Garden to Café Evaluation Team Trisha Bowker . Daniel Clason-Hook . Klara K Ibarra

The Garden to Café Pilot Garden to School Café is a collaboration of NYC Department of Education, SchoolFood, New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets, and more than 20 community based organizations to incorporate student-grown food into the school menu. Don’t need all names, highlight main focus of students growing food, talk about history of state ags?

50% of our Nation’s children between ages 2 and 15 have fatty streaks in their arteries. 33% of children born in 2000 will develop Type 2 diabetes. This number rises to 40-50% for African American and Latino children 17% of our Nation’s children are obese. 35% of cancer deaths are caused by diet. Why?

Garden to Café Pilot Objectives Increase students’ healthful eating by promoting consumption of more plant-based menu items. Connecting kids to local food and farming. Increase awareness of the benefits of school gardening. Demonstrate the learning opportunity of integrating school gardening and school lunch.

Team Goal To conduct a process evaluation for New York State Department of Ags and Markets of their Garden to Cafe Pilot project

Team Objectives 1: Evaluate the process designed for schools to participate in the Pilot 2: Evaluate the working relationship between school garden teams and State Department of Ags. and Markets. 3: Present analytical report with recommendations for future programming.

Methodology Background research on farm to school initiatives 15 Interviews Online survey 12 Observational school site visits 3 Focus groups Blow up picture, give stories

Garden to Café Implementation Structure Explain why this important, how it relates to the evaluation

School Gardens Onsite School Garden Earth Boxes Make pics bigger, 2 slides, Onsite School Garden Earth Boxes

School Gardens Community Gardens Farm/ Farm Partnership Make pics bigger, 2 slides, Community Gardens Farm/ Farm Partnership

Harvest Days The Harvest Day event was the culmination of the Garden to Café Pilot. It celebrated the cooperative work of garden coordinators, student gardeners and SchoolFood staff. Make pics bigger, 2 slides,

Harvest Days Make chart bigger, guest speaker?? Add slide with bullet points explaining/ defining HD’s

Garden Coordinator and SchoolFood Successes Garden Coordinators: Introduction of new food New relationships were built Inspired new menu options SchoolFood: Student response to new foods Demonstrated cafeteria as extension of classroom Increased involvement of cafeteria staff Bigger fonts, add graphics?? Anecdotal info? Shorter text

Garden Coordinator and SchoolFood Challenges Garden Coordinators: Administrative support First time gardeners with little experience Timing SchoolFood: Daunting task for food service staff Not enough produce from schools at events Linking all schools with gardens

Garden Coordinator and SchoolFood Future Visions Garden Coordinators: Access to gardens for all schools and students Student infuence on school cafeteria menu Integration of Garden into school curriculum SchoolFood: Every school child in the NYC with access to gardens Integrated training program for garden coordinators Harvest day more than once a year

Project Conclusions Project was a first step in addressing some of the nutrition and health problems previously identified New relationships between NYS Ags and Markets, SchoolFood and participating public schools were formed. Project is an integral step to bringing locally grown foods into school cafeterias. Demonstrated a great willingness and demand for change - First point- fix it

PIA Project Conclusions Reinforces program development and project management skills. Opportunity for professional field evaluation experience. Data analysis and compilation of comprehensive analytical report. Managing client relations and group dynamics. More specifics on each point

More specifics on each point