Author: Sandy Stegall

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‘Leading with Generosity’ Leads to Expansion of Kansas City Food Hub

A more enhanced localized food system with increased food security is the public good to come out of this project. Our feasibility study and local food systems assessments have pointed to over $188 million of unmet demand for locally produced food in wholesale markets. The food hub is working to satisfy that demand by delivering what buyers are seeking.

marlin bates“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know … but who you know is up to you.”

This pithy addition to a well-known aphorism is from Marlin Bates, Douglas County Extension Director with K-State Research and Extension. Bates is a co-founder of the Kansas City Food Hub Working Group and a key organizer of an agricultural producer cooperative now in its second year of operation in the KC Metro area.

Bates’ concerted efforts at relationship-building, due in part to insights gained during his i-Three Issue Corps experience with eXtension, have resulted in the development of a regional food hub that gives fruit and vegetable producers a new way to market their fresh produce.

Bates says that 100 years ago, there were 176,000 farms in Kansas, and 75,000 of them produced fresh fruits and vegetables.  Today, there are 71,000 farms, and fewer than 1,000 of them commercially produce fruits and vegetables.  “We have the capacity, the land, and better mechanization and infrastructure than we did a century ago. We also have consumer interest in eating locally grown products.”  What’s missing?  Connections, to put it all together.

When Bates first joined K-State Research and Extension as a horticulture agent, two groups had conducted feasibility studies to determine ways to grow the local food economy – the Douglas County Food Policy Council and the Kansas City Food Hub Working Group.  When Bates found himself at the table of the policy council, he decided to employ an insight he had gained with the i-Three Issue Corps – “leading with generosity.”  (See John Stepper, “Working Out Loud.” http://workingoutloud.com/about/) Rather than being directive and coming in as the “expert,” he decided to simply be open to what might happen, to concentrate on getting to know those involved. Within six months, the chair of the council asked him to organize a group of people to move forward in getting a hub established.

Bates says “leading with generosity” means going into a conversation or situation “without preconceived notions,” not leading with direct expectations of what you can get out of that relationship.  “My relationship was not just at the table,” Bates says.  Outside conversations in getting to know the chair, building rapport, and becoming a trusted, reliable resource to producers, buyers and a “whole swath of players,” became crucial.  I was no martyr, but I was willing to dedicate the staff time necessary to make conversations work, to bring resources to the table, to develop a good team and to develop a farmer-owned operation.”

The “proof in the pudding” of his other-centered approach came when Bates put out the call for farmers to join the effort. He was met with resounding success.  Farmers from western Missouri, central Kansas, and points in between met with him and each other for nine to 10 months, every other week, to discuss and plan next steps.

Now the KC Food Hub allows smaller-scale fruit and vegetable producers to sell to the wholesale cooperative rather than, or in addition to, selling directly to consumers through farmers markets or similar venues. The hub has grown from five producer members to 17 since 2016.

The recognition and encouragement I received from my upper administration was not just a validation of the work that I am doing, but also something that can help accelerate the conversation about local food system development work.

Tom Buller, an area fruit and vegetable grower and president of the Board of Directors of the Food Hub, says “The Food Hub gives me the opportunity to specialize … to emphasize doing the things I’m good at doing and less of what I’m not good at doing. Rather than having to grow “everything from asparagus to zucchini” to meet the demands of rapid turnover for perishable products, he can specialize in one or several things.  Additionally, “I’m not a marketing person at all.  Brand imaging is not my area of strength or interest, so the hub takes some of that responsibility from me so I can focus on growing things.”

Buller credits Bates with building bridges to make the hub a reality. “I think, more than a lot of people I’ve observed, Marlin really goes out of his way to put himself in situations to meet a broad variety of interesting people and to learn something about them.  Then somewhere down the line, that someone knows something that’s related to a topic or program he’s interested in, and connections are made,” Buller says.

Those connections for the Food Hub include like-minded entities such as KCHealthy Kids; After the Harvest, a group that gleans crops and donates food to shelters and food pantries; and industry partners involved in transportation and logistics. Bates also stays in touch with colleagues and session leaders that he met in San Antonio at the issue corps sessions.  Now when he attends meetings such as the National Urban Extension Conference or the National Association of County Agricultural Agents, he has new colleagues with whom he interacts and shares ideas.

Stepper’s presentation at the i-3 Issue Corps also emphasized to Bates the “duty to be more visible and provide communication about the work that we are doing.” Bates worked with others at the university and in the community to develop a more comprehensive outreach and communications plan, which has included giving presentations to state legislators and bankers, visiting with the director of the regional economic development council, and keeping county commissioners informed.

Bates’ achievements have made him more visible within his own organization as well.  He was recognized by his dean in front of 250 of his peers at the K-State Research and Extension annual conference as the Outstanding County or District Extension Professional.  “It validated the work I’m doing,” he said.

“In extension, we think of ourselves as conveners or connectors, but you can’t be connected if you’re not out there,” Bates says.  “We only have so much time, but building relationships, regardless of what public you’re working with, has to be a major piece.  And I’ve found that ‘leading with generosity’ leads to more satisfying, more productive relationships for all involved.”

For more information, contact Marlin Bates at 785-843-7058 or batesm@ksu.edu

Learn more about the Northeast Kansas Food Hub Feasibility Study

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Concept Map Gives Educators Tool to Catalyze Community Change

“The concept map we developed through eXtension is empowering the community and has given more credibility and clarity to the collaborative efforts I am facilitating.” Grace Peterson

Grace Peterson and her community colleagues have big plans.  Simply put, they want to change the world … or at least their corner of Louisiana.Grace Peterson

Peterson is an area nutrition agent with the Louisiana State University AgCenter, and in that role, she has delivered programs typical for nutrition specialists, but “I’ve always been interested in systems thinking.  We’re trying to create a different system altogether, not just make changes within the system.  We want to be community-driven,” Peterson says.

The goal is to create a Community Health Hub (CHH) – a one-stop shop for health screenings, health and nutrition education, exercise programs, mental health referrals, parenting support, cultural awareness – in fact, whatever it is that the local community determines it wants and needs.

community health hub model

“We sit in an economically suppressed area of Shreveport/Bossier City,” says Betty Johnson, director of St. Luke’s Mobile Medical Ministry, a 501C3 organization supported by the Episcopal diocese and eight churches of northwest Louisiana.  According to Census data from 2015, 23.4% of residents there live in poverty. That figure is 32.4% for Black residents, 19.8% for Hispanic or Latino residents, and 38 % for American Indian residents. Low-income populations also suffer from poor health:  The adult obesity rate in Caddo Parish is 27.8 percent. Louisiana’s infant mortality rate of 8.8 deaths per 1,000 live births is more than double the national average, and that includes the population with which Peterson and Johnson work.

In March, the CHH working group coordinated a Community Health Connections event at Bernstein Development, Inc., a non-profit organization associated with Paradise Baptist Church in Shreveport. Of the 104 participants, 101 were African-American. The event highlighted health-related resources and services and offered participants a chance to discuss health concerns in a relaxed environment.

“Traditionally, when you’re trying to make progress with educational programming, you focus on delivering better programs, getting more funding, and doing a better job of communication, but the CHH needs more than that” Peterson says.  “The challenge is changing the model from ‘We’re the healthcare experts here to give you these programs and these resources to ‘fix you’ to having the community itself define its needs and give leadership to change efforts,” Johnson adds.

“One of the needs that surfaced that I had not considered is the importance of access to dental care and how that affects diet. Several people said they could not try our recipes because they could not chew vegetables unless they were cooked to be very soft,” Peterson says.

Peterson, Johnson, and co-collaborator Cookie Coleman got a new tool to assist them in their change efforts through the eXtension Diversity and Inclusion designathon in February 2017.  They were introduced to concept mapping, a visual way to display all the components of a system, the roles of various players, and the relationships between the parts.  (See the CHH concept map below.) After working on the concept map in Cincinnati, they brought their ideas back to CHH leadership and planning groups.  They found the tool extremely helpful in seeing the big picture and in explaining the process to local participants.  For example, the CHH team has been successful in involving local leaders, such as “the matriarchal figure on the block that everyone goes to for advice” in the planning.

concept map

(See larger version WGTconceptmap)

“We have great players at the table,” says Peterson, including students and faculty from the LSU Health medical school and school of allied health, Southern University, the Food Bank of Northwest Louisiana, community health clinics, the Community Foundation of North Louisiana, and others.  One outcome is that LSU faculty are involving students early in their school careers in the process to interact with future patients and practice communication skills. Fifty physical therapy and occupational therapy students were part of the March event on a food pantry pick-up day.  “It reignited my fire to assist in the community,” said one student.

“We’re changing the model from ‘we’re here to fix you,’ to ‘what is it that you want and need’ and then providing programs and resources to succeed. It’s changing the way we work.”
Betty Johnson

Having the concept map as a tool has helped the CHH team entice new collaborators and potential collaborators.  For example, an employee from the Louisiana Department of Health, Office of Public Health is now on board, so the CHH will reach out to young pregnant women and other young adults in addition to the older food pantry clientele.  A second Community Health Connections event is scheduled in October at the Bernstein site. Peterson says several programs already identified to meet local needs will be ready for delivery following the event, including “Reading your Medicine Bottle,” “Dining with Diabetes,” and “Line Dancing for Exercise and Health.”

Working within the community rather than top-down “is slow,” Johnson says.  “It takes a lot of conversation. People want to know, ‘How much of my time and my life are you asking me to give?’” Peterson agrees that this relationship-based approach is challenging, but the concept map is empowering the community and has assisted her in her leadership role.  “I’ve been a leader in the CHH initiative from the beginning, but the concept map has given more credibility and clarity to the collaborative efforts I am facilitating,” she says.

While much work remains to be done, “We’re on the right track,” Peterson says. “This kind of community change and transformation, to be sustainable, must focus on policy, system, and environment (PSE) changes and not just programming. We need a process to manage and provide guidance in a constantly changing environment.”

For more information, contact Grace Peterson at 318-741-7430, Ext. 1502 or gpeterson@agcenter.lsu.edu or Betty Johnson at 318-424-0156 office@stlukesmedicalministry.org

 

 

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Success Stories

eXtension Catapults Specialist into Diversity Leadership Role

The eXtension Diversity and Inclusion Corps provided the confidence and motivation Mannering needed to go forward with the Unity luncheon, online modules, and related activities, instead of just thinking about it.

Christy Mannering’s farmhouse office in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR) at the University of Delaware is “off the beaten path,” says Adam Thomas, CANR interim director of communications. “She actually only sees two to three people per day, and they’re the same people.” Mannering is a digital communications specialist and web developer, and her job requires her to sit at a desk behind a computer most of the day.

At the same time, Mannering is very passionate about working with people.  In fact, she and her son run a non-profit organization in her off-hours that feeds the homeless and provides additional help to those in need.  Mannering found a way to work differently by squaring her desire for more on-the-job people involvement with her work duties through the eXtension Diversity and Inclusion Issue Corps.

“When I saw the request for proposals, it piqued my interest,” she says.  “I’ve always been interested in why I behave as I do and why others act a certain way. You can’t do anything in this world completely alone, at least not very well. You need to be able to collaborate and work with others, especially if you are interested in service.”

Mannering reached out to the Office of Equity and Inclusion on her campus for help in putting her eXtension proposal together and for including benchmarks for measurable local impact. She submitted the proposal in December and cheered when it was approved in January 2017.  Not one to let grass grow under her feet, she involved colleagues in her college, in the Equity and Inclusion office, and others to plan the first-ever Unity Event in CANR.

The Unity luncheon, held in March, brought together 55 graduate students and faculty.  (Among other roles, Mannering is a grad student in public administration.)  The event featured an exercise in which participants were asked to wind strands of colorful yarn around pegs on a board labeled with such titles as “veteran,” “LGBTQ,” “employee,” “parent,” “immigrant,” etc.  The result was a work of art that the college dean keeps in a central area where people continue to add to the piece.

unity event wall chart - defining unity“The event showed everyone in the college that although you may have dissimilarities from others, you also have nuances that cross over.  It was a very successful event,” Thomas says.

Participants in the Unity luncheon also were given an opportunity to anonymously write on cards scenarios they had witnessed where people were harassed or treated inequitably.  Groups at tables then discussed the scenarios and came up with possible ways to deal with uncomfortable situations.  One participant in the post-event evaluation said: “It made me feel better to see how many people are against bigotry but are too afraid to speak up.  They’re intimidated, not apathetic.  If I took the initiative to defend someone, others might also be supportive.”

 “The way we live, the way we work, the way we present ourselves, our action and our inaction, can very much impact and shape the lives of the people around us. We need to be able to work differently so that we can ‘walk in each other’s shoes’ and not judge them.”

Mannering is taking her learning from her eXtension Diversity and Inclusion experiences a step further by creating online modules on emotional intelligence, which she sees as an antidote for bullying and harassment in the workplace.  She has created the first two modules and plans up to eight more.  (Mannering would value input from potential users to add to and improve the modules.) “Creating modules and researching this for the issue corps may be allowing me to provide some ‘aha moments’ for others,” Mannering says.

Thomas credits eXtension with giving Mannering the “confidence and motivation to go forward with the Unity luncheon, the online modules, and related activities, instead of just thinking about it.”  He adds that the college will be willing to give Mannering time to work on the modules because “Christy is one of those people who can multitask until the cows come home, and a lot of people could benefit from her work.”

small group activity at the unity luncheonIn the meantime, Mannering is less lonely in her remote office.  The eXtension Diversity & Inclusion experience provided Mannering with on-campus visibility that she was previously lacking: “I was invited to participate in a diversity summit on campus, which I wouldn’t even have known about previously.  I’ve met people from other parts of campus, and I’m still emailing with friends I met at the Unity luncheon. It’s given me a lot of hope; many other people at the university want things to improve, too. It’s opened my eyes to a lot, and I’m so grateful for the opportunity,” Mannering says.

“We’re all human, and we all deserve to be treated humanely.”

For more information, contact Mannering at 302-831-7217 or cmanneri@udel.edu

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Success Stories

Data Jams Breathe Life Into Extension Reporting

Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink. That’s a sailor cast away on the high seas, surrounded by a never-ending ocean but without a sip of liquid to sustain life.

In like manner, extension administrators and faculty are surrounded by oceans of data but without the means to make sense of that data to help sustain their programs.

Christian Schmieder, eXtension Fellow and Qualitative Research Specialist at the University of Wisconsin Extension, says, “We collect over 1,200 impact statements and 600 to 800 program narratives every year. That’s a lot of time and money invested, but if we don’t use those data well, it’s money out the window.” Schmieder and his colleagues are changing that by teaching extension professionals how to deal with large amounts of textual data through the Data Jam Initiative.

What Is a Data Jam?

Single- or multi-day Data Jams provide an opportunity for extension colleagues to get together in an intensive experience to do analytic work using analysis software. The goal is to end the experience with concrete write-ups, models, theories and visualizations that can be shared with colleagues, partners and relevant stakeholders.

Josset Gauley, Program Development & Evaluation Specialist, FoodWise, at UW-Extension, says, “A neat thing about the Data Jam is putting aside a whole day to talk about your program outside the normal work-day routine.  When you have 5 to 10 people, all concentrated on the same task, you can accomplish a lot. You can see what’s missing, where the gaps are.”

In Data Jams, groups of 4 to 12 extension colleagues look at narratives and impact statements from central data collection systems to answer questions such as, “How do our programs affect those in poverty?” Creating and fostering a common institutional language is key to this process because “analysts need to agree on the meaning of core terms – for example what ‘program’ means, or what we institutionally mean when we say ‘poverty,’” according to Schmieder.

Schmieder continues, “Oftentimes we do analysis in silos; that means that the knowledge we produce remains also in silos, and we keep on re-inventing the wheel.” Data Jams – and the institutional use of specialized analysis software – allow extension personnel to build on each other’s analytic work to “radically reduce the amount of time it takes to analyze and synthesize massive amounts of data.”

Collecting usable and relevant data is one of the core challenges for institutional data sets. Engaging more colleagues in the analysis of data increases institutional buy-in into reporting, which ultimately strengthens data quality. During Spring 2017, John Pinkart, FoodWIse Program Coordinator, Oconto and Marinette Counties, Wisc., participated in a three-day Data Jam coordinated by Schmieder and colleagues.  What Pinkart discovered was, “We do a good job of setting the context, describing what we’re doing and writing results narratives, but we really struggle to see a lot of evidence of behavior change and impact.”  Pinkart’s FoodWise program receives federal SNAP-Ed funding, so he’s very aware of the need for accessible, useful impact data.  Pinkart says after the Data Jam, he and those he coaches will be “much more mindful in describing impact and focus more on holistically connecting direct education, policy system work, and results.”

Gauley allows that not every extension professional is excited about reporting and data evaluation. He says Data Jams are “super valuable” because educators “walk away with a better understanding of how their data are used, and they feel appreciated and more valued by the organization.”  Then, in the future, as they report outcomes and impacts to teachers, parents, policymakers, county boards and others interested in obesity prevention, they will do a better job.

What Is Next?

Schmieder and colleagues are taking a big-picture approach to data analysis and organizational change. Justin Smith, eXtension GODAN Fellow and county extension director in Mason County, Wash., and Schmieder are currently developing and testing analytic workflows based on Data Jams that can be used to seed crowd-analysis of massive data sets, and to quality-control automated categorization of data.

Last March, Smith and Schmieder co-conducted a Data Jam focusing on extension data related to climate change.  Smith says, “Ultimately, someone will be able to query the eXtension system and be connected not only to extension literature but also local information and data sets from around the world  about weather, health, vegetation, population and more to solve problems, such as those related to climate change.”

“We also want to connect people – experts with particular skills and knowledge to inform the data and help design research models,” Smith says, all with an eye toward giving educators the gulps of life-giving knowledge they need to serve their publics.

For More Information

For more information about Data Jams, contact Christian Schmieder at:
christian.schmieder@ces.uwex.edu or visit the data jam website  http://fyi.uwex.edu/datajams/

Additional sites to learn about Data Jams:

Contact Josset Gauley at: josset.gauley@ces.uwex.edu or 608-265-4975

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Success Stories

Diversity and Inclusion Experience Spurs Minnesota Professionals to Advocate Up the Chain of Command

silveira and marczak at the designathonMost employers buy into training and developing their employees so that they can be better employees.  But two University of Minnesota extension professionals determined that they needed to do more.  They decided that their charge was not only to “keep and grow” extension paraprofessionals in the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program, but also to prepare them to leave for other employment.  Radical thought!

“We are developing them not just for us but for them so that when they leave us, they leave with a more robust portfolio where they can be marketable elsewhere and obtain a more livable, higher-wage job,” says Mary Marczak, Director of the Urban Family Development program.

One “aha moment” the women had was when they realized that they need to do a better job of “communicating up and down the system” to inform others of the value of nutrition educators’ work.

Cassie Silveira, EFNEP Coordinator and Extension Educator, says the four-county area surrounding Minneapolis is “amazingly diverse.”  One-third of the growth in recent population has come from international immigration, including people from Laos, Somalia, Ethiopia and Viet Nam. Nutrition educators need to reflect the diversity of the population to do their jobs, but they also need their own upward mobility.

Marczak’s and Silveira’s thoughts about paraprofessionals’ mobility needs crystallized into action steps at an eXtension Diversity and Inclusion “designathon,” a structured opportunity for extension personnel to sit around the table with other professionals to create educational programs that benefit their communities at large.  The designathon is one component of the Impact Collaborative process, in which extension professionals are supported to accelerate the adoption of innovation in local programming.  Each designathon encourages educators to visually map out concepts; get feedback from peers across their states; learn from “key informants,” who are national content or technology experts; explore avenues for funding; and discuss ways to communicate new ideas to their colleagues and potential partners.

One “aha moment” the women had was when the designathon led to story mapping.  They realized that although they know the value of what they are doing, they need to do a better job of “communicating up and down the system” with associate deans, assistant deans and others to inform them of the value of the educators’ work, too. Two specific policy changes for which the professionals are advocating are getting more dollars for staff professional development and opening up university training or courses for nutrition educators.  The designathon experience “helped us refine our story,” Silveira says.

Evaluation results from the February 2017 designathon found that 27 of the 55 participants said the experience helped to push their project forward – most frequently described as finding dedicated work time in a supportive environment.  This is particularly important as only 18 percent of Impact Collaborative project teams in 2017 said they are able to meet regularly, while 37 percent said they never are able to meet and work.

Do designathons have a future in changing how extension workers work?  Very likely.  As one participant said, “I plan to use the process again.  I didn’t think we could get this much done.”

For more information about EFNEP in Minnesota, contact:

Cassie Silveira at silv0100@umn.edu or 612-625-5205 or Mary Marczak at:
marcz001@umn.edu or 612-625-8419

Want to structure a designathon? Contact Terry Meisenbach at: tmeisenbach@extension.org

Click on the link for more information about the eXtension Diversity and Inclusion Impact Collaborative.

 

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Maker Movement + Horticulture = Innovation Explosion

Dave FrancisQuestion:  What happens when the Maker Movement intermixes with the realm of horticulture?

Answer:  An explosion in ideas and innovation plus a new way for land-grant universities to reach audiences with research-based information.

Dave Francis, Utah State University Extension associate professor, discovered in his Fellowship with eXtension that the latest DIY (do-it-yourself) movement is really a make-it-yourself movement. Through maker faires/festivals and other collaborative settings, youngsters, millennials, baby boomers, and seniors are using low- and high-tech methods to make things, grow things and share their learning.

In Utah, 4-H’ers are making salad boxes for apartment dwellers and other locations without a place to grow food — kits with everything needed to grow a mini-garden, including a 12 X 18 –inch box, soil, and seed.  At the state’s first-ever “Hack the Garden” event, college students connected water and light sensors to computer code and text messaging to alert gardeners when their plants needed moisture and more or less sunshine.

In Myanmar, farmers are 3D printing their own tools. They no longer need to wait for precision, manually-machined parts to assist in prototyping solutions. What’s new in all this for extension educators is that they are increasingly becoming learning collaborators rather than knowledge keepers.  In horticulture, educators are becoming conveners of hands-on experiences for those who want to be involved in active learning, but don’t necessarily want the mess and hassle of sourcing supplies.  “Extension must hit the ‘easy button,’” Francis says.

4H members in UtahAnother audience of potential gardeners includes those who want fresh produce and enjoy the tech aspects of gardening but want to spend less time in the garden. They would prefer running a solar-powered, Roomba-type vacuum to weed a backyard plot to getting down on hands and knees.  The end product continues to be what it has been for extension audiences for more than 100 years – a better quality of life employing the best their universities can offer.

For more information, contact Francis at (435) 760-4109 dave.francis@usu.edu or davefrancis@extension.org.

Learn More About the Maker Movement and Extension