Farm to School of NC AWARDS: Launch Webinar

1. Farm to School of NC AWARDS: Launch Webinar description: Will Your LEA be Part of the First Crop of Farm to School of NC Awardees? Schools and local education agencies across the state are doing amazing farm to school (F2S) work. The Farm to School Coalition of NC is launching an awards program to honor these efforts. Is your LEA involved in F2S? This session will share info about the criteria, application process, intended impacts of and the resources to support the Awards program. Provide your input into the awards ceremony planned as part of the Farm to School of NC Summit Sept 19-20, 2019.

2. Farm to School of NC AWARDS: Launch Webinar hosts: Tracey Bates, Co-Chair, Farm to School Coalition; School Nutrition Specialist, NCDPI Tes Thraves, Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS), Farm to School Coordinator Arneisha Smallwood, CEFS Farm to School Outreach Coordinator

3. Resources to Support • This year: Baseline • Trainings we’ve provided this year • Plans for next year • Summit space for feedback Ceremony • at Summit, Sept 20th • Applicant teams receive 2 free registrations Your Input • future possibilities • at summit • now: QUESTIONS? Continued questions: Tes Thraves, Tracey Bates, Arneisha Smallwood Intro and Welcome • Who we are: Coalition • Context • Overview • Development Process • Branding Intended Outcomes/Impacts • Outcomes/Impacts • GA OR growth charts Criteria • Image • Explanation sheets Application Process • Design: Organized by the criteria • Who • Assessment: levels, tiers & rubrics • Release, Platform, TA AGENDA

4. Who we are: The Farm to School Coalition of NC The F2SCNC brings together a dedicated group of farm to school (F2S) stakeholders that will collaborate to expand and strengthen farm to school initiatives across the state. www.farmtoschoolcoalitionnc.org Steering Committee comprised of STATE and LOCAL reps from: • NC Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services • NC Cooperative Extension & Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) • NC Department of Public Instruction, School Operations Division • NC Department of Public Instruction, Career & Technical Education Division • NC Department of Health and Human Services • Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP) • Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA) • FoodCorps NC • School Nutrition Association of NC

5. AWARDS Context BCBSFNCfunding • building capacity in both local f2s practitioners, AND • the state level Farm to School Coalition of NC Aimed GRANT Impacts in farm to school • Policy & Advocacy: increased funding & visibility for f2s efforts; • Culture & Learning: sharing how to’s and tools; • Alternative Models: highlighting successful f2s efforts; and • Networks & Relationships: strengthening connections among practitioners in farm to school, across NC We believe a state level award for LEAs has the potential to impact ALL quadrants of our theory of change at both the local and the state level.

6. Farm to School of NC AWARDS Overview • Modeled after the Georgia Organics Golden Radish Awards but customized to NC • Given to Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) in North Carolina doing impactful work in farm to school • Presented by the Farm to School Coalition of NC

7. AWARDS Development Process Pre 2016: Partner interest in “some kind of awards” Aug 2017: Coalition Action Planning meeting decides to explore Oct 2017: Attended Golden Radish Awards Ceremony Jan 2018: Funding procured from BCBSFNC Jan 2018-Present: Consulting with Georgia Organics Aug 2018: 1st Design meeting (15 stakeholders) Fall 2018: Stakeholder focus groups Dec 2018: 2nd Design meeting (30 stakeholders) Mar 2019: Georgia application documents share Apr/May 2019: NC documents prep and review process May 2019: Build Jun 2019: Release

8. AWARDS Branding • Name – to be decided upon based on submissions from applicants • AWARDs Logo – to be decided upon based on name • Slogan – Working together in farm to school [teams!] • Branding colors, green, blue, and yellow • Favicon – from logo • Icons – developed based on previous focus groups & stakeholder meetings

9. AWARDS Goals: Outcomes We aim for the Farm to School of NC AWARDS to be crafted by those who will apply and who daily engage in this work, and be designed such that the awards are equitable, truly honoring all impactful work being done in farm to school. What the award will do, concrete and measurable: • honor f2s work being done; • increase f2s visibility; • encourage more & stronger farm to school programs (more schools, counties, LEAs); • collect data as advocacy tool; and, • strengthen visibilityof racial equity efforts in f2s.

10. AWARDS Goals: Impacts What will be different if award is successful, longer term effect of outcomes: • increased School Nutrition and other stakeholder capacity in f2s • increased consumption of fruits and vegetables by children • increased food system, food, and agriculture knowledge and literacy • increased future agriculture and food systems leaders • strengthened healthy food school environments • more f2s supportive policies on all levels • increase market opportunities for small, medium and large farmer support • more f2s dedicated funding

11. Georgia’s Golden Radish F2S Growth Maps

12. Criteria & Criteria Image

13. Criteria Explanation Sheet The explanations sheet seeks to clarify how various farm to school events and activities qualify for each NC F2S Awards criterion. Examples listed show possible ways each criterion may be met, but serve as a guide; we encourage your own innovative examples of how you have addressed criteria! We divide the Criteria into three subgroups: • PROCUREMENT, • EDUCATION, AND • SUSTAINABLE ENGAGEMENT

14. Application Design: • Efforts within the criteria • Overall short Narrative of efforts and impact • Naming specific activities: what are you doing in this criteria area? • List of activity examples within each criteria • guiding • but also elicitive of your innovative approaches • Documentation of this effort • Share documentation of activities • List of types of documentation examples • Photo permissions for promotion of f2s activities across NC

15. Application Who? • Lead contact • Sign off by SND or other from School Nutrition and Superintendent or other administrator • F2S Application Team including SND (School Nutrition, FCS, teachers, CTE director, SHAC members/chair, community partners)

16. Assessed by Levels and Tiers Awards Levels Criteria in three cluster areas: Procurement, Education, and Sustainable Engagement Platinum – all 11 criteria Golden – 9 criteria Silver – 7 criteria, at least two in each cluster Bronze – 5 criteria Honorary – at least 2 criteria Tiers LEAs with 1 to 3 schools LEAs with 4-15 schools LEAs with 16-50 schools LEAs with 51 schools or over *A driving question has been: How is equity ensured and how do we avoid simply honoring those with most resources?

18. Application Release • Webinar: June 3rd • Testing drive: June 4th-5th • Live site: Monday, June 17th • Session at SNA-NC Conference: June 20th • Printable version of application and of submitted application (at any point) Platform • Survey Monkey Platform for submitting in real time, savable, tech support, and (in year-two, open year-round) • Multiple people can submit so team based efforts** TA • FAQ on website (live additions, based on questions received, starting today) • TA with Survey Monkey platform - email responses All teams applying will receive up to 2 free registrations for the farm to school summit, Sept 20th

19. Resources to Support • 1st Awards: Baseline • 2018/2019 (this year) • Trainings offered regionally, correlating with Criteria Categories • Procurement (NCDA) • Education (garden and nutrition ed, integrated) • Sustainable Engagement (racial equity and policy) • Resources made available (Coalition website, in categories or criteria) • 2019/2020 (next year) • Summit (bi-annually or annually) • More trainings within Criteria framing: Procurement, Education, Sustainable Engagement • Summit space for feedback and sharing NEEDS

20. Awards Ceremony: Celebrating the Harvest • Review done by Aug 20th, Notification by Sept 1st • At the Summit, September 20th (pre-summit trainings and field trips on the 19th), at the Raleigh Convention Center • Actual Ceremony: • kids/performance • politicians/photo-op/press release • Actual Award: • two registrations for free • looking to commission local artist to do something f2s-specific, original piece to “Outstanding” awardee and license to replicate and craft into frameable certificate for each awardee at each level

21. Future Possibilities Development of District F2S HUB & Representative? • Benefits? • Individual Honorarium • Mini grant funds for hosting summits/trainings • Training for reps • other • Responsibilities? • Communicating Training Opportunities, share backs from trainings • Hosting calls • Hosting district summit or co-hosting regional gathering, etc. • How chosen? (Application? invitation?) • How funded? Development of Peer to Peer mentor program (modeled on NSFN) • Stipend • Hours available for sign up • might be an entry design for HUB Rep structure

22. Questions? • What are your questions? • What are you excited about? • What are your thoughts/ideas? Contact us: Tes Thraves tes_thraves@ncsu.edu Tracey Bates Tracey.Bates@dpi.nc.gov Arneisha Smallwood ansmallw@ncsu.edu

23. Workflow 2018-2019 Visioning & Planning 2018-Feb 2019 Evaluation & Revision Development & Build March - May 2019 Evaluation & Revision Release & Apply June 15 – July 30 2019 Evaluation & Revision Evaluation & Revision Review & Notification Aug - Sept 2019 fall 2019 Evaluation & Revision Release & Ceremony Sept 20 Evaluation & Revision

24. Evaluation BOTH Award specific and state-level f2s assessment • Measures of Award • Framework for Farm to School to support direction of beginning to advanced programs • Network Building • Honoring School Nutrition • Increasing farm to school programs • Strengthening farm to school programs • Farm to School Measures • Reach: Number of programs and participants • Strength: Activity and Success of programs • Correlated Impact: lunch participation increase, attendance, etc • Qualitative stories and visuals on programs

25. Work Committees/Teams • Advisory Team • Julius Tillery, Anupama Joshi, Paula DeLuca, Crystal Smith, Tammy Rinehart, Quina Weber-Shirk, Janette Broda, Gwyn McBride, Liz Driscoll, F2SCNC Steering Committee, plus two more farmers • Program Design Team, big picture of program design • Tes Thraves, Gwyn McBride, Jordan Keyser, Caroline Stover, Beth Katz, Arneisha Smallwood • F2S Expert team, content area expertise and limited time • Ruth McDowell, Janette Broda, Gwyn McBride, Gary Gay, Tracey Bates, Joe Otranto, Jordan Keyser, David Lalama, Robert Parker, Linden Thayer • TA and logistics team, contracts, payments, etc • Melissa Kenny, Arneisha Smallwood, Tes Thraves • Communications and Outreach team, public relations and final reporting • Arneisha Smallwood, Diane Beth (editing), Tes Thraves • Review Team, application review and confirmation of criteria and tier • Zoe McKay Tucker, Phil Daye, Beth Katz, Arneisha Smallwood, plus Eval Team • Volunteered but will remove from this committee so no potential applicants on the review team: Robert Parker, Janette Broda, Gwyn McBride • Eval Team, formative and summative assessment • RaJade Berry-James, Amira Ishak, Tes Thraves • Summit Team, event for awards ceremony, Sept 20th • Reno Palombit, Arneisha Smallwood, Melissa Kenny, Tes Thraves (plus 2 to 3 more, waiting on commitments)

26. Work teams support bi-weekly zoom check-in times email updates google drive document review system 1st call: April 27th 2019 Jannette, Caroline, Jade, Amira, Melissa, Tes themes: • review and work process • roll out process (new slide) • support TA for applicants Continued calls through May on Mondays at 8:30am & Fridays at 2pm

27. site Review Team As the Review Team, I am looking to you as a group to • walk through the demo site before we go live! • catch what we can • get familiar so you can offer needed edits or even questions to add to our FAQ sheet asks of you: • Let me know you are willing to spend time on June 4th and/or 5th (or 6th if you need the extra leeway!); • review the application site and the review entry • provide feedback to me by end of day on 5th or mid day on 6th Volunteers: Tracey Bates <Tracey.Bates@dpi.nc.gov>, Arneisha Smallwood <ansmallw@ncsu.edu>, ruth mcdowell <rmcdowell@ecps.us>, Gwyn <gmcbride@beaufort.k12.nc.us>, Janette Broda <janette.broda@acsgmail.net>, Tammy Rinehart <tammy.rinehart@carteretk12.org>, Linden Thayer <linden@foodinsightgroup.com>, Caroline Stover <cmstover@ncsu.edu>, Liz Driscoll <liz_driscoll@ncsu.edu>, RaJade Berry-James <rmberryj@ncsu.edu>, Amira Ishak <arishak@ncsu.edu>, Joe Otranto <otrantoj@halifax.k12.nc.us>

28. Advisory Team (specifics) advisory team role: •guidance within your specific expertise, •resolution support and direction for our core program team if we get into a stuck point on other committees, and •vision of the whole, your perspective to both zoom in and zoom out on the intended and unintended consequences of decisions and design. Asks of you: •Let me know you are still willing to serve and what general engagement you imagine--ala high, medium, low, none now but later . . . •By May 1st, I am asking that you review the overview ppt and add any comments about changes, questions, etc. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1fPYaBwd002zR5Bdrsah1mLocwdet2Yzo-tXl2I13fW0/edit?usp=sharing •Attend one zoom meeting (OR check-in (if possible) with me individually) by the end of day on May 10th: Awards check-in open times: Fridays 2pm (26th april, 3rd may, 10th may), and Mondays 8:30am (29th April, 6th may) •attend one face to face meeting (if possible) in June

29. Program Team As the Program Team, I am looking to you as a group to ensure we are • gettingengagement from the expert team and the advisory team where it is needed (some of you are on these as well), • crafting the award and its implementation so that it reaches our goals, and • examining the intended and unintended consequences of decisions and design. asks of you: • Let me know you are still willing to serve and what general engagement you imagine--especially if you are on the Expert team or the Advisory Team, that makes sense and you want to also be on this team . . . • By May 1st, I am asking that you review the overview ppt and add any comments about changes, questions, etc. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1fPYaBwd002zR5Bdrsah1mLocwdet2Yzo-tXl2I13fW0/edit?usp=sharing • By May 6th read all docs up on spreadsheet and add comments. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EQj_5forL1kJpECnijjQteMhtBChMwo4VdWLpPHbj8g/edit?usp=sharing • **Let me know if zooms on these dates times work and which one you can commit to attending with me. Ideally we'll have at least two of us on each one and I'll commit to all. Awards check-in open times (I just chose these as times SNDs told me likely doable so hoping one of you can make each?!): • Friday 2pm April 26th, • Monday 8:30am April 29th • Friday 2pm May 3rd, • Monday 8:30 May 6th • Friday 2pm May 10th • By May 10th, possibly Monday May 13th, review all current edits to all docs for final check. • Collective check-in May 10th, via email or zoom Friday late afternoon--IF DOCUMENTS SEEM READY TO GO • attend one face to face meeting in June

30. Expert Team As the Expert Team, I am looking to you as a group to ensure this awards program • is doable; • feels worth the engagement and time required; • is designed so it reaches our goals, • is equitable for all LEAs; • as is under control of our efforts, does not create negative, unintended consequences; and • has the potential for large impact in the state. asks of you: • Let me know you are still willing to serve on this Expert team or if because of demands you need to decline or move to the advisory committee; • Let me know if there is someone else we should ask to join this group; • By May 6th (May 8th absolutely, and the sooner the better) read all docs up on spreadsheet (3 there now and at least two more forthcoming) and add comments; https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EQj_5forL1kJpECnijjQteMhtBChMwo4VdWLpPHbj8g/edit?usp=sharing • be prepared by May 10th, possibly Monday May 13th, to answer questions as we do our final review for submission; • be prepared to answer build questions between submission to Survey Monkey in early May and release of the application in early to mid June; • attend one face to face meeting in June; • apply for the award (sans Tracey and Gary).

31. applications Review Team As the Review Team, I am looking to you as a group to • ensure applications are reviewed carefully and equitably; • ensure the application itself is assessed and revised for practicality and effectiveness; • ensure applicants are duly celebrated! asks of you: • Let me know you are still willing to serve on this Review team; • review the overview ppt for a picture of the process .https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1fPYaBwd002zR5Bdrsah1mLocwdet2Yzo-tXl2I13fW0/edit?usp=sharing ; • attend a face to face meeting (in June or summer tbd); • access the applications to place each into the appropriate tier and level--between Aug 1st and Ag 23rd; • help with notifications of award levels by Sept 1st; • help with ceremony on Sept 20th, acknowledging award levels for all applicants; and • access the application process to determine needed changes for the following year.