Progress 09/15/23 to 09/14/24
Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audiences are economically disadvantaged, hard to reach and underserved farmers in the food system. For our team of community-based Produce Safety Educators (PSEs), this means urban farmers, small-scale rural farmers, community gardeners, with a focus on Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) farmers. Since the beginning of our FY22 FSOP we have had 129 participants for our workshops and one-on-one technical assistance. Of these 129, 74% self-identified as BIPOC, with 87 Black, 7 Latinx, 1 Asian and 6 Indigenous participants. Nine of our team of ten PSEs identify as Black and serve as peers, educators and proponents of a culture of farm food safety within their respective communities. We also connect with our target audiences by partnering with BIPOC led organizations who share our commitment to these farmers. We have delivered workshops and technical assistance to the members, constituents, vendors, and farming staff of BIPOC led organizations such as the Farm Alliance of Baltimore, Neighborhood Lands Power Project and One Art Community Center in Philadelphia, the DE Urban Farm and Food Alliance, Around the Bay Farmers Alliance in MD, Native Green in RI, the Mid-Atlantic Black Farmer Caucus, PASA, and Common Market Mid-Atlantic and Common Market SE in PA, NJ, and AL. Among our PSE cohort, 60 percent are actively farming at a small-scale and 100 percent are working as educators and organizers in their respective communities. Our educators are reflective of the communities that we serve and that allows us to have a greater reach and impact within our target farming communities. Changes/Problems:Our FY20 FSOP project was extended for a year due to the pandemic. We have now completed that project but it did cause the start of activities for the 2022 FSOP to be delayed about 8 months. This is the main reason we asked for and received a no cost extension for the FY22 project. The start of our project was also delayed by the process of moving the project to the Eastern Shore Entrepreneurship Center from the Easton Economic Development Center. We are now a project of ESEC's Chesapeake Agriculture Innovation Center. This is a good fit for what we do and we see this project creating a pipeline of food safety educators who can become technical assistance providers for the innovation center's farmer clients. We reassessed our planned method of delivery of our professional development goals for training PSEs in post-harvest handling for wholesale readiness, and instruction in how to interpret GAP standards and develop food safety programs. We decided to take the opportunity to enable 4 of our PSEs to receive hands-on auditor training for Harmonized GAP along with advanced post-harvest handling training. They will also have the opportunity to become qualified auditors and be able to take advantage of opportunities to conduct external and internal audits for several certifying bodies and GroupGAP programs. This training was delivered by Patricia Tripp, a long time partner, and lead trainer Lindsay Gilmour. Between them, Patricia and Lindsay are qualified auditors for HGAP, USDA GAP and HGAP, Primus GFS, SGF, and Global GAP HPSS and regularly conduct audits. Patricia's company, Artisan Food Solutions, is a licensed certifying body for Harmonized GAP through the International Fresh Produce Association. We believe the auditor training and hands-on experience will more readily achieve our goal of enhancing the PSEs ability to assist farmers to write food safety plans and become audit ready. Our proposal was for a cohort of 6 Produce Safety Educators (PSEs) to receive advanced training and opportunities to teach what they have learned. We had anticipated at least 3 of 7 PSEs from the 2020 FSOP would transition out after completing training and deliverables. However, we actually have now 9 PSEs. Since many of the PSEs are farmers or all have other projects and employment, not all of them have the time to complete all deliverables so we expect to be able to have sufficient funding to complete the deliverables as planned. The PSA trainings we deliver are in partnership with the PA Farmers Union and PASA Sustainable Ag. The cost of delivering these training is shared by all the partners. After an honest assessment of our social media output and our capacity to post at the frequency necessary for a measurable impact, we have decided to continue posting and also redirect some funds from video production towards creating customized SOP posters for farmers we work with. Given the need for worker training tools that are easy to use and understand, we believe these posters that use images from the farm to illustrate how a task is done are a good use of our resources. We can capture images at each farm and use them to help the farmer create a customized SOP. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In year two, 3 PSEs participated in the 2024 NECAFS conference in Portland ME. 6 of the PSEs participated as trainers in at least 2 of the 5 workshops we delivered, and 6 PSEs have participated in at least 2 on-farm risk assessments. 5 PSEs have worked with farmers to help them develop a GAP food safety plan either as lead educators or assisting. 3 PSEs have participated as trainers for a PSA Grower Training. 4 PSEs completed HGAP Auditor Training. 2 PSEs completed a training on MD GAP. 1 PSE participated in a training on food safety for mushroom farming. 4 PSEs participated in webinars on the Updated Ag Water Rule, soil amendments and the FDA Traceability Rule. We also supported PSEs in continuing education that expands their expertise in food safety. 1 PSE completed ServSafe training and another participated in a course conducted by the MA Ag Innovation Center called Food Product Development for New Food Businesses. Several members of our team attend the annual NECAFS conference, regularly communicate with NECAFS staff, and attend NECAFS and PSA Trainer meetings and webinars. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Videos and other digital results of our project have been regularly posted to youtube and social media. Videos and recordings of our webinars are shared via the toolkits and on our YouTube channel. We also shared our videos on the NECAFS Clearinghouse. Our produce safety resource toolkits are available online to the public. After each workshop we provide participants with a toolkit that includes the presentation materials, additional resources and templates for SOPs and records specific to the training topic. Each farmer who receives 1-1 coaching on writing a food safety plan has a food safety manual folder in google drive with their plan, SOPs, record templates and any resources we explored with them during the process of helping them write their plan. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Review the beta version of the UMD Produce TRAINer worker training toolkits and provide feedback to the developers. Conduct two tours of larger production farms and produce distribution houses in the region for our PSEs to become familiar with different infrastructure and technology utilised in these operations and gain a better understanding of what it takes to scale up a produce operation. 4 PSEs will complete the training for Preventive Controls Qualified Individual Allow PSEs to participate in 1 more appropriate food safety professional development activity of their choice. This could include the National Pesticide Applicator training or Principles of HACCP. Continue doing risk assessments and complete scheduled food safety plans. Deliver 2-3 more in-person workshops for our partners and farmers Continue creating media content, fact sheets and videos 3 PSEs will teach 2 PSA Grower Trainings in winter 2025 3 PSEs will complete the HGAP auditor training with Artisan Food Solutions. Each trainee auditor will shadow an audit and conduct an audit.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goals 1 and 2: In year 2, we provided each PSE opportunities to teach and continued professional development to increase their understanding of the Produce Safety Rule and GAP requirements, and enhance their proficiency in food safety risk assessment. The goals are they feel better equipped to teach the key components of produce safety, conduct on-farm risk assessments, and assist farmers to write food safety plans and become audit ready. Goal 1: Four PSEs participated in a Harmonized GAP Auditor Training with Artisan Food Solutions, a certifying body for HGAP. The training was 3 webinars and 3 days of in-the-field training on farms owned by members of the Lumbee tribe in NC. They received certificates for successful completion of the training and the exam. To complete become fully qualified auditors each of them must shadow and lead an audit. This training was also made completed by two food safety educator colleagues who are not part of our PSE team. Seven PSEs participated in training on the PSR Updated Subpart E Preharvest Water Rule - either a PSA webinar and/or a tutorial led by Lindsay Gilmour. One PSE attended a training on food safety for mushroom farming. Two PSEs received MD GAP training from UMD to better understand requirements of MD GAP. Goal 2: Our team delivered, in-person, 5 half-day workshops to a total of 72 participants and 1 PSA Grower Training to 15 participants. An evaluation survey was administered to the 6 PSEs. We used a Likert-type scale to rate their level of knowledge and confidence both before and after for 8 the topics. The scale had six points: 5=Excellent; 4=Very Good; 3=Good; 2=Fair; 1=Poor; and 0=Nonexistent. 1. The FSMA Produce Safety Rule and who has to comply with it. 2. How to convey and assess farm food safety and provide recommendations 3. The importance of training workers and the impact of human hygiene 4. How to find or create SOPs and documentation for produce safety 5. How to complete a RA with a farm, including report with recommendations 6. How to co-teach workshops on FSMA regulations and produce safety 7. How to help farmers locate resources for produce safety 8. How to co-teach (with Lindsay) writing a food safety plan with farmers Survey results showed an aggregate average gain in knowledge from 2.10 before to 3.85 after, a 34% gain on average. There was a 44% gain in particular for 1. The FSMA Produce Safety Rule and who has to comply with it, and 6. How to teach workshops on FSMA regulations and produce safety. The participants of the 5 workshops were 95% very small-scale farmers (farming 5-10 acres or less), 60% identified as BIPOC, 16% were community gardeners, 50% were urban growers, 21% were beginning farmers. We partnered with 8 community organizations, one institution, and one DOA to host the workshops - Farm Alliance of Baltimore, One Art Community Farm in Philadelphia, Delaware Urban Food and Farm Coalition, UMES, Around the Bay Farmer Alliance, Native Green Rhode Island, Neighborhood Lands Power Project, PASA, PA Farmers Union, DE Dept of Ag. From the 72 workshop participants, 30 people (42%) responded to our evaluation surveys. Below are survey results from the 5 half-day Workshops. We asked for farmer's level of agreement with nine statements about the webinar/workshop they attended, using an Agree-Disagree scale: Strongly Agree; Agree; Disagree; Strongly Disagree; Neutral or N/A.The aggregate average for this section of the survey was 95% Strongly Agreed or Agreed. 1. The purpose was CLEAR and easy to understand 2. The webinar/workshop was ORGANIZEDand easy to follow 3. The webinar/workshop was COMPREHENSIVE in scope 4. The pace of the webinar/workshop was APPROPRIATE 5. The webinar/workshop was INFORMATIVE and USEFUL 6. The trainer/s' presentation skills were EFFECTIVE 7. Interaction between participants and trainer/s was SUFFICIENT 8. Time for raising questions and expressing concerns was AMPLE 9. The webinar/workshop met my NEEDS and CONCERNS Using the same 6-point Likert-type scale to rate their level of knowledge both before and after the training we asked the following questions. 1. The importance of assessing risk before you plant and harvest 2. The importance of clean and tidy farming operations for food safety 3. How to reduce the risk of contamination spreading 4. Why and when to use sanitizer and how to use it 5. Standard operating procedures and why they are important 6. Information farm personnel and volunteers need to know about food safety The aggregate average gain in knowledge of the 30 farmers was 2.99 to 4.12, a 23% gain. We asked the following questions to gage the Overall Training Impact using a 5-point scale where 1 was very unlikely and 5 was very likely. 1. How likely are you to implement produce safety on your farm? 2. How likely are you to write an SOP? 3. How likely are you to implement a food safety plan on your farm? The aggregate average rating was 4.86. Goal 3: In year 2 our team provided one-on-one technical assistance to 18 farmers. We conducted 18 on-farm risk assessments for farms in DE, MD, AL, NJ and PA. This included the 6 farmers we also assisted to develop food safety plans and achieve audit readiness, 1 for Harmonized GAP, 2 for Mushroom GAP, 1 for USDA GAP, and 2 for MD GAP. 3 plans are completed, 3 are still in progress as of 9/14/24, and we conducted mock desk audits for two of these farmers. To reach these farmers we partnered with the Around the Bay Farmers Alliance, Mid-Atlantic Black Farmer Caucus, Farm Alliance of Baltimore and The Common Market. Due to our diverse partners, the farmers have been African American, Korean, Indigenous and White. Of these 19 farmers, 68 percent were BIPOC and 52% were women. We asked the following questions to gage the gain in knowledge of the farmers who received one-on-one Technical Assistance. We used the 6-point Likert-type scale to rate their level of learning both before and after the training. 1. Understanding and assessing potential food safety hazards on your farm. 2. Evaluating the risk of food safety hazards occurring on your farm. 3. Putting in place corrective actions that may reduce risks on your farm. 4. Understanding the requirements of the USDA (or Maryland) GAP audit program. 5. Writing a food safety plan for your farm. 6. Providing effective food safety training for farm personnel. 7. Developing practical Standard Operating Procedures. 8. Developing and customizing record/log templates. 31% of farmers responded and the aggregate average gain in knowledge was 2.63 to 3.90, an average gain of 26%. Goal 4: We have contracted with one of PSEs to take videos at workshops and during risk assessments and we have released 4 videos on social media so far. Events are posted regularly to social media along with other useful resources and information for the social media audience. Our website now lives on the Chesapeake Ag Innovation Center website and includes our Produce Safety Toolkits which are updated regularly. https://caic.org/food-safety/. We also have webinar recordings and produced videos on our youtube channel and posted on the NECAFS Clearinghouse. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgA5NzWxMzF2o2MqKwU3Pkw The Produce Safety Resource Toolkits we share on our website are always a work in progress. These resources include templates for food safety plans, SOPs and records that we create along with the farmers we assist. And we continuously add new fact sheets and guides, templates, and resource links that our colleagues develop. The toolkits can be found here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16FfHcVItWbURdvpKf-2bOWvH7JtTWvcj?usp=share_link. We will continue to showcase farms in our communities and address farmer's burning produce safety questions by capturing additional very short videos of real-world farm solutions and mini interviews with farmers and other subject matter experts.
Publications
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Progress 09/15/22 to 09/14/23
Outputs
Target Audience:Our targeted audiences are hard to reach and underserved farmers in the food system. We see the importance of reaching urban farmers, small farmers, community gardeners, Black, Indigenous and People of Color(BIPOC) farmers and others. This is reflected in our workshopand one-one coachingparticipants where 79% of 62participants have self identified as BIPOC, with 37 Black, 6 Latinx, and 6 Indigenous participants. We also target community based Produce Safety Educators (PSE) who serve as peers, educators and proponents of a culture of food safety within their respective communities. All 8 of our PSE identify as Black. We reach our target audiences by partnering with BIPOC led organizations who share our goals. We reached underserved and hard to reach farmers by teaching workshops and providing one on one coachinginpartnershipwith community organizations in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Rhode Islandand Alabama who serve this demographic. We reached community based educators with our trainings and professional development opportunities for our PSEcohort. Among our PSE cohort 90 percent are actively farming and 100 percent are working as educators and organizers in their respective communities. Changes/Problems:Our 2020 FSOP project was extended for a year due to the pandemic. We have now completed that project but it did cause the start of activities for the 2022 FSOP to be delayed about 6 months. However, we are pretty confident we can complete all deliverables by mid-September 2024. The one limiting factor could be we don't have enough time this winterto work with all the farmers who want one-on-one coaching to complete food safety plans. We also moved the project to Eastern Shore Entrepreneurship Center. We are now a project of ESEC's Chesapeake Ag Innovation Center. This is a good fit for what we do and we see this project creating a pipeline of food safety educators who canbecome technical assistance providers for the innovation center's clients. We reassessed our planned method of delivery of our professional development goals for training PSEs inpost-harvest handling for wholesale readiness, andinstruction in how to interpret GAP standards and develop food safetyprograms. We decided to takethe opportunity to enable 5 of our PSEs to receive hands-on auditor training for Harmonized GAP along with advanced post-harvest handling training. They will become qualified auditorsand be able to take advantage of opportunities to conduct externaland internal audits for several certifying bodies and GroupGAP programs. This training will be delivered by Patricia Tripp, a long time partner, and lead trainer Lindsay Gilmour. Between them, Patricia and Lindsay are qualified auditors for HGAP, USDA GAP and HGAP, Primus GFS, SGF, and Global GAP HPSS and regularly conduct audits. Patricia's company, Artisan Food Solutions, is a licensed certfying body for Harmonized GAP through the International Fresh Produce Association. We believe the auditor training and hands-on experience will more readily achieve our goal of enhancing the PSEs ability to assist farmers to write food safety plans and become audit ready. Our propsoal was for a cohort of 6 Produce Safety Educators (PSEs) to receive advanced training and opportunities to teach what they have learned. We had anticipated at least 2 of7 PSEs from the 2020 FSOPwould transition out after completing training and deliverables. However,we actuallyhave now 8 PSEs and a 9th PSE who had moved away in 2022 but is returning to the area and wants get involved again. Since many of the PSEs are farmers or all have other projects and employment, not all of them have the time to complete all deliverables so we expect to be able to have sufficient funding to complete all deliverables. We are also beginning to partner with other organizations who are able to at least share the cost of workshops if not cover the cost completely. Any PSA trainings we deliver will be partially funded by NECAFS. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Three of our PSEs participated in 2 days of onlinetraining for the NM Grown Approved Supplier Program with trainers from theNM Farmer's Marketing Association. They also learned about the NM Grown program and the training farmers are required to have to become approved suppliers. ThreePSEs attendedNECAFSwebinars on Hydro and Aquaponics operations and food safety specific to these farming systems. Four PSEs participated in the 2023 NECAFS conference inHartford CT. Seven of the PSEs participated as trainers in at least one of5 workshops, and4PSEs have participated in at least 2 on-farm risk assessments in year one. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Videos and other digital results of our project have been regularly posted to youtube and social media. We also began uploading our webinars. Our produce safety resource toolkit is available online to the public.After each workshop we provide participants with a toolkit that includes the presentation materials, additional resources and templates for SOPs and records specific to the training topic. Each farmer who receives 1-1 coaching on writing a food safety plan has a food safety manualfolder in google drive with their plan, SOPs, record templates and any resources we explored with them during the processof helping them write their plan. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We plan to have more advanced trainings for our cohort including Harmonized GAP Auditorand advanced Post-Harvest Handling training with Artisan Food Solutions in NC, and at least one opportunity to teach the PSA Grower Training. The cohort will complete the required number of risk assessments, food safety plan coaching,and facilitationof workshops for our farmers. We have 3 farms already in the pipeline to complete food safety plans this winter.We will reach our target audience and target numbers in partnership with the organizations listed above as well as several new partnerships -Backyard Basecamp, Around the Bay Farmers Alliance and Good Earth Farm who are aggregating product from underserved MD farmers for wholesale;Neighborhood Land Power Project and Mill Creek Farmin Philadelphia; University of Maryland; the NE Sustainable Ag Working Group; and PASA. The PSEs will each have an opportunity to tour 4 produce farms who sell to wholesale markets and have differinglevels of infrastructure and scale.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1: ThreePSEs participated in 2 days of onlinetraining for the NM Grown Approved Supplier Program with trainers from theNM Farmer's Marketing Association. They also learned about the NM Grown program and the training farmers are required to have to become approved suppliers. ThreePSEs attendedNECAFSwebinars on Hydro and Aquaponics operations and food safety specific to these farming systems. Four PSEs participated in the 2023 NECAFS conference in Hartford CT. Eight PSEs have participated in on-farm workshops and on-farm risk assessments. See below. Goal 2: 5 Produce Safety Educators (PSEs) have completed on-farm risk assessments in the first year of the grant period. One PSE is currently shadowing aUSDA MushroomGAP food safety plan coaching process. Seven of the PSEs participated as trainers in at least one of the following 5 workshops in year one: a. One Produce Safety and Post-Harvest Handling - for urban farmers in Baltimore b. Three (3) Produce Safety Field Days - including the basics of food safety and risk assessment - for urban farmers in Philadelphia PA, Baltimore MD,and community gardeners in Providence RI c. One Writing Food Safety Plans and SOPs - for small scale and urban farmers in MD and DE. Participants for these workshops totalled 53. We worked with 5community organizations to host the workshops - Farm Alliance of Baltimore, One Art Community Farm in Philadelphia, Delaware Urban Food and Farm Coalition, Native Green Rhode Island, and the New Mexico Farmers Marketing Association. Goal 3: We have completed 6 on-farm risk assessments in NJ, DE, MD and AL, and 4 PSEs have participated in at least 2 each. We have assisted one farmer to complete his USDA GAP food safety plan and we are in progress with a mushroom farmer to complete a USDA Mushroom GAP plan. Both farmers plan to seek GAP certification for the 2024 season. Our partners also help us to identify farmers to receive one-on-one coaching. This includes The Common Market in Philadelphia PA and Atlanta GA. Goal 4: We have contracted someone to take videos at workshops and we have released 3 videos on social media so far.Events are posted regularly to social media along with other useful resources and information for the social media audience. Our website now lives on the Chesapeake Ag Innovation Center website and includes our Produce Safety Toolkits which are updated regularly. https://caic.org/food-safety/ We also have webinar recordings and produced videos on our youtube channel and posted on the NECAFS Clearinghouse.https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgA5NzWxMzF2o2MqKwU3Pkw
Publications
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