then be shared with the Project Team for discussion as appropriate. The TOFGA team will be responsible for collection and aggregation of overall training evaluations and maintenance of records in accordance with the data management plan.Objective 2 - Training of Food Safety Allies:Food Safety Allies report an increased confidence teaching adultsFood Safety Allies can each answer questions about Exempt and Qualified Exempt farm criteria when asked by farmers or other collaboratorsFood Safety Allies will report that their knowledge of and comfort with general on-farm food safety has increased, and they will be able to identify and/or find resources needed for farmers from online sourcesProject Director Susie Marshall will be responsible for working with the Food Safety Allies on evaluation of this objective. She will ensure that each Ally has the support they need to be successful, particularly if an Ally does not have much experience teaching.Objective - Food Safety Resource Hub:The online resource hub will be established on the TOFGA website according to the timeline, and metrics will be collected as stated aboveCo-PD's Bayne and Cervantes will be responsible for completion and promotion this part of the project, engaging additional collaborators as needed.