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Farm to School Program Evaluation

Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group

January 17, 2014

Andrew Carberry MS,MPH

Rachel Schichtl MS, RD

Childhood Obesity Prevention Research Program

Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute

Department of Pediatrics, UAMS

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Overview of COPRP

Mission

Addressing childhood obesity

through a coordinated

community-based approach

targeting modifiable individual

risk behaviors, environmental

risk factors, and state and

national risk reduction

policies. Our approach

is focused on food systems

and sustainable agriculture

strategies.

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Delta Garden Study

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Full time Garden Program Specialist for 1 year

Designs and develops garden

Builds/refurbishes greenhouse

Develops planting/harvesting calendar

Co-teaches all DGS lessons in the garden

Intervention Components

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1-acre Garden, built over the course of the year, with:

Vegetables

Fruits

Composting

Herbs

Rainwater Harvesting System

Chickens and Worms

Intervention Components

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The Arkansas Grow Healthy Study

About

USDA AFRI grant

5 site collaboration

Pilot Program Next

Year

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Arkansas Grow Healthy

Farm to school pilot program

Coordinated effort offering local procurement,

nutrition education and social marketing

Increasing access to and variety of fresh fruits

and vegetables for 2-8 year olds in Head

Starts and Public Schools in Arkansas

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Arkansas GardenCorps

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Arkansas GardenCorps

AmeriCorps service member program

Mission is to promote the use of school and

community gardens to increase environmental

awareness and sustainable agriculture practices to

address childhood obesity in Arkansas communities

Focus on garden development/maintenance, garden-

based education, volunteer recruitment, and food

access

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Why is Evaluation Valuable?

Internally

Improve outcomes

Improve production or

increase revenue

Stop doing things that

don’t work

Monitor and adjust to

improve efficiency

Externally

Increase consumer

confidence

Positive Public Relations

opportunities

Grantors/funders want

data

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Who will be your audience?

Internally

Employees

Yourself

Externally

Parents

Students

Peers

School administration

Community partners

Funders/investors

General Public

Legislators

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Evaluation Examples from

Arkansas

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Types of Evaluation

- Formative

- Process

- Impact

- Outcome

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Formative Evaluation

Measurements or observations made before or

during program implementation (pre-testing or pilot

testing)

Examples:

Delta Garden Study- Focus groups, pilot testing of

instruments and interventions

Arkansas Grow Healthy: Taste testing of new

recipes, focus groups with Child Nutrition Directors

Arkansas GardenCorps: Needs Assessments

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Taste TestsFormative Evaluation Example

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Taste TestsFormative Evaluation Example

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Resources Needed

Top 10 resources needed to increase

fruit and vegetable processing

1. Refrigerator

2. Staffing

3. Wedger

4. Corer

5. General Space

6. Slicer

7. Chopper

8. Dicer

9. Knives

10.Storage Space

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Farm to School Barriers

1. Lack of local producers in my area from whom to purchase

2. Food safety

3. Don't know where to find local produce

4. Delivery considerations

5. Inadequate volume of local produce

6. Seasonality of Arkansas produce products

7. Federal and state procurement regulations

8. Cost is too high

9. Payment arrangements

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Process Evaluation

Measurements during implementation to control,

assure or improve the quality of performance or

delivery

Examples:

-Delta Garden Study: Teacher Reflections, Structured

Observations, Planting and Harvest logs, Volunteer

logs

- Arkansas Grow Healthy: Procurement and

Production Records

-GardenCorps: Service Hour logs

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Process Evaluation (cont)

Other examples include:

-number of pounds of produce sold or donated

-number of servings of a particular fruit or vegetable

served in the lunchroom

-number of students/parents/educators to attend farm

tours or workshops

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Impact Evaluation

Immediate, observable effects of the program,

changes in behavior, awareness, knowledge,

attitudes and/or skills.

Examples:

-Delta Garden Study; Fruit and Vegetable Survey,

Knowledge Questionnaire, Physical Activity

Questionnaire, School Bonding Survey,

Arkansas Grow Healthy: Taste tests with students

Arkansas GardenCorps: Taste tests, environmental

awareness surveys

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Impact Evaluation (cont)

Other examples include:

- Number of dollars brought in by certain events or

broken down by produce type

- Student Lunch participation rate

- Changes in eating patterns/shopping behaviors

- Fruit/vegetable preference

- Fruit/Vegetable identification

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Outcome Evaluation

Ultimate goal or product of a program- for health

related research this is generally morbidity/mortality

rates among participants.

Examples:

Delta Garden Study: reduction in Body Mass Index

Arkansas Grow Healthy: feasibility of an integrated

Farm to School Program

Arkansas GardenCorps: Increasing students’ interest

in farming as a career

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Outcome Evaluation

Other examples include:

- Increase of X% in local food served in cafeteria

- Improved cafeteria operating budget due to increased

school meals participation

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Qualitative and Quantitative

Quantitative – numeric data-

counts, ratings, scores,

classifications

Qualitative - narrative, descriptive

data

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What/Who Will you

Measure? Behaviors

Knowledge

Attitudes

Purchasing/Production records

Sample Measurement Toolshttp://www.farmtoschool.org/files/resources_644.pdf

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Design

Pre-post design

One time data collection (pre or

post)

Control groups

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Practice Sharing Results

Dream

Write down your dream result

Choose an audience

Share!

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Reference

McKenzie, J., Neiger, B., Thackeray, R.

Planning, Implementing, & Evaluating Health

Promotion Programs: A Primer. Pearson

education. San Francisco. 2009

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Where to Find Us

ACHRI Childhood Obesity Prevention Research Program

http://www.achri.archildrens.org/ObesityPrevention.htm

The Arkansas Grow Healthy Study

http://growhealthy.uark.edu/

The Delta Garden Study

www.arteengarden.com

Arkansas GardenCorps

http://arkansasgardencorps.com/

Contact: Andrew Carberry Rachel Schichtl

ANCarberry@uams.edu RLSchichtl@uams.edu

501-364-6555 501-364-3360